Denver Post, June 29, 2001- website posted June
30
"$44 million Stapleton plan calls for parks, green
space 1,100 acres to include creeks, trails, amphitheater"
Website Direct, June 29, 2001
Petition Drive to Resume Tuesday
Website Direct, June 28, 2001
Court orders County to pay ETRPA's legal fees
Leisure World News, June 28, 2001
"Mayor Has Answer To County Lawsuit"
Website Direct, June 27, 2001
"Ready, set, No Go this weekend"
Website Direct, June 27, 2001
Anti-Airport Activists Report
Website Direct, June 25, 2001
"Environmental Group Joins Measure F Appeal."
OC Register, June 25, 2001
"Coad drops her plan for redistricting."
Website Direct, June 24, 2001
"Ontario Can Be O.C.'s Airport,"
LA Times, Newport Beach Metro, June 23, 2001
"County strikes back at anti-airport statements"
Leisure World News, June 21, 2001
"County slaps Laguna Woods with lawsuit"
"Claims city blocking its El Toro airport plan"
LA Times, June 20, 2001
"Supervisors Give a Nod to Frequent Flier Funds"
"O.C. board allots $2 million to pay for postage for about 30
mailers over a yearlong period. Airport foes call it a 'waste of money.'"
Website Direct, June 19, 2001
County files lawsuit against Laguna Woods
ETRPA Press Release, June 18, 2001
ETRPA responds to EIR 573
LA Times, June 17, 2001
"Irvine Planning Homes for a No-Fly Zone"
"Foreseeing no airport, city wants 2,500 units near El Toro."
Website Direct, June 17, 2001
It's Sunday and everyone has an opinion about El
Toro
Website Direct, June 16, 2001
Supervisors to vote $2 million more for El Toro
PR.
OC Register editorial, June 15, 2001
"County PLA under file"
LA Times, Newport Beach Metro, June 15, 2001
"Pilots back another El Toro option"
"Newport Beach resident's plan calls for realignment of one of
two runways."
Website Direct, June 14, 2001
Map Flap Requires Petitions to be Recirculated.
"Better safe than sorry."
OC Register, June 14, 2001
"Two supervisors call El Toro a 'money pit'"
"County backs $27.2 million for base reuse, but the board is
concerned about general-fund subsidy."
Website Direct, June 14, 2001
County to Sue Laguna Woods over Avigation Rights
LA Times, column June 13, 2001
"Congressmen Aren't Looking for the Union Label
in County"
OC Register, June 12, 2001
"Budget in the cross hairs – El Toro: Up, up and
away?"
LA Times, June 12, 2001
"Congressmen Urge O.C. Supervisors to End Labor
Pact"
Boston Globe, June 7, 2001, website posted June
9, 2001
"US Airways scraps plan to use Hanscom, cites local
opposition"
KGTV TheSanDiegoChannel.com June 8, 2001 website
posted June 9
"Miramar Airport, More Freeways Recommended By
Grand Jury"
LA Times, Opinion June 8, 2001
"Parks are For All the People"
LA Times, June 8, 2001
"Navy to Help Remove Pollutants From Ground Water
Near El Toro"
Website Direct, June 7, 2001 - updated
Initiative opponents pull a delaying tactic
Leisure World News, June 7, 2001
"Laguna Woods Makes Its Airport Position Clear
To The Feds"
LA Times, June 7, 2001
"North County Group Wants Voters to Alter Flight
Paths at El Toro"
Website Direct, June 5, 2001 10:00 PM - updated
June 6
Cavecche wins in Orange City election
Website Direct, June 5, 2001
Songstad vs. Bloomer on Cox Forum 7 p.m. Thursday,
June 7
Website Direct, June 5, 2001 - updated June
6
Fullerton deadlocks on quitting OCRAA
LA Times, June 5, 2001
Redistricting Could Strip Clout of O.C. Airport
Foes
LA Times commentary, June 4, 2001
"Foes of an Airport at El Toro Have Their NIMBY
Blinders On"
OC Register, June 02, 2001
"El Toro report hearing Sept. 4"
Chicago Tribune, June 02, 2001
"Des Plaines may ditch banks over O'Hare stance"
LA Times, Orange Section, June 1, 2001 - updated
"Mud Flies in Orange Race"
OC Register, Business, June 1, 2001
"Say 'Aloha' to O.C.-Maui flights"
Editor: When Denver's new airport was opened, the nearby Denver Stapleton Airport was closed. This is a lesson that many believe will be repeated at John Wayne if El Toro is ever built. Denver, by turning Stapleton into a park, also sends another lesson to Orange County.
