El Toro: Planning a Disaster?

* The article “O.C. Vows to Keep Lid on John Wayne” (Jan. 30) left me incredulous.

Now, incompetent Orange County airport planners are at it again, this time asking us to relax and not to worry about 24-hour, seven-day airport operations at El Toro.

Why should we not worry?

Well, those same planners who hope to have all El Toro flights take off uphill, with a tail wind, toward the mountains, against the pilots’ best judgment, are now going to argue to the Federal Aviation Administration that local control over noise and flights at John Wayne is absolute and that such authority should also extend to a new airport at El Toro.

So now county planners are trying to tell the FAA what to do. This, in spite of the 1990 federal law that prohibits such local control of flights and noise.

Are we supposed to be passive and let the county’s unsafe, noisy, polluting, expensive monument to special interests move forward based on the fact that planners are going to argue to the FAA? I think not.

It is far too much of a gamble with the health and safety of Orange County residents. We, the voters, must take control of the reuse of the former Marine base at El Toro. It is easy to do; vote “yes” on Measure F on March 7.

Then we all will have a say after all the impacts are disclosed.

DOUGLAS BROWN

Aliso Viejo

* After reading the article, I can’t believe that Newport Beach residents can’t see their own fate.

El Toro airport is never going to get off the ground. Newport Beach is just like the rest of Orange County. We are all subject to the stupidity of greedy politicians.

Measure F is a good start to giving any community the ability to protect itself.

SAM LANDRY

Foothill Ranch

* We are seriously concerned that El Toro air base may not be utilized in the best, most advantageous way for the entire area of Southern California. It should be made a commercial airport.

Shortsighted individuals who oppose it should not be allowed to detrimentally affect so many people and businesses. John Wayne Airport realistically cannot be expanded; converting El Toro is the optimal solution.

El Toro has a surrounding no-home buffer zone which contains 18,450 acres. John Wayne Airport has no buffer zone.

El Toro has 4,700 acres, two 10,000-foot runways and two 8,000-foot runways. John Wayne has a 5,700-foot runway.

There are no schools, homes or day-care centers within three miles of El Toro runways. There are 254 schools and day-care centers within five miles of John Wayne and thousands of homes.

The county has voted twice in support of El Toro being used as a commercial airport.

There is a growing demand for passenger and cargo flights which John Wayne simply cannot handle. South County has experienced tremendous growth. They should handle some of the air traffic that goes along with it and not expect it all to fall on John Wayne or somewhere else.

NANCY KERR

JOHN KERR

Newport Beach

* The county is telling the FAA that local control over flights and noise is absolute with or without El Toro.

At the same time, the county is alarming Newport Beach and Costa Mesa residents by saying that if El Toro does not become an airport, John Wayne will expand dramatically to four times its current size.

The intention, of course, is to frighten John Wayne’s neighbors into supporting an airport at El Toro at all costs, regardless of its impact on other areas in the county.

The reality is that demand at John Wayne has been stagnant and that county projections for future demand are grossly overestimated.

With each passing episode of lies and misrepresentation by the county, the chasm that has developed between North and South County continues to grow, along with the mistrust of our elected officials.

Measure F is the public’s only hope of reining in an out-of-control and irresponsible Board of Supervisors.

RICHARD PLAVETICH

Laguna Beach

* Re “Airport Foes Decry Labor Pact,” Jan. 12:

The flap over the recent agreement between the County of Orange and the Orange County Building Trades Unions needs to be examined in the perspective of the benefit to the county and to the workers involved.

The county reaps the benefit of a well-trained, highly skilled work force that can do the job right the first time and complete the projects on time with no work stoppages.

Because the wages on future projects will be paid to local workers, most of those wages will be spent locally, further benefiting the local economy and increasing the county’s tax revenue.

The local labor force benefits from more stable employment and the local union’s commitment to hiring and training even more apprentices for these skilled positions.

This plan can only help to raise the living standard of many workers and provide them with skills to earn a living for a lifetime.

To those who say this agreement is unfair, I can only say that one highly skilled, well-paid union worker can contribute more to the county’s economy in increased sales and property taxes than a half-dozen minimum-wage workers.

Supervisors Charles Smith, Jim Silva and Cynthia Coad are to be commended for their foresight and leadership in seeking out a type of agreement that will keep county building projects working smoothly and efficiently for at least the next five years.

K.A. MAYLONE

Huntington Beach

* There is only one true way to curtail any expansion efforts at John Wayne Airport, and that is to pass Measure F.

Consider the fact that Newport Beach enjoys the highest real estate resales in the county. If John Wayne is kept at its current size, then logically Newport Beach will continue to enjoy the highest real estate resales in the county.

Current noise abatement procedures at John Wayne let the citizens of Newport have their cake and eat it too.

Businesspeople who live in Newport are able to enjoy the convenience of John Wayne, no flights after 10 p.m. or before 7 a.m., planes that take off like rocket ships and cut power over the residential sections, drastically cutting noise, and the highest real estate resale values in the county.

We do not need or want another airport in Orange County. What we need is to protect the environment where we live from any further degradation.

JOHN SARNECKY

Coto de Caza

* I was rather neutral on the airport issue until I learned about the Orange County Business Council’s recent study which ranked air transportation among the most important factors in business location and relocation decisions.

