Runway or Walkway? Measure W to Decide

Measure W finally will end the fight over a commercial airport at El Toro. After eight years and more than $50 million, the county has come up with a politically driven airport plan that has no merit from an aviation standpoint. It is, quite simply, unwanted, unneeded and unsafe.

To accommodate the community, the Marines operated El Toro at nearly banker’s hours, with nighttime and weekend curfews except in times of national emergency. Due to the proximity to homes along the flight paths, El Toro was closed because the Marines could no longer operate a fighter jet training base.

The Marines generally flew relatively light, high performance jets, and didn’t need passenger terminals, baggage handling, or U.S. Customs. More important, they didn’t have to follow FAA airport design and operating standards.

Now the county wants to build an airport that would operate only large commercial aircraft, 365 days per year, 24 hours a day, seven days per week.

A second commercial airport is not needed to meet Orange County’s current or future air travel demand. Today, about 2.8 million people reside in the county, and our population is projected to grow by about 18% or 500,000 people in 20 years. The refurbished John Wayne Airport serves about 7.7 million annual passengers and has a court-imposed cap of 8.4 million.

However, the existing airport can accommodate more passengers without expansion or significant negative impacts. In fact, the city of Newport Beach has proposed an increase to 9.8 million to support the extension of the current flight restrictions. This is more than enough to meet our current and future needs.

Airports should be put where they are wanted and needed. In 20 years, the Inland Empire will grow by more than 2 million people. Ontario Airport now serves about 6.7 million annual passengers but can grow to serve many more. The city of Ontario and many others in Riverside County support that growth. Ontario’s service area includes about 80% of Orange County. Furthermore, the communities surrounding the former Air Force bases at March, Norton and George all want and need their airports to expand. This is why the proponents of March in Riverside and George in Victorville have joined ETRPA and the anti-El Toro movement.

El Toro is unsafe. The county’s airport plan does not operate the way the Marines did for heavy aircraft, including Air Force One. By touting the recent FAA Airspace Determination as a safety endorsement, the county grossly misstates the intent and conclusion of the report.

The FAA does not say El Toro is safe. In fact, the report says that at only 4 million passengers, El Toro will cause severe delays at nearby airports. Bill Withycomb, head of the FAA Western Region, said El Toro is like “driving the wrong way on the freeway”--it’s theoretically possible, but it’s not very smart. With more passengers, the picture gets bleaker.

Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach) asked the FAA to run more numbers on El Toro at 18 million passengers. The result--El Toro shuts down the airspace of Southern California and backs up air traffic across North America. The county’s cavalier response is to simply redesign the airspace. This means changing the approach patterns, noise and other environmental impacts at every airport in Southern California.

It simply won’t work.

For six years, there has been a constant drumbeat of aviation experts, including two pilots associations representing more than 60,000 commercial pilots, the Air Transport Association, Air Traffic Controllers and individual airlines, warning that the county’s plan is unworkable and unsafe.

As the county was set to approve the EIR for El Toro, the Airline Pilots Association issued a press release headlined: “Pilots Say El Toro Airport Plan is Not Viable as Proposed.” Concurrently, the Allied Pilots Association, representing American Airline’s pilots, issued a statement to “... restate our objections to the conversion of MCAS El Toro to a civilian commercial service airport.” Yet, despite these and many other warnings, the Board of Supervisors, on a 3-2 vote, approved El Toro as a commercial airport.

Measure W will stop the debate that is tearing this county apart. It will reverse Measure A, the so-called airport mandate, which passed in 1994 by less than 1%.

It will change the zoning at El Toro from an airport to public use to be built over time, with amenities such as a park, schools and universities, sports and recreation areas, museums, theaters, agricultural and nature preserves.

The cleanup to restore El Toro to residential standards is already underway by the Navy. The park use is much gentler on the land than an airport, and will ensure that the property is thoroughly cleaned.

Once the voters pass Measure W, we can all breathe easier, get on with planning for the future of our county, and put this long battle behind us.

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Alan Songstad is chairman of the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority and a Laguna Hills City Council member.