"Denver Mayor Wellington Webb unveiled a $44 million plan Thursday that reflects one common request [for the reuse of Stapleton] - parks and green space… Stapleton's developer, will transform runways into 1,100 acres of open space, increasing the city's parkland by 30 percent."
"'When all of us are old enough to be in wheelchairs pushing ourselves along these trails, I want us to be able to look back and say, 'I had a part in making this a legacy for Denver,'" Webb said."
"In the center of more than 7.5 square miles of trails, creeks and wetlands will sit 80-acre Central Park… The park will feature a forest, lawns and gardens, a stage and an amphitheater with enough room to seat 1,000 people for a small concert… a sledding hill… golf course, indoor and outdoor tennis courts, and a regional recreation center featuring an aquatic center."
"Green space surrounding Central Park will include a promenade, prairie mounds, a plant nursery, a cafe and picnic areas."
"Expected to be constructed over the next 15 years, the park space is part of the Stapleton redevelopment… 'It's so exciting to be able to share this final plan after all of the community meetings, knowing that Stapleton's neighbors here in the northeast Denver community played such a big role in deciding how this land should be used,' said Alice Kelly, chairwoman of the parks advisory group."
After another delay by the County Counsel's office, the Orange County Central Park Initiative is prepared to roll again. County Counsel held the initiative for a total of 38 days on three occasions, and released it this afternoon, at the last legal moment, too late to gather signatures on the weekend.
Petitions will be printed and signature gathering is expected to start again on Tuesday, July 3. All registered voters are invited to sign, INCLUDING THOSE WHO SIGNED PREVIOUSLY. The newly reprinted, large format petition is the only valid one. Earlier signatures will not be used, according to Jim Davy, petitioning chairman.
Approximately nine weeks remain for petitioners to gather some 72,000 valid signatures. According to Davy, the signing task will require "concentrated effort by all volunteers but is easily achievable, considering past and present voter reaction to this volatile issue.
VOLUNTEERS ARE NEEDED. Click here and call your area captain.
Blank petitions for circulation will be available by calling the Committee for Safe and Healthy Communities office in Laguna Hills at 949-768-4583.
Petitions for signing will be available at hundreds of tables throughout the county, including these key locations:
ALISO VIEJO---Von's (Alicia/Pacific Park), Ralph's (AV Town Center);
ANAHEIM---White Realty, 714-774-9462, 918 W. Lincoln; Cindy Vallone
714-497-1501
COTO/RSM---Target, Pavilion stores (2);
DANA POINT---Costco (SJC), Ralph's (Ocean Ranch), Ralph's (Gldn Lntrn
& Del
Prado); the Harbor;
FOOTHILL RANCH/TRABUCO---Ralph's, Target;
FOUNTAIN VALLEY---Gus Ayer, 714-963-3460, 17135 Reimer;
FULLERTON---Dorian Hunter, 714-870-5633, 607 E. Chapman;
HUNTINGTON BCH---Hon. Dave Sullivan, 714-840-1804, 4162 Windsor;
IRVINE---Costco, Irvine; 30 Minute Photo, Etc., 92 Corp. Park Plz (Jamboree
& Barranca); Woodbridge Com. Assn., 31 Creek Rd.;
LAGUNA BEACH---Albertson's, So. Laguna; Pavilion's, No. Laguna; L.B.
Post Office; LAGUNA HILLS---LH Mall, LH Community Cntr (4th of July);
LAGUNA NIGUEL---Albertson's (Golden Lantern), Ralph's (Greenfield),
Ralph's (Aliso
Crk & La Paz), Von"s Market on Crown Valley Parkway and Niguel
Rd--captain is Sue McGaw 949-240-0469or Jan Schreiber 949-493-7876Laguna
Niguel ---- Von"s Market on Crown Valley Parkway and Niguel Rd--captain
is Sue McGaw 949-240-0469....she wants her phone included here. You can
call her to confirm....or use my number...Jan Schreiber 949-493-7876.;
LAGUNA WOODS---Costco, Irvine; The Mail Truck (behind library); Home
Depot; LAKE FOREST---Home Depot (Lake Forest & toll road); Ralph's
(Lake Forest Rd. & Trabuco);
MISSION VIEJO---MV Mall; Ralph's (Margarite & Snta Margarita);
4th of July Street Fair;
ORANGE---Hon. Mike Alvarez, 714-532-1345, 360S Glassell; Theresa Sears,
714-288-0520, 7733 Santiago Canyon Rd;
SAN CLEMENTE---Ralph's & Trader Joe's (Ocean View Plaza);
SAN JUAN CAPO---Costco; Ralph's (downtown);
TUSTIN---Costco; Ralph's (Jamboree & Irvine); Ralph's (Irvine &
Newport);
VILLA PARK---Robbie Fox, 714-637-3943, 9681 Crest View Circle;
WESTMINSTER---Dick Wilson, 714-892-1131, 5202 Loyola.
