Maybe Newport Should Make an El Toro Flight Plan

* Just when will Newport Beach and Costa Mesa get it? Measure F passed in March to help these two cities stop expansion of John Wayne as well as airport construction at El Toro.

Large commercial airports should not be located in the midst of any city. We all know airports are not good neighbors no matter how hard they try.

Newport and Costa Mesa should join the rest of us in South County in defense of Measure F and at the same time demand that the El Toro Local Redevelopment Authority be reconstituted by the Navy to include all South County cities (and Aliso Viejo). Then we can begin the reuse planning process in earnest.

The communities must serve a large role in the planning to assure the county’s health and safety. Three supervisors calling all the shots is a proven failure.

Finally, the Federal Aviation Administration has reported that the runway and air traffic plans promoted by Supervisors Chuck Smith, Jim Silva and Cynthia P. Coad are unsafe. So now, the supervisors have it in both ears loud and clear. Sixty-seven percent of the voters say no airport growth without voter approval. And the FAA says the county El Toro plan won’t fly.

So the result of five years’ planning at the cost of $40 million is nothing. And that is the way it should be. Without real countywide consensus, nothing will fly at El Toro.

DOUGLAS C. BROWN

Aliso Viejo

* Re “Report to FAA Calls O.C.’s Latest El Toro Flight Plan a No-Go,” Aug. 6:

If airplanes took off from El Toro to the south, I’d bet the FAA would say the same thing.

Does that mean if we added flights at John Wayne, Los Angeles International and Ontario to accommodate the nonuse of El Toro, those additional flights would automatically be safely operated out of those airports?

What about the other part of the story? The FAA finds this traffic pattern unsafe until the FAA adjusts flight patterns in the Southern California basin to accommodate additional traffic patterns.

This would be true at any airport, not just El Toro. Traffic patterns in the region would have to be adjusted to accommodate additional flights.

ANN WATT

Santa Ana Heights

* The analysis of the FAA report on the Orange County airport design draws the conclusion that the plan is a no-go. The analysis is itself flawed. The FAA itself stated that its analysis isn’t complete; how can you condemn a plan that is only partially complete?

The report estimated that 3,200 people would be in a high-noise area as a result of the plan. This number is based on 1990 census figures, and the report did not say whether that information included military personnel living on the base who would of course be much closer to the noise source than people off the base.

After all, military personnel on an air base are paid to be near the noise. Further, The Times’ analysis stated that the report’s conclusion that a redesigned departure procedure may be required is a natural conclusion for an incomplete report and does not raise “troubling” questions about the county’s airport design.

In spite of all the uncertainties admitted to be in the report, Supervisor Tom Wilson drew the firm conclusion the airport design as partially proposed in the FAA report could not work. He described the plans as a bowl of spaghetti and wants to see “scientific data.” I wonder what Supervisor Wilson would do if he actually got a scientific analysis of the bowl of spaghetti that he sees in the design.

W. J. KEARNS

Costa Mesa

* The Newport Beach City Council voted 4 to 0 to adopt a resolution seeking cooperation from the county on extending the John Wayne Airport caps to 2025.

While desperately advocating against more noise, pollution and traffic in their own backyard, the Newport Beach aviation policy hypocritically advocates a commercial airport at El Toro. Hmmmm. What doesn’t ring true and ethical here?

Measure F seeks to protect all residents countywide from new airport construction. The Newport Beach resolution seeks to protect only those who live near John Wayne. If the prosperous residents of Newport Beach don’t find it economically or personally advantageous as homeowners to further develop their own airport, isn’t the clearest message of all that an airport at El Toro wouldn’t be a boon to the county?

Use common sense to unite North and South County--no airport at El Toro in conjunction with extending the caps at John Wayne!

JODY CLARK

Laguna Niguel

* Apparently, the folks in Newport Beach believe that they alone deserve protection from intrusive land uses like an airport. This same city, which has spearheaded the doomed El Toro effort, and which is actively challenging Measure F in court in an attempt to strip the protections that it provides for everyone in Orange County, has resolved to unilaterally seek continued flight and passenger restrictions at John Wayne Airport.

In the process, they have completely undermined their own argument touting the “needed benefits” of more local airport capacity, or their oft-repeated insistence (regarding El Toro) that an airport can be a good neighbor.

MATTHEW RUIZ

Fullerton

* The city of Newport Beach is at it again. Their vote to request the county to extend current caps at John Wayne Airport until 2025 should be modified to be realistic.

The artificial passenger cap is forcing thousands of empty seats to fly out of JWA. The passenger cap should be lifted. The passenger cap does not affect the number of flights, just the number of passengers. The cap on number of flights should remain intact, so as not to negatively impact the surrounding communities.

The arrival time curfew should be lengthened by one hour as well to allow the arrival of delayed flights currently rerouted to other airports. This would save thousands of passengers the ordeal of being shuttled down from LAX or waiting hours for loved ones to drive to another airport and locate them.

Newport Beach should also realize that their request to the county will not receive widespread support until they back off of their selfish NIMBY mission to force a massive, unworkable airport into the El Toro property. Their push for El Toro continues to divide the county and cost us taxpayers millions of dollars.

FRANK ALVAREZ

Dana Point