August 31, 2001
 

Orange County Board of Supervisors
Robert E. Thomas Hall of Administration Building
10 Civic Center Plaza
Santa Ana, California 92701
 

Members of the Board:

The City of Rancho Santa Margarita has reviewed EIR 573 and in the limited time allowed by the County, has reviewed the accompanying responses to comments and has found the EIR and responses to be fraught with serious inaccuracies and misinformation, which may be deemed, in many areas, misrepresentative. The document has failed to adequately address those areas of air quality impacts, noise impacts, traffic impacts and air operation safety and feasible mitigation as required by the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).  In addition, the Final EIR failed to address in detail El Toro Reuse Planning Authority’s (ETRPA) comments on the draft; failed to give reasons why specific suggestions were not accepted; and failed to support conclusions with factual information.  As such, we hereby place the Board on notice that certification of this EIR as written would violate the requirements of CEQA, and any Member of the Board approving the airport system master plan based on this EIR does so with full knowledge of these inaccuracies.  The project should not be approved because the EIR does not comply with CEQA.

This EIR proposes a significant majority of departures that will pass directly over our City at altitudes of 2,000-3,000 feet, 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, with no restrictions. Our City is incensed that the County will propose such unrestricted operations over our City, while at the same time actively pursuing continued curfew and flight restrictions from John Wayne Airport. Our City will not tolerate this double standard, and will not tolerate our citizens, and our children being considered of lesser stature than those of cities impacted by John Wayne Airport. Our City considers this double standard as a violation of the “equal protection under the law” provision of the United States Constitution.

To that end, the City of Rancho Santa Margarita hereby formally notifies the Board of Supervisors that if an airport at El Toro is built due to adoption of EIR 573, the City reserves the right to use all legal means available to hold any Member of the Board approving this EIR personally liable for the environmental destruction to our City, and for damages to the health, safety and welfare of our citizens.

Our City further notifies this Board that the allowance of unrestricted operations from an airport at El Toro over our City, while restrictions remain in place at John Wayne Airport is discriminatory in nature to our citizens and a violation of their civil rights. And as such, our City reserves its rights to exercise all legal means available under state and federal law to ensure protection of those rights.

Sincerely,
 
Gary Thompson
Council Member
 
Neil Blais
Council Member
 
Christy Riley
Council Member

cc: Mayor Carol Gamble
 Mayor Pro Tempore Jim Thor
 Lois Jeffrey, City Attorney
 ETRPA