Pro-Airport Cities Losing Faith in Plan

As forces opposed to another airport in Orange County coalesce for a final assault on the March 2002 ballot, the coalition of North County cities that has stalwartly supported an airport at El Toro is faltering.

Member cities of the Orange County Regional Airport Authority, which backs the county’s plan to transform the former El Toro Marine base into a commercial airfield, found themselves arguing at length this month over as simple a matter as sending a support letter to the Federal Aviation Administration.

The verbal volley came weeks after Villa Park left the 14-city panel. The walkout was led by Councilman Robert E. McGowan, a retired airline pilot stung that the group failed to push for county acceptance of an alternative airport plan that he insisted was safer and more efficient.

Many who support an airport plan aren’t sold on the county’s version of it.

Fullerton Mayor F. Richard Jones spoke bluntly at the May 9 meeting of the Orange County Regional Airport Authority. A barrage of anti-airport advertising from opposition cities, he said, has left a majority of residents viewing the airport as “rotten cabbage.”

“Now, we know that there can be some carrots out there, but we’re not showing the carrots to the people,” said Jones, an OCRAA member. “One of the carrots is this possibility of the alternative plan rather than the possibility of flying into a mountain.”

Several North County officials worry that planes from El Toro could end up flying over their cities when the airport opens. It’s a worry based on draft conclusions by the FAA’s own airspace consultant that planes would have difficulty taking off due north, as the county intends, because the skies are too saturated with other aircraft.

Rumors have persisted for months that departing planes could be ordered to make a left turn after takeoff, an option included in an airport analysis that was rejected by supervisors in 1996. Such a turn could take planes over Anaheim Hills, Villa Park, Orange and Tustin.

The nation’s two airline pilots unions also have raised concern about the risk of sending planes over Loma Ridge, which rises to 857 feet three miles off the end of the north runway.

OCRAA chairman and Anaheim Mayor Tom Daly said he’s been dismayed by attempts by group members to second-guess the county’s lengthy and complex planning process. The group wasn’t formed to co-opt the analytical role of the county and the FAA but to provide accurate information about the airport plan to its member cities, he said.

“We’re supportive of an airport in general, but so many decisions have yet to be made,” Daly said. “It would be wasteful and counterproductive to attempt to preempt the county.”

Airport supporters are awaiting the results of a comprehensive airspace analysis by the FAA, which initially was to have been distributed in early April. The study is expected to examine the county’s proposed takeoffs to the north and landings from the south and to analyze the effect on other airports in the region--the second-busiest in the country.

In recent weeks, it’s been rumored that the report will relieve the concerns of some cities: Instead of a left turn, planes leaving El Toro would make a right turn over undeveloped land near the Santa Ana Mountains. The FAA has declined to comment on the review, which was conducted by FAA specialists in Oklahoma City.

Orange City Councilman Dan Slater said it is the unanswered questions that are giving pause to officials in cities that have supported the proposed airport. Without those answers, he said, he doesn’t have the “comfort level” to fully back the county’s effort.

Jones told his OCRAA colleagues that he would be discussing Villa Park’s departure from the group at Fullerton’s June 5 council meeting. Unless his city gets solid information about the safety of the county’s plan and where flights would be routed, Orange might back out of the group, he said.

Garden Grove Councilman Mark Rosen urged colleagues to wait for the FAA report. “At least see what the people in Washington come up with before we start speculating as to what they’re not going to do,” he said.

Meanwhile, other cities have been asked to join the group; Westminster became a member last week.

In the end, the panel agreed to tell the FAA by letter that members were interested in “other viable alternatives” to the county’s plan and urged that they be analyzed.

The group found itself with another challenge in recent weeks: County auditors have resisted release of funding for a public-education campaign approved in March by county supervisors.

After OCRAA’s first funding voucher was refused by county Internal Auditor Peter Hughes, El Toro Program Manager Gary Simon stepped in. Simon wrote OCRAA Executive Director Art Bloomer on May 4, giving the go-ahead for the first $100,000 of work through Sacramento consulting firm Townsend, Raimundo, Besler and Usher. But the county must approve all hourly rates, compensation and reimbursements in advance, Simon said.

Friday, the coalition of South County cities filed a lawsuit against the county, OCRAA and its consultants, contending that the county’s transfer of money to OCRAA was an illegal use of the funds. The money came from John Wayne Airport revenue, which by federal law can be spent only on planning, not public relations, the lawsuit claims.

Pro-airport attorneys said the county is spending the money lawfully and called the suit harassment. An earlier challenge to the county’s use of John Wayne Airport funds on El Toro was rejected by an appellate judge.

Meanwhile, county supervisors are scheduled to take a final vote on the airport plan in late September. Airport foes will begin circulating petitions next month with the hope of qualifying a measure for the March 2002 ballot that would replace airport zoning at the 4,700-acre base with a large urban park.