A judge, today, awarded $85,000 in legal fees to ETRPA in connection with the anti-airport organization's successful lawsuit against the County over the improper hiring of aviation attorney Michael Gatzke. ETRPA also received $12,000 for its costs.
The County has been unable to use Gatzke for aviation litigation since the settlement of the suit.
With previous awards for attorney's fees in other cases, this brings the total amount that the County has been ordered to pay to ETRPA to over $520,000. The County also had to pay substantial legal fees to Taxpayers for Responsible Planning. The courts only award attorneys fees to winning plaintiffs with good cause. As Paul Eckles said today, "We must be doing something right."
"Laguna Woods Mayor Bo Bouer… noted that, following a recent suit by the [Leisure World's] Golden Rain Foundation against the United States, the Navy affirmed that the former Marine Corps Air Station at El Toro was no more and reconveyed all avigation easements to property owners under the flyover zone."
"He said the city's general plan and amendments only conformed to that 'current reality.'"
"Said Bouer, 'The general plan, specific plan and zoning ordinance now afford no safe harbor for airport operations at El Toro MCAS (and) any aircraft operations that may subsequently be established at El Toro MCAS is now on notice that it will be responsible for any damage to persons or property that may result from such operations."
"The county in its legal actions acknowledges the harmful physical effects that are inherent in airport operations in residential areas; by its action the city revoked all governmental permission for airport operations over the City of Laguna Woods and has preserved for itself and its residents the right to seek compensation for such damages should airport operations ever be permitted at El Toro MCAS."
Click here for full text of the County lawsuit.
The following e-mail is just in from the Committee for Safe and Healthy Communities campaign office for the army of volunteers who are poised to collect signatures on Central Park petitions:
"The County is now saying that they have to Friday to release our Title and Summary. AND, they are going to take all the time including Friday! This means that we can not publish our 'intent to circulate' until Monday. That legal formality prevents us from doing any petitioning this weekend, even if petitions are printed."
Editor: There is a very small chance that the County will relent and release the document earlier. Otherwise, Tuesday, July 4 looks good.
"Please check with the office Saturday. Call 949-768-4583. If the printing is done, distribution of petitions [to captains] will begin on Sunday" but signatures can not be collected before the 'intent' is in the newspaper.
More volunteers are needed to overcome the delay. Contact your Area Captain.
Hanna Hill attended yesterday's Local Redevelopment Agency meeting and we are pleased to post her report on what took place. The County will provide some sort of response, by early September, to each of the 8,000 comments about its El Toro Environmental Impact Report.
Ron Steinbach sent us the text of the County's lawsuit against Laguna Woods so that you can read the logic contained therein. The County says it seeks to protect the residents – with EIR paperwork - from the harmful impacts of the airport that the County hopes to build next door.
This website is indebted to the many volunteers who help us to cover the El Toro debate.
The Planning and Conservation League has filed an amicus brief on behalf of Measure F in the Court of Appeals. The League argues that the Safe and Healthy Communities Initiative meets the "single subject" requirements of the law and should be reinstated by the court.
Click here for the organization's website.
"Orange County redistricting is proving to be the political brawl many expected, with supervisors lining up for battle over the board majority's push to pack opponents of an El Toro airport into one south-county district."
"But this year's squabbles have lacked … talk of lawmakers trying to use the process for personal political benefit, until last week. Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Cynthia Coad introduced a redistricting plan that would have left a slice of Anaheim out of her 4th Supervisorial District. That chunk happened to include the home of Mayor Tom Daly, the Democrat who many consider Coad's toughest potential foe in her expected 2002 re-election bid."
"But when The Buzz [asked] for an explanation, she backed off the redistricting plan - still insisting that Daly's placement a few hundred yards out of her district was a byproduct of her efforts to represent the unincorporated Colonia Independencia area."
