Weighing In on El Toro

* As part of one of the fastest growing regions in the nation, Orange County has a duty to examine current and future solutions for the region’s transportation. Sound transportation planning does not stop at the county line. That’s why I get frustrated with those who say Los Angeles and Riverside counties have no business speaking out on our airport issues. It is their business. It’s everybody’s business.

If we in Orange County fail to meet our air passenger and cargo demands into the next century, we will have to rely on airports elsewhere outside our region. At a recent Assembly hearing, we heard that 12 million Orange County passengers use LAX and 1 million passengers use Ontario. That is 13 million passengers that we impose on other communities.

If we fail to increase our airport capacity, then our citizens will be forced to drive through communities in other counties for flights, compounding our freeway gridlock. Not accommodating our growth needs will seriously impact our neighborhoods. That’s not good long-term planning.

There is no disagreement that Orange County will continue to grow significantly into the new millennium. We need to consider our role in the region’s economic success, as well as the economic benefits that will accrue with, and without, an airport at El Toro. The alternatives are not good.

Palmdale, with March Air Force Base, is too far to be a viable alternative for Orange County. March does not have enough passenger capacity. Also, the only efficient way to get to March is by high-speed rail. How would we ever agree on the $8 billion it would cost to build a high-speed rail to March if we cannot even agree on a $1.3-billion light-rail project within Orange County?

Southern California must begin to think in the aggregate like the region it is, not just a loose collection of cities and counties with different agendas. I believe it is time Orange County stepped up to the plate and acted like the regional leader we like to think we are. We can either become part of the solution or continue to be part of the problem.

ASSEMBLYMAN LOU CORREA

69th Assembly District

Santa Ana

* Re “South County Official Touts Expanded John Wayne Airport,” Oct. 6.

A quote from this article, “Los Angeles-area officials reiterated their pleas that Orange County stop sending so many airline passengers their way,” got my attention. (Also Ontario is mentioned.) Guess what! I would much rather fly out of John Wayne, but have you checked the difference in ticket prices? Flying out of LAX, Ontario or even from Long Beach saves a bunch of money. People will continue to choose airports where tickets prices are least expensive.

Fly around the world and you will find that the surrounding properties around major airports have slowly but surely turned into less desirable neighborhoods. It can’t be helped--there is more of everything: noise, fuel odors, trucks, cars, people and the list goes on.

I am sure you know where I stand on this issue.

FLO FREEMAN

Villa Park

* The tenets of news reporting mandate that reporters report the news, not fabricate the news. I was appalled by the article of Oct. 6 titled “South County Official Touts Expanded Airport.” Not only were the headlines outrageous, but also the article was clearly biased in its coverage.

I was in attendance during the entire five hours of public testimony before the State Select Committee on Long-term Planning for Commercial and General Aviation Airport Capacity. I know what was actually said by Assemblywoman Pat Bates. You completely mischaracterized Bates’ questioning of the Southern Californian Assn. of Governments’ executive director and Orange County’s airport planner on the estimated Orange County air passenger demand shortfall in the year 2020 (SCAG answer: 12 million annual passengers) and the current physical capacity of John Wayne Airport (OC planner’s answer: 14-16 MAP). You apparently assumed these questions and a logical analysis of all options supported a Bates proposal to fully expand John Wayne.

BILL KOGERMAN

Executive Director

Taxpayers for Responsible Planning

* How can an airport be so bad for South County but so good for the North?

It galls me to find so many South Countians so overly eager to shift the environmental burden to someone else’s shoulder by pushing for yet another expansion of John Wayne Airport. If a drop in property value is their major concern, perhaps the developer of the El Toro airport should issue a buy-back guarantee to all property owners in South County impacted by the new airport for a defined period of time after its full operation.

Judging by past experience from John Wayne, the ultimate cost for this guarantee should be minimal. I believe it is time that the South Countians stop being simply a group of naysayers and start behaving like good neighbors to help draft a rational plan for our future transportation needs.

A new El Toro airport or an expanded rapid transit system to link us to major regional airports should be included as options to consider. Yes, John Wayne Airport alone can probably meet our transportation needs for another decade if all South Countians can be excluded from using this facility. Absent this option, please try to give us some ideas toward a solution and spare us the rhetoric.

JOHN T. CHIU

Newport Beach

* I don’t think Peter Brunner (“Confusing the El Toro Airport Issue,” Letters, Sept. 12) read the Safe and Healthy Communities initiative correctly.

A democracy allows the people’s voice to be heard. In a democracy the public has the right to be informed. In the past elections where the previous initiatives were placed before the voters, there was money spent and great wordsmiths working to try to pull wool over the public’s eyes and get us to believe that this was a “good thing.” They did a good job until the facts started coming out. This new initiative was signed by people who became informed as to the consequences of such an ill-conceived, greed-based project--the negatives of it have just been touched upon by the FAA and the pilot’s association as well as other factors.

LAX is not up to capacity and neither is John Wayne. It would take far fewer taxpayer dollars to expand it than it would to truly reconfigure the El Toro base for the proposed purpose, especially when you also factor in modifying homes in the vicinity to withstand the noise impact. We are the only county in the United States that would have two airports within 30 miles of each other. This certainly would be classified as conspicuous consumption.

RUTH ANN WATSON

Newport Beach