Yet Another Division in Airport Equation

An uneasy two-year truce between foes of an airport planned for the El Toro Marine base and those opposed to expanding John Wayne Airport may be unraveling.

On Monday, a coalition of nine South County cities fighting an El Toro airport may reverse its support of flight and passenger limits at John Wayne Airport, which expire in 2005. The board of directors of the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority is considering the action in the wake of the Newport Beach City Council’s unanimous vote in favor of moving cargo flights from John Wayne to El Toro as soon as possible.

County Supervisor Todd Spitzer, who opposes an El Toro airport, said South County forces gave up hope of working with Newport Beach, which wants to keep tight restrictions at neighboring John Wayne Airport, after the council’s air cargo vote this month.

“All bets are off,” Spitzer said.

While South County cities disagree that the county needs much more airport capacity, they maintain that if it did, “John Wayne is the ready solution,” said Paul Eckles, executive director of the planning authority.

Even a physical expansion of John Wayne by condemning large swaths of land around the airport “would be much cheaper than building a whole new airport at El Toro,” Eckles said. County officials estimate an airport at El Toro would cost $2.8 billion.

David Ellis, a consultant with the pro-El Toro Airport Working Group, said a change of position on John Wayne expansion by the South County coalition would be no surprise.

He said the group opposed John Wayne expansion merely to lure airport-area voters into backing Measure F, an initiative overwhelmingly approved by voters in March that would have made it more difficult to build El Toro and expand John Wayne. The measure was overturned by a judge in December.

“It was nothing more than a veil to sell their initiative,” Ellis said. “I don’t think the leopards have changed their spots.”

John Wayne now has a cap of 8.4 million passengers a year, with a limit on the number of flights using the loudest aircraft. The limits were approved in 1985, joining an 11 p.m. flight curfew that has been in place for decades.

The flight and passenger limits expire Dec. 31, 2005. Newport Beach and county officials are studying ways to extend the current limits, saying they allowed the airport to grow while protecting nearby residents against noise and traffic. County airport planners have said the existing terminal could handle up to 14 million passengers a year through more flights and more passengers carried on existing flights.

Among the actions being considered by the anti-El Toro coalition is suing to challenge any attempts by Newport Beach or the county to extend the John Wayne restrictions. The group also would lobby for lifting the flight and passenger limits with federal aviation officials and state and federal lawmakers.

Authority chairman Allan Songstad Jr. of Laguna Hills said the group has tried but failed to find common ground with Newport Beach.

“As long as what I would consider the hard-liners for the El Toro airport are going to insist that airport demand in Orange County requires another airport or more capacity, we can’t sit by and dismiss the possibility of using John Wayne, an existing airport,” he said. “We’ve done everything we can to try to make it a win-win situation. Nobody seems to be interested in that concept.”

Newport Beach City Atty. Robert Burnham predicted South County cities would have little success bringing a legal action. Irvine tried to intervene in 1985 over the original agreement, approved by a federal court judge, but was denied, he said.