"Daly won't add fuel to the fire by commenting … [but] does admit to interest in being a supervisor some day - from whatever district he ends up in."
Editor: The smelly O.C. redistricting games have stolen the limelight from the also important redistricting for the California Assembly, Senate and Congressional districts. There will be a public hearing in Santa Ana on July 13 at 11:00 AM. Click here for more information.
Last Sunday, John Walter Kraus who writes from Newport Beach, used that line, and recommended the use of Ontario to replace John Wayne expansion and El Toro. He noted that, "Ontario can now accommodate 10 million passengers a year in two new terminal buildings and has room for expansion."
Kraus' article and favorable responses from Times letter writers today, can be found in the Early Bird edition of the website where the full text of letters and reports appear. To get there, click the Early Bird link at the top of this page.
For more information on Ontario Airport we offer two new webpages. The recently expanded facility is underutilized and looking for business. Passenger traffic has grown by little more than 10 percent in the past 8 years. ONT served 6.8 million annual passengers (MAP) last year. Click here for "Ontario Airport Usage" statistics.
In 1993, the Los Angeles World Airways did a survey of where Ontario flyers originate, or where they are destined. An update will be completed this year. ONT appears to serve just fewer than 1 million Orange County passengers annually, mostly from North County. See "Who Uses Ontario?"
"Irked about a South County press release, Orange County's airport planning office this week said the anti-airport cities had 'misrepresented facts and incorrectly extrapolated figures.'… The county accused the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority, the nine South County cities fighting to stop the airport, of exaggerating the health risks of an airport.
"In a news release announcing the submittal of nearly 300 questions and comments about the county's environmental report, anti-airport spokeswoman Meg Waters said the county underestimated the negative effects of smog and traffic caused by an airport at El Toro." Click here to view the ETRPA questions and comments… a large file which may download slowly for you!
Editor: The 6 page press release from Amies Communications, the recipient of a $2.9 million public relations contract from the County, acknowledges that, "The Toxic Air Contaminant (TAC) risk assessment prepared in the Draft EIR 573 in December 1999 noted that significant cancer, acute and chronic health impacts were associated with the proposed project."
As previously reported on this website, "The County of Orange is suing the City of Laguna Woods for setting up a major roadblock in the plan to put a commercial airport at the former Marine base at El Toro. The barrier set up by Laguna Woods was a recent amendment to its general plan which removed language relating to an airport at El Toro."
"The County is … asking the courts to invalidate both the general plan and the amendment claiming they endanger residents of the city who will be stripped of legal protections against-airport generated noise, pollution, safety hazards and potential airline crashes."
"County counsel Jack Golden said the Board of Supervisors was concerned that the Laguna Woods City Council's recent amendment to its general plan, removing all language having to do with an airport at the former Marine base, left the community vulnerable to the effects of an airport, like noise pollution and other personal and property safety issues."
"Golden wrote the city in April saying that the county contends the air station is still an airport… Joan Golding, Airport Land Use Commission executive officer… suggested the city change its 'no environmental impact' (negative declaration) stand to a 'potentially significant impact' stand, with regard to airport noise, potential accident zones, safety and so forth."
"Laguna Woods City Councilman Bert Hack, a long-time opponent of an El Toro airport, called the suit 'politically motivated' and an action which could come back to haunt its proponents. He noted that the county's concerns about the potential environmental impacts of an airport were exactly those [that] opponents of a commercial airport at El Toro have been pointing to all along."
"And he noted that [the retirement community of] Laguna Woods puts a higher priority on the environmental issues than all other entities since recent federal, UCLA, and Harvard University studies have confirmed that high levels of pollution have a detrimental effect of the health and even cause earlier deaths in seniors."
Full article is in the website's Early Bird Edition.
"With a public relations tab now running at $8 million, the pro-airport majority on the Orange County Board of Supervisors [Smith, Silva and Coad] on Tuesday approved paying for postage for more than two dozen mailers to residents. The action, approved 3 to 2, authorizes Gary Simon, director of the El Toro planning agency, to use $2 million of those funds for postage for about 30 mailers over a yearlong period."
"Some of the mailers will go countywide, while others will be targeted to specific areas."
"Anti-airport Supervisor Tom Wilson criticized the authorization as a 'total waste of money,' and called it part of an illegal campaign because it goes beyond the informational threshold and politically promotes an airport."
"Smith and the two other pro-airport supervisors have said they want to give residents information coming from the county to counter 'misinformation' by anti-airport sources like the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority and Irvine."
