Measure W Responses Could Cover a Runway
Re “Retain the El Toro Option,” Editorial, Feb. 16:
The Times’ election recommendation illuminates many of the issues but fails to address the reality facing the citizens of Orange County. Yes on W provides the only realistic answer at this time.
The Times only needs to refer to its Oct. 21 editorial “Think Again on El Toro.” The Times highlighted the problems with the airport plan and argued for the Board of Supervisors to delay approval of the environmental impact report until a better design can be presented for consideration.
Needless to say, Supervisors Chuck Smith, Jim Silva, and Cynthia P. Coad ignored your editorial and the will of the people, and approved a flawed EIR the following week.
On Jan. 28, Gary Simon, executive director of the county El Toro program, wrote to the president of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority and stated, “We will soon be embarking on a multibillion-dollar airport project in the development of the new Orange County International (OCX) Airport.” The people in charge of the airport have elected to ignore the citizens and ram it through at all costs.
Your assessment of the situation is correct as stated in the recent editorial. “Through ineptitude and arrogance, this majority [Smith, Silva, Coad] last year signed off on an environmental impact report that left a host of questions....” And referring to the board supervisors, you said they “bungled” the original plan and that the county needs “better leadership.”
In the meantime, Yes on W provides a better option than a legal alternative to block the current plan in the hopes of a better design. Perhaps we would all be better off if the Board of Supervisors had heeded your advice last October to “Rethink El Toro.”
Bob Cooke
Laguna Niguel
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Your editorial misses a major issue. If an airport were built with realigned runways as you suggest, Newport Beach would bitterly oppose it. Behind most of the support for an airport at El Toro is the desire of Newport Beach and Costa Mesa residents to close John Wayne Airport to all commercial operations. An El Toro Airport with realigned runways would be much safer than the “Three Blind Mice” supervisors’ proposal, but it would still send fully loaded airliners over Newport Beach and Costa Mesa. And more of them. Look at a map.
They would have failed in their objective. Takeoffs into the wind in Orange County require a route that crosses the coast at Newport Beach. There is no other way. A better idea is to shift major airport operations inland to Ontario and San Bernardino where the land is flat, there is no sea breeze to affect takeoff and landing patterns, and the local residents want an airport.
Orange County already has a major traffic problem with the Costa Mesa and Riverside freeways. A tunnel under the Santa Ana Mountains to Riverside, and connecting with the Laguna Freeway, would allow high-speed service to a regional air terminal and solve the Riverside Freeway problem. New technology makes this a reasonable option that would cost about the same as realigning the El Toro runways.
Denver has adopted the concept that a major airport cannot coexist with a residential population. Los Angeles will eventually come to the same conclusion. The money spent on El Toro is wasted. It will never be built.
Michael T. Kennedy
Member, Planning and
Transportation Commission
City of Mission Viejo
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You’re wrong about Orange County’s not needing Measure W. While it’s true that part of what’s brought us to this point is bad leadership and Newport’s fear of a John Wayne expansion, the real reasons are rarely discussed or even recognized.
Uncontrolled population growth and development have created this entire situation. Rather than arguing about the need for more airports and toll roads, we should be asking why every square foot of open space in Orange County has to be developed.
Who gets to decide when enough is enough? The developers and the politicians they’ve helped put in office? It’s about time that the people had a voice in determining the quality of their environment, and right now Measure W is that voice.
Kurt Page
Laguna Niguel
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I certainly agree with your opposition to Measure W. However, I’m afraid most people are unaware of the logical conclusion you presented. For several years, the public has been subjected to bogus arguments and a barrage of constant criticism waged against El Toro airport by a group of people in South County. As a result, we might soon lose our only opportunity to build a very needed new airport in our county. It will be everyone’s loss.
John White
Santa Ana
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I am surprised that you oppose Measure W. Your editorial clearly states “opposing Measure W does not mean we embrace a plan for an airport that could end up larger than Boston’s Logan Airport.” You summarize by writing, “Orange County does not need Measure W. It does need better leadership.” Yet the result is exactly that: a 24-7 international airport without growth limitations.
In a vacuum, your editorial may fly. But in real life, the only way Orange County residents can defend themselves from the deceitful and inept three pro-airport supervisors and from the political bungling that we are dealing with is to vote “yes” on W.
