El Toro Airport Support Group Hits Turbulence

At a time when forces opposed to another airport being built in Orange County are coalescing for a final assault on the March 2002 ballot, the coalition of north Orange 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 earlier this month over as simple a matter as sending a support letter to the Federal Aviation Administration.

The verbal volley came a month after the city of Villa Park left the 14-city panel. The walkout was led by Mayor Bob 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.

The difference between the camps at either end of the El Toro debate is more than geography: Though opponents in the south are united against the airport, supporters in the north favor the idea, but many aren’t sold on the county’s version.

Fullerton Mayor Richard Jones spoke bluntly at the panel’s May 9 meeting. 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, a panel member. “One of the carrots is this possibility of the alternative plan rather than the possibility of flying into a mountain.”

Several north Orange County officials worry that planes from El Toro could end up flying over their cities if an 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 crowded 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 earlier airport analysis that was rejected by supervisors in 1996. Such a turn could take planes over Anaheim Hills, Villa Park, Orange and Tustin.

Add to that warnings raised by the nation’s two airline pilots unions about the risk of sending planes over Loma Ridge, which rises to 857 feet three miles off the end of the north runway.

Panel 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 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 impact on other airports in the region--the second-busiest in the country.

Rumors have swirled anew in recent weeks 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 its specialists in Oklahoma City.

Orange City Councilman Dan Slater said the unanswered questions are giving pause to officials in cities that generally 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 colleagues on the panel that he would discuss Villa Park’s departure at Fullerton’s June 5 council meeting.

Garden Grove Councilman Mark Rosen urged patience to see what the FAA report actually says. “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.

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.

Amid dissension over the planning process, the group found itself with another challenge in recent weeks: resistance by county auditors to releasing funds for a public education campaign approved in March by county supervisors.

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

On Friday, the coalition of south Orange County cities filed a lawsuit against the county, the panel and its consultants, contending that the county’s transfer of money to the panel 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 claimed.

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.