"In March, the board approved giving $5 million to the pro-airport Orange County Regional Airport Authority for a public-information campaign on El Toro."
Editor: ETRPA has filed suit against the County for illegal diversion of John Wayne funds to this public relations effort. Furthermore, the courts have held that it is illegal for public entities to spend money on efforts to influence the outcome of political campaigns such as the one for the O.C. Central Park and Nature Preserve. Stay tuned for news of likely additional litigation over the issue.
What is your reaction? What will you write to the newspapers about this?
The County entered a lawsuit against the City of Laguna Woods late yesterday, just before the filing deadline. The action was authorized by Supervisors Smith, Silva and Coad and opposed by Supervisors Wilson and Spitzer. The City is being sued for the steps it took in removing avigation easements from its general plan.
According to an informed source, the County posits that an airport at El Toro will bring harmful noise, pollution and the risk of airplane crashes in Leisure World. Therefore, the County argues that the City was required to conduct a full environmental impact report prior to removing the avigation easements. The change in general plan would allow new construction in areas previously closed to such development while El Toro was an operating military airbase.
ETRPA submitted its comments on the latest revision to El Toro Environmental Impact Report EIR 573. A press release states, "COUNTY ADMITS EL TORO IS NOT NEEDED TO MEET DEMAND YET THOUSANDS WILL BE HARMED BY AIR POLLUTION IF AN AIRPORT IS BUILT."
The El Toro Reuse Planning Authority submitted over 300 questions to the County, which must be answered before the Environmental Impact Report can be adopted.
County planners, mindful that their failure to identify negative impacts can lead the courts to overthrow the EIR, admitted, for the first time, to many environmental concerns with the airport. The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) does not require that negative impacts be mitigated, only that they be identified.
ETRPA states, "The project will violate federal and state standards for air quality, it will not conform to the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) Air Quality Management Plan, and it will result in a significant unavoidable increase in cancer and non-cancer health risk. In stark contrast to what the county had previously revealed, the supplemental analysis admits huge increases in pollution."
"The South Coast Air Quality Board has said the maximum permissible cancer risk from an airport at El Toro is only 10 cancer deaths in one million. But, the County’s EIR reports that the project will cause a risk of cancer to 8,320 residents in every one million… more than 21,000 new cancer cases for Orange County's [2.8 million] residents."
"Most interesting is the statement, made several times in the document, that “…Model runs show that there is sufficient capacity at airports in the region to absorb the projected unconstrained regional existing and foreseeable demand, without expansion of airport capacity in Orange County.”
Click
here for the entire statement.
"The city of Irvine is poised to approve more than 2,500 homes near a flight path for the proposed El Toro airport, part of a strategy many say is intended to block any airfield at the former Marine base… It would be the first neighborhood built near the former Marine base since it was decommissioned in July 1999."
"Meanwhile, commercial development closer to the base has been proceeding with Irvine's blessing, including rezoning portions of the Irvine Co.'s Spectrum business and technology park adjacent to the base to allow homes and child-care centers."
"City officials contend that a commercial airport will never open at the base, so the construction of homes, schools and child-care centers should be allowed."
"A coalition of pilots and North County officials isn't sold on the county's flight-path plan. It wants to qualify a measure for the March ballot that would force the county to have planes depart to the south…However, county airport planners and the Irvine Co. have rejected takeoffs to the south. Doing so would create too much noise for 4,000 future homes in Irvine, including these latest ones, county planners said last year."
Visit the Early Bird section of this website to read the full text of today's host of editorials, columns and letters about El Toro. Here are some samples:
Ontario Can Be O.C.'s Airport
LA Times guest column by John Walter Kraus
"As long as Newport Beach and South County remain antagonists regarding the reuse of the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, no real progress toward a solution is likely. Money will continue to be spent needlessly and ineffectively, and accusations of inaccurate propaganda will continue to fly."
Mittermeier's Supporting Role
By Jerry Hicks, Times Staff Writer
"The cover of her new business brochure is dominated by the king on a chessboard, lording over the pawns, knights and bishops. Jan Mittermeier, Orange County's former executive officer, says the king represents a winning strategy."
Rohrabacher's El Toro Stance Touches a Nerve
LA Times letters
"Re 'Foes of an Airport at El Toro Have Their NIMBY Blinders On,': As a military pilot and an airline captain with over 30 years' experience, I am quite offended with Rep. Dana Rohrabacher alluding to airline pilots as a bunch of complainers with unwarranted arguments concerning the unsafe conditions at the El Toro airport. His comments go beyond misrepresentations and half-truths. They are outright lies."