Dan Hile
Laguna Niguel
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I am astonished at the facts you chose to ignore with your recommendation against Measure W.
1) John Wayne Airport operates at half of its designed capacity. Why pay for a new airport when we don’t use the one we have?
2) El Toro is not the ideal location for new airport capacity, because population growth in Southern California is expected to be overwhelmingly in the Inland Empire.
3) You express concern about air quality at Ontario. That same concern should extend to El Toro. Airports are huge sources of pollution.
4) In the past 20 years, all new airports in the world have been located outside of population centers because airports are bad for quality of life. Duh.
5) The supervisors who brought you a bankruptcy and an underutilized, bond-defaulting toll road are once again trying to steer us into economic disaster with overly optimistic projections.
If John Wayne Airport were bursting at the seams, or if there were 10 airlines publicly stating the need for El Toro, then perhaps we should be considering a new airport. But that is not the case. Three supervisors are trying to ramrod an unneeded project to benefit the colluding interests of Newport Beach and developers.
The Times editorial stand fails the intelligence test. I hope the voters see this airport for what it is: an unsafe, unwanted and unneeded boondoggle. Vote “yes” on Measure W.
Dan Summerl
Laguna Beach
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The Times’ claim that Measure W should be defeated because “it would zone away a more modest and better-designed aviation option” is ludicrous. A downsized plan would become an economic disaster. Whether 100 aircraft land at El Toro each day or 1,000, the cost of the infrastructure remains the same, and it must be met upfront. Restricting growth would be like limiting the number of cars using the toll roads.
Furthermore, a “better-designed aviation option” from a safety standpoint would require takeoffs to the south and west, a pattern that would be devastating to the environment.
Alex Scott
Laguna Niguel
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You were right on to oppose Measure W. Irvine has promised a park like Balboa Park or Central Park, but the parks of this nature would cost over $2.1 billion. And all Orange County residents will eventually have to pay for Irvine’s grandiose new park. To calculate what this could cost each property owner, go to www.ocgreatpark.org.
Cathy Grammer
Newport Beach
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You have got to be kidding! A large newspaper like The Times that regularly crucifies any political party leader or public official for even the slightest inconsistencies or appearance of impropriety has just provided the largest example of journalistic cowardice and hypocrisy in recent memory. Opposing Measure W because it fails to retain a better-designed aviation option in the future? Like that’s even an option.
The county and their consultants have misled the public, inflated projected demand, understated environmental impacts and costs, lobbied and arm-twisted federal officials behind the scenes to withhold information from the public, and filed or encouraged lawsuits against their own constituency in their attempts to build an airport at El Toro. Yet The Times chooses to overlook these “blunders and missteps” and still leave the door open for the county to continue its plan for an airport.
If Measure W does not pass, there will be no choice of a “good airport plan” or “better Orange County leadership” as The Times hopes for. The county will just continue pushing the same “bungled original plan” with the same “ineptitude and arrogance.” The Times editorial was misleading to the voters and a disappointing sidestepping of the facts.
Douglas K. Blaul
Trabuco Canyon
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What good is it for us to “retain the El Toro option” when that option is so implausible, and when by doing so we’d just perpetuate the same costly, nightmarish struggle that your own editorial describes? Orange County has bigger, more pressing issues to tackle, and it’s time we got back to them in lieu of this divisive, unnecessary El Toro preoccupation. The Times’ proposed solution is no solution at all. A better and shorter editorial would have read “Let’s End This: Vote ‘Yes’ on W.”
Matthew Ruiz
Fullerton
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Re “Planners Slow Major Irvine Development,” Feb. 11:
Here is yet another example that a Great Park will never be built. The Irvine Co. has long-term plans for the northern sphere around the El Toro airport for two projects that will have twice the impact of the planned airport.
And this is only two projects. Just imagine all of the other yet-to-be-announced projects that will just add to the impact. The Irvine planning commission has even said it is alarmed at the level of pollution and congestion planned for the projects. And this will be only the beginning if Measure W passes.
