News - January 2000

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Website Direct, January 31, 2000
No Growth at John Wayne Airport

LA Times, January 30, 2000
“O.C. Vows to Keep Lid on John Wayne”
“County to argue to FAA that local control over noise, flights is absolute-- and that such authority should also extend to a new airport at El Toro.”

LA Times, January 29, 2000
“Airport Foes Blast Fuel Pipeline Report”
“Opponents say El Toro study released last month says existing conduits might not be usable, but glosses over topic in latest draft.”

Website Direct, January 26, 2000
EIR 573 now becoming available on-line

OC Register, January 24, 2000
“New airport stance boon for candidate”
“Incumbent Supervisor Smith's opponent stands to gain from Measure F support.”

OC Register, January 24, 2000
“Base to east adds to airport resistance”
“Advocates for cargo traffic at March Reserve Air Force Base expected to join the fight.”

OC Register, January 23, 2000
“Runways not clear for takeoff “
”The airfield would require a $263 million reconstruction to meet projected passenger demand by 2020.”

LA Times, Orange County Voices, January 23, 2000
“El Toro Study is Unrealistic”
“County Airport Report Based on Dubious Assumptions”

Website Direct, January 21, 2000
Airport Use Studied and Questioned

OC Register Editorial, January 20, 2000
“Did supervisors cut a union deal?”

Wall Street Journal, January 19, 2000
"Man All Stations"

LA Times, January 19, 2000
“No Solution to Airport's Blight, Foes Say”
“Those opposing the El Toro proposal say county's 10,000-page studies are flawed and unrealistic.”

Newport/Costa Mesa Daily Pilot, January 19, 2000
“Would El Toro flights pass over here?”

Website Direct, January 17, 2000
Tustin Switches to Yes on Measure F

LA Times, Our Times, January 13, 2000
“Residents want El Toro flier grounded”
“Aliso Viejo Community Assn. is urged to drop plans for mailer if it contains pro-airport information.”

OC Register editorial comment, and ours, January 12, 2000
“County labors to build an airport”

OC Register, January 11, 2000, revised
“Airport foes criticize labor deal”
“ The county's promises to the union are aimed at Measure F, they say.”

Website Direct, January 10, 2000
Another County "Casualty"

LA Times, January 8, 2000
“New Call for Study on Flights”
“Congressman urges FAA to include plans for El Toro in its nationwide airspace report.”

OC Register, January 7, 2000
“No air cargo plans for El Toro”
“Airport critics hail the decision, but dispute Navy's holding onto $125,000 earmarked for a study that wasn't done.”

LA Times, January 6, 2000
“El Toro Airspace Risks Detailed”
“ Nearly 150 flights a day would be forced to pass 'over, under or through' other jets' routes, county
report says.”

OC Register, January 6, 2000
“Airport finance analysis sound?”
“Critics don't buy plan's assertion that taxpayers are not at risk.”

OC Register, January 5, 2000
“Pro-airport supervisors demote Wilson”
“ South-county lawmaker says he's a victim of the El Toro 'war.' “

Website Direct, January 4, 2000
Comment on the El Toro EIR

LA Times Editorial Section, January 2, 2000
"Our Hopes for 2000"

Click for earlier news briefs

(For full articles see L.A. Times at http://www.latimes.com and O.C. Register at http://www.ocregister.com/news/)

The County released 1999 data on passenger utilization of John Wayne Airport.  It shows the airport use to be flat, compared to 1998, and below the peak year, 1997.  7,470,415 passengers used the airport which has a legal limit of 8,400,000 annual passengers under an agreeement that expires in 2005.
 

CALENDAR YEAR	TOTAL PASSENGERS
1997	7,718,415
1998	7,460,179
1999	7,470,415

LA Times, January 30, 2000
“O.C. Vows to Keep Lid on John Wayne”
“County to argue to FAA that local control over noise, flights is absolute-- and that such authority should also extend to a new airport at El Toro.”

 “Orange County officials say they intend to keep noise and flight protections at John Wayne Airport whether or not a second airport is built at the closed El Toro Marine base, and despite the expiration in 2005 of a court-approved agreement regulating John Wayne. Attorney Michael Gatzke, who has represented the county on airport matters for nearly 20 years, said officials will argue to the Federal Aviation Administration that the county's authority to control John Wayne is absolute, and that it should extend to a new airport planned at the closed El Toro Marine Corps Air Station. FAA officials said possible regulations at El Toro--and those at John Wayne--will be addressed in a separate environmental review to be completed by year's end. They declined further comment.”