Making Sense of Redistricting
LA Times local news
"Two things can be said with assurance about Orange County's upcoming reconfiguration of supervisorial districts. The first is that the meandering lines that currently exist are likely to be replaced with new meandering lines. The second is that politics will be at play no matter how things look."
Best Solution for El Toro: Auction the land
OC Register…Op Ed
"The 'El Toro Airport' and the 'Great Park' are equally stupid options."
Airport fight needs everyone flying together
Editorial…LA Times (NPB Metro
"With the historic settlement agreement that limited flights at John Wayne Airport set to expire in 2005, and a commercial airport at El Toro far from being realized, Newport Beach and Costa Mesa officials are rightly worrying these days over what future air traffic growth will mean to their communities."
Tuesday, June 19th at 9:30 AM, the Board of Supervisors will meet and vote to eliminate 6:00 P.M., evening meeting times and to call all regular meetings of the Board at 9:30 A.M., effective 7/1/01. The previous occasional evening meetings provided an opportunity for working people to attend.
The agenda for this week's meeting includes the following item:
114. Acting as the Board of Supervisors and MCAS El Toro Local Redevelopment Authority - Authorize Director to purchase postage for Public Information Program ($2,000,000) - All Districts
The $8.7 million that Smith, Silva and Coad have already authorized for the pro-airport public relations campaign apparently is not be enough for them. This action will bring the total to $10.7 million.
The County will be sued to block the spending of public funds to influence the outcome of the March 2002 election. Tuesday's action may be an attempt to stockpile $2 million in postage stamps, "spending the money" in advance of when County Counsel says such expenditures must cease.
Also on the agenda are amendments to the El Toro interim master lease and an agreement covering maintenance of the base.
Writing on about a letter from 5 Congressmen, asking the County to cancel a Project Labor Agreement, the Register writes, "The agreement, known as a PLA, was signed by the board in January 2000 as a way to gin up support among organized labor for the international airport plan pushed forward by Supervisors Charles Smith, Jim Silva and Cynthia Coad."
"PLAs give unions monopoly control over public works projects. Much evidence - including a recent report regarding John Wayne Airport pavement contracting - shows that PLAs drive up costs by reducing competition. Furthermore, they discriminate against non-union workers and companies."
"Unfortunately, Supervisors Coad, Smith and Silva remain willing to sacrifice efficient government services and the rights of companies and workers to their airport proposal."
Full text in the website's Early Bird edition.
"[Charles] Griffin and other members of The New Millennium Group, a political action committee, have said they will begin circulating a petition in the next few weeks that, if it qualifies, would put [their airport] plan, known as the Wildlands Ranch Alternative, to a public vote in March." If so, it will be there in opposition to the Orange County Central Park and Nature Preserve Initiative.
In an e-mail that stops far short of backing the Griffin plan, "Capt. Jon Russell, the western regional safety chairman of the [Air Line Pilots] Association, said his group 'urges the FAA to review the proposal set forth in The New Millennium Group proposal . . . for operations on Runway 16.'"
"The Federal Aviation Administration has refused to review the V-plan because it has not been endorsed by county airport planners. Critics have picked out safety concerns of the county's airport plan, which would leave the runways in their present layout. Griffin said he introduced the plan so a safer airport could be built."
Newport Beach "City officials pushing for an El Toro airport have said the county should continue ignoring Griffin's plan because it would delay the airport plan long enough to rot on the vine."
Editor: Griffin and his associates are aviation enthusiasts who have repeatedly blasted the County's airport plan. They have pointed out numerous defects which County and Newport Beach officials ignore in order to avoid any delay in their dash to try to build an airport. However, the ballot initiative that this group plans, still imposes what many opponents see as an unneeded airport on Orange County residents - just rearranging the noise, traffic and pollution.
A map of Orange County's Central Park, appears on the back of every petition form. However, the original copy, intended for the County Registrar of Voters, has disappeared. This has necessitated the refiling of the initiative, and recirculating of petitions for the popular anti-airport initiative.
Bill Kogerman says that he handed it to a clerk at the Registrar's office on May 17, attached to the initiative text. Orange City Councilman Mike Alvarez was there with Kogerman and says he saw the map. However, Registrar Roz Lever says that she doesn't have it and concludes that she didn't receive it. Where the map went is a mystery that won't be solved in the time remaining for collecting signatures. Therefore, attorneys shepherding the OC Central Park and Nature Preserve Initiative have opted to refile the initiative and map.
