County Divide Was Too Much for Airport

Orange County voters were deeply divided, north against south, over the ballot measure that derailed plans for a commercial airport at the closed El Toro Marine base, according to balloting details released Wednesday.

Voters in Newport Beach and all of the cities northwest of the Costa Mesa Freeway rejected the ballot measure, which rezoned the 4,700-acre base as an urban park and nature preserve. Those in every South County city, as expected, voted overwhelmingly in favor of the measure, the latest unofficial returns from the county elections department show.

That clear north-south divide should have spelled defeat for the anti-airport measure and its southern backers, for voters in the northern cities outnumber those in the south by almost 2 to 1--835,000 to 450,000. But the turnout among South County voters was 44% of those registered--a third higher than the 33% turnout recorded in the north.

Intensity of voter sentiment in the south was also significant. While 62.6% of North County voters opposed the measure, more that 81% of those in South County backed it, helping to offset the greater number of North County voters.

In Newport Beach, which has lobbied for an El Toro airport that would ease, if not eliminate, the environmental effects of John Wayne Airport, voter turnout rivaled that in South County. With 84.2% voting against the measure, they were the group most opposed to Measure W.

In the South County cities of Aliso Viejo, Laguna Woods, Lake Forest, Laguna Niguel and Laguna Hills, more than 90% of voters backed the measure.

Many South County cities banded together to fight the county’s plan for an international airport at El Toro, fearing that noise and increased auto traffic into and out of the area would threaten residents’ quality of life.