The whole idea of open space will succumb to the whims of the Irvine Co. and other developers’ plans to build out every square inch of land in and around the former base, since nobody will be willing to pay taxes for this supposed Great Park. The pollution from the cars and congestion will be so overwhelmingly burdensome that people will have wished for an airport.
The airport, along with designated open spaces that would act as buffer zones, and with noise corridors that are not over any neighborhoods, does not produce anywhere near the environmental impacts that the developers have in mind if Measure W passes.
Mark Bury
Newport Beach
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During a Feb. 4 Tustin council meeting, Councilman Tony Kawashima stated he wanted to see options other than the Great Park or an international airport. Rose-colored glasses now off, there are no other options. This is the crossroad to which our county “leaders” brought us in their blind advocacy for their airport.
After wasting nearly $50 million and eight years of ignoring community input, opinions from many aviation professionals, their unions and trade associations, the intractable, unresponsive, pro-airport supervisors trudge ahead.
County government’s attempt to frame this as a north vs. south issue has failed. Folks in North County should be aware that after eight years of planning, it is still not known what the flight paths will be and whom they will affect.
All Orange County communities are in the crosshairs of the county’s proposed airport. Let us all preserve some of the last open space in the county and on part of that land build something for all to enjoy and be proud of for generations to come. Vote “yes” on W.
Richard W. Lubline
Aliso Viejo
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Before election day is upon us, voters should know that there will never be a Great Park. The park is merely the latest play on the part of the South County anti-airport fanatics, similar to the previous election, where the airport was lumped with a nuclear waste dump and a maximum-security prison so that they could crow that 67% voted against the airport.
If voters choose the park, all hopes for a decent-sized, intelligently buffered airport will be lost forever in Orange County. Meanwhile, the plans for the park will quietly vaporize, and eventually the bulldozers of the developers will swoop down on the enormous airport property and build more of those “corncob” rows of houses that make South County such a scene of charm.
Don’t let this happen. Vote “no” on Measure W.
Keats Hayden
Newport Beach
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We have already invested a lot of money and years into the planning process for an airport. I think we need to stay the course, and prepare for what we will need for the future. Measure W needs to be rejected as a pie-in-the-sky park scheme fraught with problems and inconsistencies that will cost us too much time and money to fix.
Larry Root
Newport Beach
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Voters, pay attention. Measure W is deceptive. It claims to be the “Great Park Measure” but it is nothing more than a zoning change to keep the El Toro property from being an airport. Ballot information and Measure W supporters do not give voters a clue as to the enormous costs involved in actually building that park, but several studies indicate it will cost billions to build and maintain.
On the other hand, if we vote “no” on Measure W, we get a park, golf courses, open land and the needed airport for our future. Best of all, it won’t cost taxpayers a dime.
Sound too good to be true? It can be done because airports are financially lucrative and pay for themselves while still having enough left over to pay for everything else built on the property. By voting “no” on Measure W, we get both the park and airport free.
Angela Gallagher
Costa Mesa
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I am voting “no” on Measure W because John Wayne Airport is on a ridiculously small piece of land and locked in on all sides by freeways and homes. Any significant expansion would be difficult, financially prohibiting, and would significantly increase the burden on those who live, work and go to school a mere few blocks from the runway.
The El Toro site is 10 times larger and has a huge built-in buffer zone, meaning people would not be nearly as impacted as those crowding John Wayne. A state-of-the-art airport at El Toro offers a far more logical ending to this ongoing airport saga.
Lori Alexander
Tustin
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Remember the old saying “You can’t predict the future, but you can prepare for it”? Without a doubt the most important issue ever to face Orange County will be on the ballot March 5. That issue is Measure W.
The El Toro Marine base is 4,700 acres large, containing runways, an air terminal and other support buildings that are all surrounded by an additional 14,000 acres of vacant land that is not used as a noise suppression zone. This in-place airport facility is ready to go and will not cost the taxpayers of Orange County any money to own it.
Here’s what voters get for a “no” vote on Measure W:
Voters get a great airport, which includes a 1,000-acre park as well as a golf course, equestrian facilities and nature preserve, and eventually 65,000 new jobs and millions of dollars of new revenue and best of all, no increase in our taxes. If we let this opportunity get away, it won’t come back. Measure W is wrong for Orange County. Vote no.
Tony Lupian
Fullerton