At the same time, they will add other maps and figures to the initiative to head off a potential legal challenge of a different type. Attorney Fredric Woocher, writing on behalf of Bruce Nestande and the Argyros-backed Citizens for Jobs and the Economy, hinted that his group might sue to invalidate the measure if "any referenced figures" were not included in the initiative. The initiative "referenced" not just the Central Park map but several tables and maps that are part of the voluminous Orange County General Plan. It is not general practice to include such figures when filing an initiative.
Petition Drive Chairman Jim Davy told his volunteer petition gatherers that - given the willingness of the pro-airport side to seize on any technicality - "It's better to be safe than sorry". Park supporters want to avoid a delaying lawsuit - even a suit that they win – to insure that the initiative makes its March 2002 ballot date.
This week's refiling, and time allowed for County review, will push the resumption of signature gathering to the end of this month. Signatures may be gathered until mid September. Anyone who signed before can sign the new petition form.
A campaign leader called it a frustrating "bump in the road" that will not derail the grass-roots campaign. Another initiative supporter said, "it's a small irritant compared to the alternative of trying to live with an airport."
"The Board of Supervisors decided to spend $27.2 million on El Toro during the fiscal year that starts July 1, despite a growing reliance on tax dollars that prompted some supervisors [Wilson and Spitzer] to call the [mismanaged] closed base 'a money pit.'"
"The problem, county staff said, is base revenue has been weaker than forecast. Blame was placed on the Navy, which leases the former Marine base to the county and has moved slowly to let the county amend the lease to try to make more money, officials said."
"'We can't afford to keep putting this kind of money into the base,' said Supervisor Charles V. Smith. 'They're not dragging their feet,' Smith said. "Their feet are encased in concrete.'''
"El Toro director Gary Simon said buildings at the base require enough upgrades that the county may never make more than $1 million a year from leasing them, far less than originally hoped for."
Editor: Pro-airport officials are moving closer to claiming that the only way to make the property pay is as an airport. Simons' comment, about making only $1 million a year at the huge facility, is seen as little more than posturing against the OC Park and Nature Preserve Initiative. Initiative backers see opportunities to raise much of the cost of park development by leasing out millions of square feet of buildings, housing units and agricultural land that the County is leaving idle at the base.
Last April, the OC Register reported that "five different drafts of the transition plan prepared by consultants … included higher profit estimates [from use of the non-aviation facilities] than the final draft. One draft, dated six days before the version the county selected, estimated net profits as high as $293 million over 15 years.” The drafts were withheld from the public and only forced into the open by ETRPA using the Public Records Act.
The City of Laguna Woods recently changed its general plan to remove all references to avigation easements over the city. The federal government previously had overflight rights - which applied only to military aircraft - but has allowed these to expire with the closing of the El Toro Marine base. Supervisors Smith, Silva and Coad voted to bring suit against the city over the matter. Supervisors Wilson and Spitzer opposed the legal action.
The County alleges that an environmental impact report is required before the plan change can take effect. The Laguna Woods position is that a "negative declaration" of no adverse impact suffices under the California Environmental Quality Act.
Laguna Woods Councilman Bert Hack called the County action "a political move to attempt to punish the community for its anti-airport stand."
Times Columnist Dana Parsons comments on the request - by 5 OC Republican Congress members to the Board of Supervisors - to cancel a deal they made with labor unions in return for union support for the El Toro airport.
"This is a marriage between a politically conservative board and organized labor--sort of like a Hatfield marrying a McCoy--and the board's congressional relatives no doubt objected to it from the get-go. With organized labor a perennial pillar of Democratic politics, you can understand their antipathy."
"So what is it the board saw when it cozied up to union leaders? The cynical view, of course, was that it wasn't love at all. Rather, in guaranteeing union work on big projects, the board was buying union support for any and all votes on the El Toro airport project last January, at a time when the anti-airport Measure F was heading to the ballot."
Parsons reports some new details on the deal struck by Supervisors Smith, Silva and Coad, from "a union leader familiar with the negotiations but who asked not to be identified."
"The first 'date' the unions had with the county's leadership wasn't even with government officials, the labor leader says. The overtures came in the early 1990s from airport backers George Argyros and Bruce Nestande, two pillars of Republican politics and the Orange County business community."