A consultant for the Airport Working Group, which has been trying to arouse residents near JWA to back an El Toro Airport - by talking up the prospects of JWA expansion - said, "You don't want these things subject to the whims of politicians.  If El Toro isn't built, the pressure to expand John Wayne Airport would mount."

Editor:- Supporters of Yes on Measure F, the Safe and Healthy Communities Initiative, contend that the initiative is the best way to protect residents near JWA and El Toro from the "whims of politicians". If Measure F passes, expansion of John Wayne would require a two-thirds vote countywide. To comment to the LA Times click here.

“El Toro airport opponents … accused Orange County officials of painting a rosy picture of prospects for using existing pipelines to carry jet fuel to the former Marine base, though serious doubts were raised in [an environmental impact] report last month. … nearly 30 miles of pipeline to El Toro from Norwalk .. may need to be bought and rebuilt  Pipeline obstacles included getting the Navy to clean the existing lines and obtaining environmental and congressional clearances.”

“The [ETRPA] coalition contends the county fears residents would be alarmed by the possibility that fuel-tank trucks on the way to the airport would clog traffic on the San Diego Freeway. Meeting the airport's fuel demands by the year 2020 would require 244 trucks a day, each carrying 8,000 gallons, according to county reports.”

The County of Orange has been blatantly uncooperative about making the voluminous El Toro Environmental Impact Report available to the public for review and comment.  The report has been released only in a very limited number of copies to public libraries.  The anti-airport ETRPA was forced to spend $11,000 to make copies for its consultants' study.  The County did not make it available on its website, which is used, primarily for public relations.

John Santora, volunteer with the El Toro Airport Info Site, has undertaken the big job of doing, with a scanner and optical character recognition software, what the county could have done easily, from files on its planners' word processors. Shame on the County bureaucrats.  A major chunk of the EIR is now available on-line, thanks to a determined Orange county resident, and with no thanks to our County government.

Click here for a summary of key information about the EIR and how to submit comments.

Then, Click here for instructions on accessing the complete text being posted by John.

“Supervisor Charles V. Smith might not waltz to an easy re-election win after all.  Smith, who's represented the 1st District on the county board for four years, is being challenged March 7 by little-known Santa Ana schoolteacher Eleazar Elizondo.”

“Elizondo, who previously voiced support for the concept of an El Toro airport, now says Smith and the county have so botched the planning process that he strongly backs Measure F — the March initiative meant to kill an airport… Elizondo said the handling of El Toro reminded him of what first ‘politicized’ him: the dubious land-use decisions he witnessed while growing up in Santa Ana.”

Contact the candidate’s office at 714-754-0679 or by e-mail at elizondoforsupervisor@yahoo.com

“The marketing arm of March Reserve Air Force Base is expected tonight to join the coalition of south-county cities and other groups fighting the proposed El Toro commercial airport.  The March Inland CargoPort, a group of investors aiming to make March a thriving cargo airfield, approached the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority about signing on a couple of weeks ago.”

“March is in Moreno Valley, 31 miles from Orange County. It first opened in 1918 as a military installation and remained so until April 1, 1996, when three cities and Riverside County began sharing it with the Air Force Reserve.”

“Supporters of an El Toro airport see it as a natural fit for the closed Marine Corps base: What else to do with all those miles of runways and acres of pavement? But the task is not simple…  El Toro's runways are too short, too steep and too close together to serve 28.8 million passengers a year by 2020. The runways must essentially be razed and rebuilt, adding significantly to the airport's total price tag — an estimated $2.8 billion over 20 years.”

Runway removal, repair and lengthening are estimated to cost $263 million. “The most expensive work includes $32 million to demolish pavement and buildings, $43 million for grading and $133 million to rebuild runways and taxiways.”

“Nearly 14 million cubic yards of earth would be moved at the airfield — enough dirt to fill a football field 1 1/2 miles high. About 1.8 million square yards of pavement would be torn up — enough to spread over 339 football fields.  To make the runways more level, the west end [of the two Runways 07] would be raised 37 feet and the east end lowered 18 feet.”

