Many Angles to El Toro Plans

Re “El Toro: A Planning Nightmare,” Orange County Voices, April 15:

It was very pleasing to read City Councilman Bob McGowan say that he is recommending Villa Park withdraw from the Orange County Regional Airport Authority over the “ill-conceived abomination,” as he so aptly puts it. With regard to an airport built for safety, he is pragmatic. The airport configuration he is interested in is less than likely to win appeal with the proponent cities’ own constituents. Watch for cities like Tustin, Orange and Anaheim to bail out next.

The proponents camp is fracturing due to their overwhelming lack of honesty and desire to saddle Orange County taxpayers with an undesirable and expensive monument to special-interest greed for negligible convenience.

There are two camps of airport proponents: pragmatic airport lovers and political special interests. Either way, you couldn’t have anyone better than McGowan give testimonial as to why El Toro should never and will never be built.

DEREK QUINN

Laguna Niguel

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It is incredible that the county is endorsing an airport plan that could send planes over the very cities being asked to support an airport.

When the county was asked why they would not consider an alternate plan, their reply was that this could delay the airport for several years. Wouldn’t it be better to delay the airport and not fly over communities supporting the airport plan? North Orange County cities should immediately question why they are being asked to monetarily support a plan that will shoot themselves in the foot.

MIKE BARON

Aliso Viejo

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I have been a resident of the Newport-Mesa area since 1972. How do my husband and I feel about constant airport traffic and continual black jet spray on our patio? What will happen to our property values? Not to mention the potential devastation of the Back Bay. We don’t feel good, folks! For the sake of fairness, my husband and I thought: South County doesn’t want the airport, neither do we. Let’s promote expansion of Ontario and support a light-rail system solution.

No one wants jails or landfills or airports. Every community needs to have these things to function and survive in contemporary society. And as such each community needs to be responsible for maintaining its own burden. Please don’t place your burden upon us.

JOAN RAMSTEDT-ANDERSEN

Newport Beach

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Terrie and Roger McKinley of Aliso Viejo asked a fair question in their letter to The Times (March 25): “Why are the people of South County labeled selfish, hypocritical NIMBYs because we are opposed to an international airport in our neighborhood?”

The answer is because you have no problem asking the people who live in the communities affected by John Wayne Airport to double or triple the air traffic over their homes so that you have none. That is hypocritical as well as selfish, because those who live in Irvine use John Wayne Airport more than any other city but are unwilling to assume part of the burden.

ANGELA GALLAGHER

Costa Mesa

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South County activists opposed to an airport at the El Toro site might have a little more credibility if they didn’t have three major flaws:

1. They are hypocritical. We continually hear how every other airport can and should be expanded so that their community doesn’t have to share the air traffic burdens.

2. They are vindictive. They opposed the expansion of John Wayne Airport until they couldn’t talk Newport Beach into stopping their promotion of El Toro.

3. They don’t always tell the whole truth. Every flier I receive or letter I read from them twists the truth to suit their purposes.

LINDA LANE

Orange

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How many citizens of Orange County realize the hypocrisy of Newport Beach-based organizations Airport Working Group (AWG), Citizens for Jobs and the Economy, Stop Polluting Our Newport (SPON) and the Orange County Regional Airport Alliance (OCRAA), along with the Newport Beach City Council and the Board of Supervisors majority of Chuck Smith, Jim Silva and Cynthia P. Coad mandating an airport at El Toro while simultaneously working to extend the utilization restrictions at John Wayne Airport to approximately 50% of its designed capacity?

The county’s own estimates forecast O.C.’s population to grow 13% from 2.8 million to 3.2 million in 2020. A directly corresponding 13% growth in airport usage would yield 7.7 million passengers today to 8.7 million in 2020, well below the maximum existing capacity of 12 million to 14 million passengers a year. In fact, 8.7 million passengers a year is exactly the artificially capped operating capacity at John Wayne today.

M. CHIEFFO

Lake Forest

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Re “Lift Caps on John Wayne Growth, Say El Toro Foes,” April 10:

So Newport Beach City Manager Homer Bludau thinks it would be “devastating” to Newport Beach if the passenger and flight caps were lifted at John Wayne Airport. What about those of us in Irvine? Are we any less important? In this article he refers to a “no-home zone.” Last time I checked, my home was within one mile of the proposed takeoff at El Toro and my home has been here since the late 1980s.

If a larger airport is vital to the growth of Orange County, then why not be part of the solution, Newport Beach? Unlike what some of your constituents contend, we in Irvine do our “fair share” when it comes to transportation. We have two major freeways, four if you count the toll roads, the railroad and the jail, just to name a few.

W. TORRES

Irvine

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The cold, hard truth is that El Toro will never be built over the violent objections of the majority of Orange County citizens. Thus, Newport Beach is making an enormous “all or nothing” gamble in continuing to push for El Toro. By arguing that there is so much need for more capacity, they open the door to an expanded John Wayne. I regret the decision by the ETRPA to support lifting the limits on John Wayne, but I must confess that it is the logical conclusion if you feel that Orange County needs more capacity.

I drove out to Ontario Airport earlier this month. It was a short, easy drive from South County. It is even closer from Newport Beach and North County. The good people of Ontario want a bigger airport. Ontario has the space. Ontario has the roads. Ontario has the runways (and they don’t slope uphill). Ontario has no mountains at the end of the runways. Ontario is even closer to the inland population boom. Someone in Newport Beach will have to explain to me why we shouldn’t build our region’s international airport in Ontario.

BRIAN P. SULLIVAN

Dana Point

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Over the past year The Times published many articles and letters about the toll road mismanagement. Key points made were that the Transportation Corridor Agencies (TCA) and the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) brokered favorable deals between Caltrans and the toll road operators, including noncompetition clauses preventing Caltrans from adding lanes or widening freeways to improve traffic flow and highway safety if it interfered with the profitability of the toll roads.

These are the same people who have leadership roles in quashing the El Toro airport. Their aim with the toll roads is to open the land around the toll roads to the Irvine Co. and other developers. With the airport, the aim is to get O.C. citizens to reject the airport so that the land on and around the airport can be freed for housing development.

The airport furor is not about noise, safety and lifestyle--it is about land for building houses. And the winner is the Irvine Co.!

WILLIAM J. KEARNS

Costa Mesa

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I suggest the proposed El Toro airport be renamed the Airport in a Bubble, as there are no points left on the compass that are usable. To the east lies a hazardous mountain range, a direction repeatedly labeled as unsafe by the airline pilots. The south is not available, as the federal government has rescinded the aviation easements over Laguna Woods and they would cost the county billions to reacquire. Without easements the airplanes can not fly overhead. Flying directly north would also put aircraft over equally mountainous terrain, and into airspace conflicts with traffic heading for LAX and Ontario.

The pilots have suggested northerly takeoffs with a turn to the left, putting departures over Orange, Anaheim and other Central County cities. In that case, their support for El Toro would disappear faster than a snowflake in August. That leaves only westerly takeoffs as the only viable alternative, putting departures directly over Newport Beach. How ironic the biggest promoter of the El Toro airport will end up directly in the flight path.

The bait-and-switch game masterminded by Supervisors Smith, Coad and Silva is finally being revealed as the fraud that it really is. El Toro airport remains unneeded, unwanted, unsafe and inaccessible from any direction.

RICHARD SODEN

Lake Forest