Orange Election a Blow to Airport

The special election in Orange on Tuesday turned out not to be just about filling a vacant City Council seat. It was also an unofficial referendum on the county’s plan to build a commercial airport at the closed El Toro Marine base.

And voters in the once overwhelmingly pro-airport city elected, by a landslide, the candidate fiercely opposed to the county’s airport plan.

Carolyn V. Cavecche’s victory now means a majority of Orange council members is opposed to the county’s plan.

“Many people see those runways as turrets on a gun that can spin in any direction,” said Fred Smoller, chairman of the political science department at Chapman University in Orange.

Residents, he said, have realized that the county’s plans for an El Toro airport could mean additional flights over their homes.

The shift in Orange is a major political blow to pro-airport forces. The city is now on the brink of bolting from the coalition of North County cities created to support an airport at El Toro.

Villa Park pulled out of the Orange County Regional Airport Authority in April.

Fullerton took a step toward withdrawing Tuesday night. And now Orange.

“I see us pulling Orange out within the next 30 days,” said Orange Councilman Mike Alvarez.

The council had been split 2 to 2 on the county’s El Toro airport plan before Cavecche’s victory.

Alvarez still lacks the votes to pull Orange out, because his ally Dan Slater wants to remain in the authority to pressure the county to shift its flight paths away from east Orange.

Slater’s views are in lock-step with those of Villa Park Councilman Robert E. McGowan, an airport supporter who got his city to pull out of the coalition after it failed to push for an alternative plan that would direct takeoffs toward less-populated areas.

“I’m ready to walk if the county doesn’t acquiesce to a study of all viable plans,” Slater said.

The revolt within the authority involves several member cities that support an El Toro airport but not the county’s preferred flight paths.

They fear that the county’s plan will send more flights over their cities.

County officials are refusing to consider a change in proposed flight paths, saying it would create too much of a noise nuisance for 2,500 homes planned south of the proposed airport.

Any such changes would also delay federal environmental approval of the project until after voters decide an initiative that would convert the base to a large urban park instead of an airport.

Supporters of that initiative are hoping to gather enough signatures to get the measure on the March ballot.

Bruce Nestande, president of the pro-airport group Citizens for Jobs and the Economy, is hoping that disgruntled authority members will sit tight.

Changes in flight patterns are still likely as the Federal Aviation Administration proceeds with its review, he said.

“If they are in support of an airport they should wait for all the facts to come in,” he said.

“Obviously, we have professional differences of opinion here. Let them be resolved by the FAA.”

An unintended consequence of the El Toro plan falling through, Nestande said, could be increased flights out of John Wayne Airport.

And that would have a major effect on Orange.

For his part, McGowan said a new coalition of dissatisfied authority members could work to North County’s--and the proposed airport’s--advantage.

“Why not get a general consensus among pro-airport people and then get that approved, rather than get a really bad plan approved and then try to get it changed?” he said.

Smoller said Nestande has good reason to be anxious about the potential defection of Orange from the authority.

“If a pro-airport city like Orange leaves, there is no telling who is next,” he said.

“This is a city where many people feel they would only get benefits from [an El Toro airport]. This is very significant.”