Editor: - Because of the County’s rush to get the airport operating, before John Wayne restrictions are lifted in 2005, runways would not be reconstructed until after the airport opens. “Until then, the county will seek a waiver from the FAA to operate runways with a gradient higher than the 1.5 percent usually allowed. The Marines had a waiver, and county officials are confident they can get one.”

Two UCI professors say that the County’s “rosy forecast overestimates demand and underestimates competition… Orange County is repeating the same errors as Denver: planning a larger than required airport and hoping people will come.

“We are likely to end up like Denver, wasting public funds by building an airport that costs three times the estimate but attracts only half the forecasted passengers.”

See the news brief below; read the website report on Who Will Use the Airports, and then write to the LA Times.  A Yes on Measure F will slow down the County airport steamroller until the facts are sorted out.

The El Toro Airport website has begun an analysis of overblown airport use and demand figures being cited by proponents of El Toro. Several volunteers including Hanna Hill and Nicolas Dzepina participated in the data collection and review. Two new reports are posted in the Issues Section.

In “Who Uses LAX” we debunk hysterical claims by El Toro proponents, including the Newport Beach-based Airport Working Group, which claimed, in a Fall 1999 flyer, that “Orange County exports 12 million passengers annually to Los Angeles Airport.”  Using data collected by the City of Los Angeles, we find the number to be more like 5 million LAX passenger trips per year, made up of Orange County residents and visitors. Visitors to Anaheim tourist attractions are the largest part of the figure. Residents are a small percentage.

In “Who Will Use the Airports” we begin an analysis of the county’s new EIR assumptions for the year 2020.  County planners assume that Orange Countians, including those who live or visit in North County, will almost entirely stop using other airports and will head south on the I-5 to El Toro.  In addition, the EIR contemplates that we will import over 6 million passengers who reside in or visit LA, the Inland Empire and San Diego County, who will drive to Orange County airports.

Another 5 million or more passengers will use El Toro as nothing more than a place to change planes, flying in from someplace else, using our bathrooms and coffee shops, and then heading out on their connecting flights. They will add to the airport noise and pollution but contribute relatively few dollars to the economy.

The editorial states that, “Three pro-airport supervisors - Charles Smith, Jim Silva and Cynthia Coad - deserved the harshly worded criticism they received … from their Republican Party peers…. [for approving] a union labor agreement that creates a government-mandated union monopoly for about 85 percent of the county's public works projects for the next five years.”

Why the agreement, and at this time? “The obvious answer is El Toro.”

Meg Waters, a consultant for ETRPA, said, "’I was told by a top Orange County labor union official that there was a quid pro quo with this…the county would enter into this agreement with the understanding that Orange County labor would call the AFL-CIO in Washington, which is across the street from the White House, and they would cross the street and tell the president to make sure this airport would happen.’"

Click to read the entire editorial.  If you object to an airport at El Toro, tell the White House to stay out of the local decision making.  Click below to e-mail:

President Bill Clinton

Presidential hopeful, Vice-President Al Gore

---

"Opponents of converting the former El Toro Marine Corp Air Station into a commercial airport are coming out with their fists up... [an] advisory firm hired by the [ETRPA] says the county is 'overstating economic benefits by 33%' by, among other techniques, including jobs and income generated by the existing John Wayne Airport."

“A new airport planned at the closed El Toro Marine base will create noise, traffic and pollution problems that cannot be mitigated, belying county officials' promises that it would be a good neighbor, airport foes said… The anti-airport El Toro Reuse Planning Authority… has been analyzing 10,000 pages of studies released last month by county officials, who will accept public comments on its conclusions through Feb. 22.”

“The authority held a public hearing in Aliso Viejo on Tuesday night to allow public comment. A meeting sponsored by the county will be held today at 5:30 p.m. at the county Hall of Administration.”

“Among the issues raised:
*Airline passenger demand figures for future travel are unrealistic. County airport consultants say demand will double in Southern California in the next 20 years and that an airport at El Toro is critical to help absorb it. Critics say that the county's population will rise a modest 7% and that the airport simply isn't needed when there are others in the region.
* The economic numbers don't add up. Authority officials said the airport will produce lower-paying jobs for workers, who won't be able to afford to live in Orange County, further exacerbating the imbalance between jobs and affordable housing.
* Airport noise will be significant for at least 1,800 dwellings near the airport.
*The county's review relies on a method of computing vehicle traffic that lowers estimates.”

