Coalition Seeks Review of Data on El Toro Noise

A coalition of cities opposed to a new airport at the closed El Toro Marine base is asking Orange County officials to look again at how much noise would be created by jets landing there at night.

The group based its request on memos from the county’s airport noise consultant, Vince Mestre, which they obtained through a public-records request.

Mestre said in one memo that airport noise would be “significant” for thousands of South County residents unless there is a nighttime landing curfew or only the quietest jets are allowed to land after 11 p.m.

“We can’t trust a process that is fraught with deception,” said Susan Withrow, chairman of the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority, the cities’ anti-airport group. “It’s time for the county to come clean with the people about the [proposed airport’s] impacts.”

The county late last year rejected a night curfew--in place now at John Wayne Airport and something that would be difficult to obtain from the Federal Aviation Administration for a new airport--in favor of restricting nighttime landings to quieter jets. Noise limits on night flights also would have to be negotiated with the FAA.

In the memo, Mestre estimated that some 4,600 homes in Laguna Woods would be affected if Boeing 747s--the largest jets envisioned at the airport--were allowed to land at night. If quieter jets were used, fewer people would be affected, he said.

The county estimates that just 4% of total flights by 2020 will involve Boeing 747s. County planners have insisted that no homes or schools would be within a restricted high-noise zone around El Toro in which buildings would have to be insulated at the county’s expense.

Rob Richardson, manager of the El Toro Redevelopment Authority, said Friday that supervisors are committed to making a commercial airport at the former base as quiet as possible for neighbors, including seeking restrictions on loud aircraft.

Richard added that when supervisors do approve an environmental review of the proposed airport project--in about a year from now--they may decide to press the FAA for a nighttime flight curfew.

The Mestre memo originally was withheld by the county under its exemption for “attorney-client privilege,” airport foes said. However, the group sued and ultimately obtained a copy. It was written to Courtney Wiercioch, then head of the El Toro planning office. But her name was crossed out and replaced with the handwritten name of county airport attorney Michael Gatzke.

The group wants the county to reopen a 45-day comment period on the county’s current environmental review to allow public reaction to the new noise information.