Airport Support Fading

The September terrorist attacks left many Orange County residents questioning whether a new airport at El Toro is needed, according to a new Cal State Fullerton poll.

Opposition to the airport plan is growing in north Orange County, where half of residents say they would rather see a park at the base--as long as their tax dollars aren’t used to pay for it, according to the study.

The survey also found that opposition to an airport remains strong in the cities of south Orange County nearest the closed Marine base, at the edge of Irvine and Lake Forest. Nearly eight in 10 residents there want the airport plan grounded.

The findings are part of an ongoing survey by Cal State Fullerton and the Orange County Business Council.

The latest results show airport support declining in its traditional North County stronghold. Among residents there, 52% said they oppose the airport, compared with 47% in June.

The results are based on 544 telephone surveys. The poll was taken after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and an airspace analysis of the El Toro plan released by the Federal Aviation Administration. The FAA said a new airport at El Toro could be operated safely but would create significant delays at other airports.

More than any other factor, poll respondents said, the decline in air travel after the terrorist attacks suggests that a new airport isn’t needed, “even if the airport planners have a 20-year horizon in mind,” said political science professor Keith Boyum, director of the Center for Public Policy.

Rejecting the airport will hamper economic growth, said Julie Puentes, executive vice president of the Orange County Business Council, which backs the proposal. John Wayne Airport is less than a quarter the size of the proposed airfield and has only one 5,700-foot commercial runway compared with four runways at El Toro, some up to 11,000 feet long.

Despite those arguments and an aggressive county campaign in the past year, 60% of Orange County residents continue to oppose plans for an El Toro airport.

The poll was conducted in English between Oct. 24 and Nov. 11. It has a confidence level of 4.3%, meaning the results could vary by that amount either way.