“Antiairport activists speculated Tuesday that the proposed El Toro airport could send commercial jets over the Newport Coast, creating more noise problems for the community that has strongly supported a second Orange County airport. The El Toro Reuse Planning Authority, a coalition of South County cities, reviewed the county's environmental report on the project and concluded that the facts -- such as the possibility of jet noise over Newport Beach -- were buried in the technical sections of the 39-volume study.”

“Tom O'Malley, a retired Marine colonel who is a consultant to the antiairport group, said fighter planes used to take off from an El Toro runway that leads directly over Corona del Mar. The county has promised not to use that particular path, but O'Malley said planes could be forced to use the runway during certain weather conditions. ‘If the county insists that it will not use runway 25, then, on many days, the airport will be closed down,’ O'Malley said.”

Editor:- YES on Measure F would protect Newport Beach residents from El Toro flights AND from the expansion of John Wayne airport.  Click here for feedback to dailypilot@latimes.com 

Citing concern that residents will be impacted by either construction of an around-the-clock airport at El Toro or expansion of John Wayne airport, the Tustin City Council today switched sides on the airport debate and endorsed Measure F.  A large standing-room only crowd of residents at the meeting overwhelmingly supported the Council’s action.

Tustin became the first city to move from the pro to anti-airport side.  Mayor Tracy Wills Worley lead the Council to its new position in favor of Measure F.   Under former Mayor Thomas R. Saltarelli, brother of former Supervisor and Newport Beach consultant Don Salterelli, Tustin had joined the pro-airport Orange County Regional Airport Authority, OCRAA.  However, Tustin’s support for an El Toro Airport has been tepid.  The city participated in a lawsuit against the County’s airport environmental impact report because of concerns over the dangers of aviation fuel delivery through the community.

“Upset residents have asked the community association to halt plans for an informational flier about the proposed El Toro airport because it will be nonpartisan. Resident Shannon Hill told the Aliso Viejo Community Assn.'s board of directors this week that she was ‘absolutely disgusted’ when she found out that the community wide mailer would contain pro-airport information.”

“Last month, the [AVCA] board decided to create an informational flier on the proposed international airport at the former El Toro Marine Corps Air Station to remind residents to vote on a countywide ballot measure in March. Carmen Vali, president of the Aliso Viejo Community Assn., said the board was advised by its attorney to solicit information from both sides of the issue…[or] the board's nonprofit status could be hindered and it could be sued. ‘We have publicly stated that we are against the airport, but we are limited in what we can do,’ she said.”

Several city councils have taken formal positions in favor of Yes on Measure F, but Aliso Viejo is unincorporated. Residents can contact the AVCA office at 949-362-5890, fax 949-362-5899.

Both major newspapers reported on the Supervisors’ vote yesterday, to give labor unions about 85 percent of all County public works projects above $225,000.  See story below.  Non-union contractors whose workers will be shut out, conservative Republicans, and airport opponents reacted angrily.

The Register summarized the deal, and Supervisor Charles Smith's explanation for it, as follows: “We're not buying it. The only rationale we can come up with is to convince the unions to not only support the airport, but to rally their troops to defeat the anti-El Toro Measure F.”

If you don’t like it, write to the newspapers. Vote Yes on F for Fairness in county government.

“A labor agreement that the Board of Supervisors will consider today has angered airport opponents and a contractors' coalition, who believe it is an attempt to win organized labor's political clout for an El Toro airport and against the anti-airport Measure F.”

Editor:- Update 2:30 pm:  At this morning's Board of Supervisors meeting, Smith, Silva and Coad listened to 16 speakers protest against the deal, and then voted to approve it.

“The agreement would require that 85 percent of the workers on nearly all county public-works projects — not just an El Toro airport — be hired through local unions. It also bans work stoppages, including strikes.”

Critics of the pact — known as a project labor agreement — said it discriminates against nonunion workers and charged that the county is sacrificing nonunion contractors and laborers in an underhanded effort to win union support in the fight over the proposed El Toro airport.”

"’The county is desperate to stop Measure F and is willing to throw any money it can into securing votes,’ said Len Kranser, a spokesman for the measure. ‘We see it as the county attempting to buy labor opposition to Measure F.’ Board Chairman Charles V. Smith… dismissed the suggestion that the county would try to influence the election.”

