The view from Newport Beach

From the Newport - Costa Mesa Daily Pilot, Thursday, October 23, 1997

Pilot news is available on-line at: http://www.latimes.com/HOME/COMMUN/PAPERS/PILOT/NEWS/tCB0002663.html

Buckle up: El Toro airport journey still a rough ride
Local activists worry about losing ground in fight to transform Marine base into airport.
By JENNIFER ARMSTRONG

NEWPORT BEACH -- If the fight over putting a commercial airport at El Toro Marine base were a flight, the passengers would be demanding a refund -- it has been long, expensive and turbulent.

The good news: Local airport proponents have won far more battles than they've lost, and they're not planning to stop pushing until they're booking their first flights out of El Toro.

What worries some pro-airport activists? That anti-airport South County cities, facing the prospect of jetliners taking off at all hours from the 4,700-acre site just east of Irvine, seem to be getting plenty of attention lately. "We feel that our community has not come together in the same way as the South County has," said Barbara Lichman, executive director of the Airport Working Group. "It is a certainty that if El Toro does not become an airport, John Wayne Airport will be expanded. If that happens, our community will be destroyed."

Newport Beach activists argue that El Toro has 4,700 acres to offer to John Wayne Airport's 500. They say Newport has proven that an airport doesn't mean a nose dive in nearby property values and that an airport, if controlled, can be a good neighbor.

South County cities contend an airport could turn their serene, upscale neighborhoods into slums, a la Los Angeles International Airport. They have voiced concerns about noise, pollution and traffic.

Newport Beach City Councilwoman Norma Glover called South County leaders' tactics an "obfuscation of facts." "I think right now, if you asked me to keep score, it would be 50-50," she said. "They've been able to put together a real good PR machine. What we have to do is be constant in our message, know where we're going and get there."

The story of making an airport of the El Toro Marine base goes back 30 years, when the idea first started floating about. The struggle has cost Newport Beach $5.5 million since 1981. And it has pitted Newport Beach and other pro-airport cities against South County in a bitter battle.

It is a story that took off in 1981 with Newport Beach filing a lawsuit challenging the county environmental impact report that could have led to expansion at John Wayne. At the same time, the concept of an airport at El Toro was gaining ground. It is a story that spawned several local activist careers.

The Airport Working Group, founded in 1983 to fight John Wayne Airport expansion, began with the likes of Tom Edwards, now city councilman; Clarence Turner, now a former mayor and possible county supervisor candidate; and Lichman, now an attorney specializing in environmental and airport-related issues.

The story also includes a 1985 settlement with the county that limits John Wayne Airport's annual passenger load to 8.4 million until 2005 -- a limit the airport is quickly approaching, with 7.3 million passengers in 1996.

It includes two ballot measures, both in favor of an airport at El Toro. And it includes plenty of politics, from the federal government's decision to close El Toro to Gov. Pete Wilson's decision to appoint anti-airport Tom Wilson to represent the county district that encompasses Newport.

Now the story seems to have landed right where it began: The idea of an El Toro airport has been studied ad nauseum -- and it has gotten off the ground but isn't a sure thing. And the issue of the moment is a lawsuit filed -- this time by South County Cities -- against the county environmental impact report that could lead to an airport at the base.

A judge, in a preliminary ruling last week, agreed with South County groups on most of their points -- and is expected to issue a final decision this week. That pending decision doesn't worry local airport activists; they say the worst that can happen is the judge will order the county to fine-tune the report.

The anti-airport groups also recently convinced the Board of Supervisors to allow them to develop their own alternative proposal -- a football stadium or entertainment complex, for instance -- for the El Toro site.

Such developments, along with the ever-increasing displays of passion by airport opponents, have some local airport proponents worried Newport residents may be growing too complacent on the issue. "South County is winning the emotional battle," said Bonnie O'Neil, an Airport Working Group mainstay for the past eight years. "These decisions are going to be made by politicians, so that's critical."

Some key decisions still linger on the horizon: Namely, the 1998 county supervisor election that could change the board's current pro-airport makeup, the supervisors' 1999 vote on the two-airport master plan and the county's approach to the 2005 expiration of the John Wayne settlement. "Newport needs to come to grips with what's coming up," former mayor Turner said. "You cannot sit back and hope."

HISTORY OF EFFORT TO PUT AN AIRPORT AT EL TORO

* Late 1970s: Some Newport Beach residents, tired of John Wayne Airport noise, came up with several proposals for reducing local air traffic -- the most promising of which was a shuttle from Orange County to Ontario Airport.

* 1981: Newport files a lawsuit against the county environmental impact report that could have led to expansion of John Wayne Airport.

* 1983: The Airport Working Group forms. The county Board of Supervisors rejects the idea of using El Toro as a commercial airport.

* 1985: The city of Newport Beach strikes a deal with the county -- known simply as the "settlement agreement" -- dozens of complicated documents that slap a cap on flights out of John Wayne. Until 2005, flights will stop at 10 p.m., planes will take off at a steep angle, and the airport will serve no more than 8.4 million passengers per year.

* 1993: The federal government decides to shut down El Toro Marine base in 1999. Newport Beach groups, knowing their hard-won airport settlement wouldn't last forever, take the lead in the push for a commercial airport at the base.

* 1994: Ballot Measure A narrowly passes, with voters endorsing changes in the county master plan to allow a commercial airport at the soon-to-be-defunct Marine station.

* March 1996: Measure S, meant to reverse Measure A, fails in a landslide.

* November 1996: Laguna Niguel City Councilman Tom Wilson, who opposes the idea of an El Toro airport, is appointed to the county supervisor seat left by Marian Bergeson -- and representing the district that includes Newport Beach.

* December 1996: The Board of Supervisors votes to pursue airport plans, and committees are drafting those right now. South County cities promptly file suit against the county report that recommended putting an airport at the base. --