Council Votes to Oppose Measure F

Shortly before the council’s unanimous vote Monday to oppose Measure F, the anti-El Toro Airport initiative, Councilwoman Patty Campbell said that if the airport is not built, Orange County planners would be looking at the Los Alamitos Armed Forces Reserve Center and the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station as possible sites “10 years down the road.”

“We need this airport [in South County],” Campbell said. “We don’t need it in our backyard either.”

The council’s 5-0 vote came after a Garden Grove resident objected to Campbell’s position that Orange County clergy should not rally against the airport.

During public comment, the speaker quoted from a local news article in which Campbell had said, “They [clergy] need to stick to moral and ethical issues and not land-planning issues.” He said he was offended by the quote.

“I stand by that quote,” she said. “The people making the plans are the ones that are well-versed in it.”

Campbell, a board member of the Orange County Regional Airport Authority, said the El Toro airport should be built for South County to “meet their own transportation needs.”

Councilman Shawn Boyd supported his colleagues by reading from the city’s resolution, which quotes Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona, who is against the measure. If passed, it would require two-thirds of the county’s voters to approve any projects involving airports, hazardous-waste landfills and jails with more than 1,000 beds to be built near residential areas. The sheriff said the “county’s ability to provide adequate jail beds” would affect the “safety and quality of life.”

The resolution also states, “This initiative will increase the potential for an expansion of John Wayne Airport or the conversion of military facilities in Los Alamitos and Seal Beach because there will be an ever-increasing need for air transportation that cannot be served at airports in other counties.”

Alex Murashko can be reached at (714) 966-5974.