A news release from Supervisor Tom Wilson reports that Gary Simon, Manager Operations/Real Estate Manager for the Master Development Program's Base Reuse Program is the "latest El Toro casualty". Wilson says, Simon is one of "a string of professional planners to 'leave' this El Toro Planning process.... [and] losing the services of someone with the talents and credentials of a Gary Simon is a further example of planning deterioration and poor strategy."

“A member of the House aviation committee renewed a congressional call Friday to federal officials to reexamine the crowded Southern California airspace, especially in light of new data showing 150 new flights a day [to the north alone] out of a proposed international airport at El Toro. Rep. Steven T. Kuykendall (R-Rancho Palos Verdes) asked Federal Aviation Administration Chief Jane Garvey to include plans for El Toro in a national airspace study.”

“As many as 150 flights a day leaving El Toro to the north would have to fly over, under or through flight paths for four other major airports, including Los Angeles International, according to Orange County aviation consultants. Air traffic controllers would have to separate outbound El Toro traffic shortly after takeoff from planes preparing to land at John Wayne Airport and Long Beach Municipal. A union official for the National Air Traffic Controllers Assn. this week labeled the situation unsafe and said it would place an intolerable workload on controllers. Officials with the Air Line Pilots Assn. also have protested the riskiness of El Toro departures over Loma Ridge off the end of the northern runway.”

“ Concerns over the complexity of Southern California airspace escalated in 1986, when 81 people were killed in the collision of a private plane and an airliner bound for LAX over Cerritos.”

“The former associate administrator of the FAA, who has been critical of several aspects of the county's plans, said the flying public would be endangered if flight paths aren't changed. Don Segner, who served as the third-ranking FAA official in Washington from 1981 to 1986, said the only way the new airport could be made acceptably safe is to close John Wayne and change the orientation of El Toro's runways so planes wouldn't depart or land over nearby mountains… He said ‘[El Toro] would probably be the least safe airport of its type in the U.S. I hope that the FAA will do the right thing.’"

To write to the Times click here.  A Yes on Measure F vote will slow the county process until the safety issue is fully studied and flight paths are determined by the FAA.  Then, let the people decide whether they want the airport built.

“County officials have quietly dropped plans for interim air cargo while the military still owns the closed El Toro Marine base, but will allow the Navy to keep a $125,000 fee for an environmental study it never conducted, county officials said Thursday. El Toro airport critics lauded the decision to kill the plan for immediate interim aviation use, calling it a victory for the people. The decision will delay any possible aviation at El Toro until at least next year when the Navy is expected to turn the base over to the county.”

“The county dropped the interim aviation plans from its master lease application after realizing the proposal would take a great deal of environmental work and would delay the master lease application process… The decision was made by county staff several months ago.”

The county had agreed to pay for a Navy environmental study, an arrangement that some criticized at the time, as possibly prejudicing the results. “The county issued the $125,000 check on May 27, and the Navy deposited it June 9, according to county auditor-controller's documents. County Supervisor Tom Wilson, an airport opponent, called the county's handling of the funds sloppy and another example of poor management. ‘I can't believe the airport fund is so flush with money that $125,000 isn't missed.’"

In an editorial, the Register comments on the just released, voluminous county EIR, saying that the, “El Toro reports won’t fly”.

“The international airport proposed at the former El Toro Marine base would eventually send nearly 150 flights a day toward oncoming jets from four other airports, compounding issues of safety and raising the prospects of delays throughout the crowded skies above Southern California, documents show. Northbound flights leaving El Toro--about a third of its flights, including the largest and heaviest jets--would be forced to pass ‘over, under or through’ other planes' routes in what is already one of the busiest pieces of airspace in the nation, according to the [EIR] report, which was compiled by county aviation consultants.

"It's like driving the wrong way down the freeway," said Robert E. McGowan, the mayor of Villa Park and a retired United Airlines pilot. He is in favor of an airport at El Toro but not of the county's version. ‘You can only get away with it for a couple minutes. It's just no good.’"

"This is not a safe operation," said Kevin Van Uden, air traffic controller union representative for the FAA facility that controls planes from the Point Mugu Naval Air Station to the Mexican border. ‘You've got a potential three-way conflict,’ said Van Uden, adding that he will recommend the union oppose the airport because of the safety and delay issues.”

