O.C. Vows to Keep Lid on John Wayne

Orange County officials say they intend to keep noise and flight protections at John Wayne Airport whether or not a second airport is built at the closed El Toro Marine base, and despite the expiration in 2005 of a court-approved agreement regulating John Wayne.

Attorney Michael Gatzke, who has represented the county on airport matters for nearly 20 years, said officials will argue to the Federal Aviation Administration that the county’s authority to control John Wayne is absolute, and that it should extend to a new airport planned at the closed El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

FAA officials said possible regulations at El Toro--and those at John Wayne--will be addressed in a separate environmental review to be completed by year’s end. They declined further comment last week.

John Wayne has been regulated since limited expansion was allowed under an agreement approved by a federal judge in 1985. That agreement, which settled a lawsuit by Newport Beach and two citizen groups, expires in 2005. Airport neighbors have feared that those hard-fought protections would be lost.

Those fears were heightened in December when county officials released environmental documents indicating that the county’s only airport could grow dramatically if El Toro isn’t built. Last week, community meetings in Costa Mesa and Newport Beach alerted residents of possible expansion.

One scenario from the county report calls for condemning 700 acres around John Wayne so that a new or enlarged terminal could handle as many as 24 million passengers a year--four times the airport’s current traffic.

Gatzke said the county doesn’t need to end its regulation of John Wayne, nor cede control over what happens with a new airport at El Toro. County officials hope to begin limited operations at El Toro as early as 2005.

The county is bound by local ordinances to continue to regulate traffic, noise and the size of John Wayne despite expiration of the settlement agreement and despite a 1990 change in federal law that ended most local government regulation of airports, Gatzke said.

“On Jan. 1, 2006, the board’s discretion over John Wayne Airport returns in full force,” he said.

The reason, he said: Most significant portions of the settlement agreement were included in county ordinances and resolutions passed in 1985. A nighttime curfew has been in place since 1968. And the change in federal law exempted local regulations as long as they were passed before Oct. 1, 1990.

Still, Gatzke’s position isn’t a guaranteed hands-off for John Wayne, whose fate could be changed after 2005 by a future Board of Supervisors, said David Ellis, a consultant for the Airport Working Group, one of the two citizen groups that signed the 1985 agreement allowing limited expansion of the airport at the San Diego Freeway and MacArthur Boulevard.

Ellis noted that in 1961, the Board of Supervisors pledged never to allow commercial flights at then-Orange County Airport--but did so six years later.

“You don’t want these things subject to the whims of politicians,” he said. “If El Toro isn’t built, the pressure to expand John Wayne Airport would mount.”

The county’s ability to control operations at El Toro is much less certain. The county’s ordinances setting curfew, noise and passenger limits are specific to John Wayne.

One way around that, Gatzke said, would be to amend the 1985 settlement agreement to add the new airport at El Toro and establish a new expiration date of 2020. The changes would have to be approved by the county, Newport Beach, the citizen groups, the federal court and the FAA, he said.

“It’s an ongoing discussion at this stage,” Gatzke said.

Attorney Rich Jacobs, who represents eight south Orange County cities that are opposed to an El Toro airport, called Gatzke’s pledges about El Toro “blue smoke and mirrors.” He said the county cannot avoid the 1990 change in federal law by merely amending an earlier agreement involving a separate airport.

The county may be able to defend its protections for John Wayne, but that would leave El Toro vulnerable, he said.

*

The county’s environmental review of El Toro already presumes some regulation of the site. In the section on noise, the county proposes a nighttime ban of the loudest commercial jets but allows some night flights--a switch from earlier county promises to push for a full curfew for El Toro.

Officials said they opted for nighttime noise limits without a curfew because homes near John Wayne are closer to the runways than those at El Toro, and thus need greater protection from noise.

Former Supervisor Bruce Nestande, an El Toro airport supporter, said the board’s 1985 approval of the settlement included a promise for the county to find a site for a second airport in Orange County. It was assumed that a future airport would enjoy the same protections as those at John Wayne, said Nestande, who was the county’s 3rd District supervisor at the time.

However, if another airport isn’t built, all bets would be off, he said.

“I think there would be enormous pressure put on the board at some point to expand John Wayne Airport,” he said. “And one board member [representing the district that includes] John Wayne Airport is going to have a hard time holding that back.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Limits at John Wayne Airport

Orange County imposes four major restrictions on John Wayne Airport to reduce noise and traffic. All are contained in a court-approved settlement agreement that expires Dec. 31, 2005. However, county officials intend to keep the limits because they also were imposed by county ordinances that don’t expire:

Passengers: Airport can handle no more than 8.4 million passengers a year.

Flights: The loudest jets are limited to 39 flights a day on average. Quieter jets are allowed an additional 34 daily flights. The quietest jets are allowed unlimited departures.

Curfew: Takeoffs are banned between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. (8 a.m. Sundays) and landings are prohibited between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. (8 a.m. Sundays).

Noise: Jets that generate above a certain threshold of noise, such as MD-80s, are banned.

Source: John Wayne Airport