County Abdicating Its Responsibility

Re “Wisdom of Officials in Newport Questioned,” letters, May 19:

Jeffrey C. Metzger describes himself as the “official proponent of Measure F” on the March 2000 ballot. Measure F, a covert attempt to block plans for an airport at El Toro, was labeled a masquerade by the Orange County League of Women Voters and found unconstitutional by the courts. Metzger was, nevertheless, correct when he cautioned Newport officials to be careful what they wished for on the airport planning front.

Measure W’s success signals the abdication of the county’s responsibility to carry a reasonable share of its air transportation burden. I found it ironic that Metzger’s letter appeared on the same page as the “Building Consensus in O.C.” column, in which Daniel Yankelovich and Wallace Walrod reported that county residents share a conviction that growth should not be left to chance.

Measure W was anything but solid, long-term planning. It was ballot-box planning at its worst. For more than 20 years, El Toro appeared in long-range plans as a means of meeting Orange County’s air transportation needs. All hope is not lost because suits now pending could overturn Measure W and save South County voters from the consequences of what they “wished for” in the recent election.

Norm Ewers

Irvine

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El Toro should be a dead issue. I cannot believe all the people who are trying to tell South County residents what is best for them. We believe that parks and nonaviation uses are the best to retain our quality of life, and in March we voted down the proposed El Toro airport.

Now Los Angeles is trying to get into the act. How dare they tell us how to live? It is bad enough that Newport Beach is still trying to throw out Measure W in the courts, even though the majority voted for it.

It is time to take the restrictions off John Wayne Airport. We do not need to spend billions of dollars on an unnecessary airport just because Newport Beach residents don’t want it in their neighborhood.

When the Newport Beach homeowners moved there, the airport was up and running. Previously, El Toro was not an airport but a military base--there is a big difference. The jets flew occasionally, not one plane every four minutes, and they stopped early in the evening. It is time to move on and smell the flowers--in our new park!

Kathy Courtney

Laguna Niguel

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Opponents of an expansion at Los Angeles International Airport are pushing for Los Angeles World Airways, which operates LAX and the airports in Ontario, Van Nuys and Palmdale, to take over El Toro. If this scheme succeeds, Los Angeles bureaucrats would allocate air traffic between those airports and El Toro.

El Segundo Mayor Mike Gordon and others are leading this campaign of airport colonialism. The plan would give Los Angeles control over future land use, traffic and pollution in Orange County.

It’s repulsive that some pro-El Toro airport groups in Orange County are allying themselves with those who would turn this county into a colony of Los Angeles. This treacherous effort also could drag John Wayne Airport into Los Angeles’ sphere of influence.

The Orange County Board of Supervisors and local legislators must speak out in opposition to any loss of control over the former base. A Los Angeles grab for power over Orange County is unacceptable.

Leonard Kranser

Editor,

El Toro information Web site

Dana Point

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Re “El Toro Airport Advocates Lost to a United Suburbia,” April 28:

The Times is still grappling with the realization that El Toro will not become a commercial airport. Your article dissects the political reasons why the airport plan failed, but neglected to mention the other things that doomed the airport proposal.

The El Toro site is not suited for a large commercial airport. It is hemmed in by mountainous terrain on the north and east, and prevailing winds from the west would force flights over populated areas to the west and south. Proposed El Toro flight paths would conflict with flight paths serving LAX and Long Beach Airport.

Construction of a second commercial airport in Orange County is not financially viable. The cost of construction, which could reach $10 billion, could not be supported by future air travel demand in Orange County. Official estimates of population growth in Orange County fall short of the unused capacity at John Wayne, much less extra capacity at available and underutilized sites in the Inland Empire.

Len Gardner

Laguna Woods