“The county's plans also have been criticized by the Air Line Pilots Assn., the nation's largest union of commercial pilots, and by the Allied Pilots Assn.The main concern of pilots has been that 62% of El Toro's departures would be toward the east, over the Santa Ana Mountains. They also have protested northern departures because of airspace problems with jets and with a major private-pilot flight path over Anaheim Hills.”

Maneuvering flights for safe separation, “means some flights will have to wait for a hole in the flight routes, which could mean delays across the region.” During the June flight demo, aircraft were held on the ground to avoid interference with John Wayne and Long Beach operations.See comments by FAA managers.

Full text and graphics at http://www.latimes.com/editions/orange/20000106/t000001923.html

“Passengers flying out of John Wayne Airport would pay $3 a trip starting in July 2001 to help build an El Toro airport. The Federal Aviation Administration would be asked to pitch in $100 million for El Toro by 2006. Investors would buy $687 million in bonds backed by revenues from airline leases, concessions and rental cars at El Toro and John Wayne airports… The county further plans to use $64 million in funds in John Wayne Airport accounts, including $19 million taken from a reserve fund there that would then be replaced by another bond deal.”

“County airport planners, in their financial analysis for the proposed El Toro airport, list those among the ways they would pay for the first $1 billion of the $2.8 billion needed to turn the Marine Corps ghost town into a bustling international airport. They say repeatedly that no general-fund revenues would be used and that the taxpayers of Orange County are not at risk.”

“But airport critics don't buy it. ‘It's obvious they're trying to build the El Toro facilities on a house of cards,’ said Supervisor Todd Spitzer, an airport opponent. ‘And it's going to come crumbling down, because the financials don't make any sense.’ ‘This gives the statement, 'El Toro at any cost' substantive new meaning," Spitzer said.”

“Critics say that projects this large always cost more than their original budgets. Paul Dempsey, a University of Denver law professor who has studied airport projects worldwide, …wrote a 1997 book on the beleaguered construction of Denver International Airport, [which] was presented as a $1.5 billion project but ended up at $5.3 billion. Dempsey said that in Denver, cost overruns and delays with the project caused that airport's bonds to drop at one point to BBB-minus, the lowest rating above junk bonds. That, in turn, increased interest rates, which added to the final cost of the project.”

“The county Board of Supervisors' pro-airport majority Tuesday voted to replace airport foe Tom Wilson as vice chairman with supporter Jim Silva. Charles Smith kept his post as chairman for another year.” Darlene Bloom, board clerk, said she has never heard of a supervisor holding consecutive terms as chairman.

“Wilson's ouster eliminates the most high-profile symbol of cooperation among the board's rival El Toro camps and augurs the most contentious year yet in the long battle over the future of the former Marine base.  Smith acknowledged that he'd worked well with Wilson. But he said the board majority couldn't ignore ‘El Toro, the biggest issue facing the county.’"

Editor:- To write to the Register on this issue, click here. It illustrates why a Yes vote on Measure F is needed, to restore fairness to the planning process.  Let the people, not three members of the Board of Supervisors, choose whether to build an airport.

Citizens are urged to comment on the Environmental Impact Report for El Toro.  Comments should be submitted in the form of questions, which then must be answered by the County, rather than in the form of statements which need not be answered.

Comments can be submitted up until 5 p.m. Tuesday, February 22, 2000,
by e-mail to:  EIR573@ceo.hoa.co.orange.ca.us

or in writing to:

County of Orange
El Toro Master Development Program
Attn: Mr. Bryan Speegle
10 Civic Center Plaza, Second Floor
Santa Ana, CA 92701

LA Times Editorial Section, January 2, 2000
"Our Hopes for 2000"

The editorial says, in part: "Orange County supervisors appear on track to approve a new international airport in May by a 3-2 majority. There is a new environmental impact report containing some candor about cost and noise, but for too long the public has not had a clear idea what it is going to get when and if the airport ever is built. The supervisors need to level with the public on how El Toro would operate and make a better case as to why it is essential."

Website Editor:- The county EIR will sit on library shelves, there will be a public hearing on January 19, but there is no need for the supervisors to inform or convince anyone that the project is wise.  Three supervisors need only go through some legally prescribed motions and then they can build the airport. How things will change when Measure F is passed!  A "Yes" on F vote means they will have to really explain the EIR and convince the public that the airport is a good idea, because there will be a vote on the project.

Click here for previous news stories