Our nation is experiencing a good economic climate at this time, but history clearly demonstrates this runs in cycles. We will hit a low; it is simply a matter of time.

Now is the time to make the decisions that will protect our future.

The council’s study determined the proposed airport will generate $14 billion by 2020, proving that it is good financial insurance for this county.

We would be foolish to designate the El Toro property for anything other than a project beneficial for all Orange County citizens. An airport would be the best use for that land.

JUDY DOBBS

Anaheim

* Where in the discussion on building an El Toro airport is a recognition of the immense collaborative opportunities close by at Ontario International Airport?

Ontario boasts a brand-new facility that’s passenger-friendly, has new runways, vast areas for development around the airport, easy access to our interstate freeways, along with a willing and able work force.

Our county supervisors have a chance to leave a favorable legacy, one in which future travelers to our state see why Southern California is progressive, with a world-class light-rail system from the Ontario airport to various destinations in surrounding counties.

Passenger stations such as Disneyland, John Wayne Airport, Irvine Spectrum, Newport Beach and other locations would enable travelers and Inland Empire residents working in Orange County to jettison their cars for much-preferred, less congestive, environmentally sound rapid transit.

Of course, a regional project like this could be a win-win scenario. Ontario receives increasing recognition from travelers, revenue and resident employment opportunities, while Orange County has long-term work for the unions and trades, along with engineers, designers, manufacturers and future employees of this light-rail system.

County supervisors could even include other neighboring counties in development discussions, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside.

TIM O’LEARY

Lake Forest

* I have not been able to understand why the city of Irvine has spent millions of dollars of taxpayer money to fight El Toro airport.

After all, the flight tests proved the vast majority of their citizens are not going to be excessively impacted by noise. Certainly, the military flights they experienced were far more noisy, and they bought their homes and lived with those jets for years.

They are just greedy. Think of how much revenue their city cold squeeze out of annexing all that property. They have filed papers for that very purpose.

Proof of the real motives can be seen in their rush to change Irvine zoning laws so that homes can now be built extremely close to the El Toro property.

That has been a “no home” buffer zone for decades in order to protect people from the military air base. It is highly irresponsible for Irvine to allow homes to be built in that area now, knowing the county is planning a commercial airport at El Toro.

How many more questionable decisions will be made with the excuse it is “to stop the airport”?

K. SMITH

Costa Mesa

* I find it incredible that so many are being duped by proponents of a commercial airport at El Toro.

Too many blindly accept the word of politicians and others who have an economic interest in developing a large commercial airfield.

They think it’s a great idea. They are told that it’s a turnkey operation and that it’s safe (“It must be safe, the Marines used it as an airfield!”).

They hear rumors that it may close down or significantly reduce those noisy jets at John Wayne Airport.

The facts are that El Toro airport would be one of the most unsafe airports in the United States. The flight paths, as decided by the majority of the Board of Supervisors, were not acceptable to the Marines, who stopped northern takeoffs by large aircraft after the Loma Ridge crash.

The organization that most airline pilots belong to has stated that the proposed flight paths are unsafe and not acceptable. But Supervisors Charles Smith, Jim Silva and Cynthia Coad and their supporters know better, or so they say.

As a pilot of more than 30 years and an aircraft owner, I will add my small, but educated, voice. El Toro airport would be unsafe for pilots, airline passengers and anyone in the wrong place and at the wrong time on the ground.

Don’t be misled by those who do not have safety for the public as their primary goal.

MICHAEL BROOKS

Lake Forest

* I am becoming quite weary of the ongoing assertion from the pro-airport side that the residents of South County are the near-exclusive users of John Wayne Airport.

And even more tiresome is the endless mantra that South County must provide for its own airport needs.

By their logic the residents of Corona should be required to have their own ocean and sand if they decide to visit Huntington Beach.

What these writers continually fail to realize is we will all share the burden if El Toro airport ever becomes reality.

We will all share the increased pollution in our air. We will all share the increased traffic congestion on our freeways. We will all share the jet noise, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, from the increased air traffic flying over all parts of the county.

And we will all eternally suffer the pain and embarrassment of allowing three incompetent politicians to ruin forever what is arguably one of the most beautiful and desirable places to live in the United States.

Do not try to paint the residents of South County as villains for trying to protect and preserve what is valuable to all of us.

RICHARD SODEN

Lake Forest

* The Safe and Healthy Communities Initiative, Measure F on the March 7 ballot, would make the expansion of John Wayne Airport extremely difficult.

El Toro airport supporters keep threatening Newport Beach residents and other people living around John Wayne that unless El Toro is built, John Wayne will have to triple in size and schools and homes be demolished.

Yet this kind of event is exactly what Measure F was designed to prevent. The measure would require a full environmental impact study to be performed before any jail larger than 1,000 beds within a mile of 100 or more homes, landfill or airport could be built or expanded. Then a two-thirds majority vote would be required to proceed with such a project.

We all know that if El Toro is ever built, at the very least it will be held up in court for years. Measure F is the only guaranteed protection against John Wayne expansion once restrictions expire in 2005.

The alternative to Measure F is the word of the pro-airport supervisors. Enough said. Vote “yes” on Measure F on March 7.

KURT TARHAN

Laguna Niguel