More Flak Over El Toro Airport

El Toro airport promoters argue that every county should build its own airport. But what is so special about counties? Why should arbitrary political boundaries on a map determine where airports are located?

My birthplace, New York City, has roughly the same population as greater Los Angeles and consists of five counties. Only two of these counties house commercial airports within their boundaries. Millions of New Yorkers use Newark Airport, across the state line in New Jersey.

The New York Daily News recently reported on improved train service coming to Newark, JFK and LaGuardia airports. The paper says “the train to the plane” will “enable countless airline passengers to reach their flights without ever having to set foot in a car or a bus. The new service also will relieve traffic on highways and reduce air pollution.”

Outlying airports, with good ground connections, are the way of the future. The Orange County Central Park and Nature Preserve Initiative, heading for the March ballot, will convert El Toro into parks, schools, health care facilities, cultural and recreational attractions. It also allows space for a transportation center, where Orange County residents can leave their cars, check their bags and take express buses to airports.

No one suggests putting a landing strip in New York’s Central Park, and we don’t want one in the heart of Orange County’s Central Park either.

Leonard Kranser

Dana Point

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South County residents wrongly berate county supervisors for going forward with the El Toro airport project and for spending money to educate voters about it. Obviously, they are ignorant about some important facts.

Measure A and Measure S were approved by a majority of Orange County voters, mandating that our supervisors begin planning an airport on the El Toro site. They would be going against the will of the voters if they did not do so. Measure F was approved, but it was not presented to the public as solely an airport initiative, and it eventually was judged to be illegal.

South County cities used millions of taxpayer dollars to create brochures that went to all county residents and contained one-sided, anti-airport propaganda that stretched the truth to the point of fiction. The supervisors would be irresponsible not to refute that misinformation and replace it with facts regarding an El Toro airport.

I am sure some people would be happy to let voters continue to believe the incorrect and incomplete statements contained in those anti-airport brochures. That scheme did cause people to question the airport plan. However, I believe fairness demands the public know the whole truth, and I applaud the supervisors for their efforts to provide it.

Anna Krone

Anaheim

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Re “Judge’s Ruling Another Setback for Great Park,” Aug. 1:

I’m wondering if Judge James Gray and the Orange County Board of Supervisors’ majority are familiar with the term “civil servant,” or has it taken on a new meaning?

It is disgraceful that in a country that purports to practice democracy, this constant, self-serving, disruptive behavior is practiced and tolerated. As one Orange County citizen who has donated his time to collect signatures for the initiative that will replace airport zoning approved by voters in 1994 with designations for parkland and a nature preserve, I can attest that our citizens are disgusted with these elected officials. Our resolve will only be strengthened to ensure that the will of the people will prevail!

Supervisor Chuck Smith for once got it right and said he was not going to gloat over this temporary voter setback. Pro-airport attorney Fredric D. Woocher, on the other hand, will soon learn that despite the numerous destructive tactics employed by the special-interest groups, we will not give up. These dirty tricks will only elicit more support for the signatures we need to ensure that we, the citizens of Orange County, will decide how our money is spent and what kind of a community we wish to preserve and build.

Hans J. Roehricht

Lake Forest

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Re: “Taking Off on County’s El Toro Airport ‘Facts,’ ” Letters to the Editor, July 29:

Arlene Button uses questionable thinking when she extols the wonders of the San Clemente Ocean Festival and then decries being “bombarded by the ‘Stop the El Toro Development’ solicitors.”

Might I suggest that if we don’t stop the El Toro airport from happening, she will be bombarded by both the noise and visual pollution of planes flying overhead, not to mention the degradation of air quality over all of Orange County. I doubt she will be able to enjoy future San Clemente festivals then.

Bette Harper

Laguna Beach

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Button’s complaint is, at best, a stretch. It may be her opinion but is hardly supported by the facts.

We believe we were performing a public service by being there to gather signatures for the Orange County Central Park Initiative. It would bring the El Toro airport question to a vote in March, and we were not there to debate the issue. And indeed, attendees really got the message! Over 1,500 voluntarily signed the petition, and at least another 1,500 said they had already signed it! Moreover, many thanked us for being there, and thus we believe the case for “public service” speaks for itself.

Our congratulations go to the people of San Clemente and other cities, who now realize how damaging 24-hour overflights to El Toro would be to their way of life. They put their names on the line.

Jim Davy

San Clemente

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Button characterized the petitioners as a rude and disruptive intrusion to “a very special event.”

As a resident of San Clemente, I also look forward to our ocean festival that brings families and people of all ages to our beautiful “village by the sea.” As always, the surfers, swimmers, sandcastle sculptors, artists and woodies were there to the delight of all.

I can think of nothing that would be more disruptive or intrusive to our gorgeous San Clemente than the noise and pollution of a proposed airport that calls for 824 operations per day, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Perhaps some of our residents still harbor the notion that we are far from the noxious airport and can stick our heads in our beachfront sand. However, Orange County is planning for northward-departing aircraft to turn right, away from central Orange County, and head down this way, crossing the coast somewhere at or near San Clemente. In addition, all landing aircraft will approach from South County.

I was thrilled to see the many diligent volunteers who relinquished their ocean festival weekend to gather the signatures to stop a disastrous El Toro airport that would ruin not just one glorious summer weekend but our entire quality of life. Let’s all work together to keep it!

Jan Kozick

San Clemente