"They wanted union backing for the airport (possibly to impress the Clinton administration) and asked Orange County labor leaders what it would take to get it, the labor leader says. That led to the courtship that culminated in the 2000 agreement with the board, he says."
Editor: During the Measure F campaign, organized union members picketing in support of the airport when anti-airport residents rallied outside of the County Hall of Administration. Congresswoman Sanchez' involvement in a Clinton White House "summit" to try to expedite the base transfer, and attempts by California Assemblyman Lou Correa to introduce pro-airport legislation in Sacramento, have been attributed to union involvement.
Opposition to the airport comes from all parts of the political spectrum and members of both parties. It is not a Republican or Democratic issue, but when Smith, Silva and Coad get desperate, politics can make strange bedfellows.
Click here to read the entire Parsons piece and to post your comments.
"Local Redevelopment Authority spending to maintain the former El Toro Marine base and promote its use as a commercial airport is projected to soar from the current fiscal year to the next:"
Year 2000-01 $16.3 million
Year 2001-02 $27.2 million
"Orange County's congressional leaders have sent the Board of Supervisors a letter urging it to rescind a labor pact that makes it mandatory for the county to use unions on big public projects. The letter, dated June 8 and signed by the area's five [Republican] congressmen, asked that county supervisors drop the deal because it restricts bidders on county projects and raises costs to taxpayers."
"In addition, any union agreement could jeopardize federal funds for construction projects, the congressmen said in the letter. "
"Known as a project labor agreement, the pact was adopted by the board's three pro-El Toro airport project majority members about 16 months ago over protests by independent contractors, who contended that the agreement would result in higher construction costs. … It requires 85% union workers on general contracts of $225,000 or more and on specialty contracts worth $15,000 or more."
"Critics accused supervisors who approved the pact--Chuck Smith, Jim Silva and Cynthia P. Coad--of pandering to labor unions in exchange for union support last year to fight [Measure F] an anti-airport ballot measure." Editor: The labor agreement has also been cited as basis for Clinton White House support for pushing the El Toro project and for measures introduced into the California legislature by Assemblyman Lou Correa (D 69th District).
"Coad, who now heads the Board of Supervisors, said it may be premature to revoke the pact in view of alternatives suggested by labor groups, such as requesting a waiver of Bush's executive order."
"US Airways said yesterday that community opposition to commercial flights out of Hanscom Field had caused the airline to halt plans to begin service from the suburban airport, creating a crack in the Massachusetts Port Authority's efforts to use regional facilities to ease demand at Boston's Logan International Airport. The decision by US Airways, the nation's sixth-largest airline, was met with glee by opponents to commercial service at Hanscom."
'''Given the degree of community concern over increased flying at Hanscom Field, it would be inappropriate to incur the costs and spend the time necessary to develop the new service at this time,' US Airways said in a statement."
Editor: Orange County citizens should take heart and be prepared to bring similar pressure to bear against the use of El Toro to ease demand at LAX.
"The San Diego County grand jury reports that San Diego's new airport should be at Miramar… The report argues that building new gates, terminals and even a second runway at San Diego International Airport, would be simply throwing money at an outmoded facility."
"The report says the air station should be converted into a civilian airport despite the fact the U.S Marine Corps has or will soon have spent at least $100 million to convert Miramar to its use since taking over the inland facility from the Navy in October 1998. Under the grand jury's plan, the Marines would then construct a major military airfield at Camp Pendleton."
The Times takes Supervisor Cynthia Coad to task for what we consider her mean-spirited suggestion that the County should not maintain El Toro recreational facilties - because her study says they are used mainly by South County residents.
"The notion that all county recreational facilities are for all the people in the county is basic to Orange County life… To hear Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Cynthia P. Coad tell it, geography is everything when it comes to the RV parking, horse stables and golf facilities being funded by the county at the closed El Toro Marine base. Coad, from North County, is unhappy with continuing the subsidy that supervisors approved last August to keep those programs operating, citing heavy South County usage."
"It's also no secret that she is unhappy with South County for its opposition to an airport at El Toro."
"The Orange County Zoo is in Orange [Coad's district] and is owned, staffed and operated by the county. How many people from Lake Forest avail themselves regularly of that facility? If it's only a handful, should the county stop paying? If the philosophy Coad applied to El Toro were extended, only those living in the vicinity of any county park would use it or pay for it. Every supervisorial district would become a jurisdiction unto itself, coveting its own regional recreational assets."
E-mail the supervisor at ccoad@dist4.co.orange.ca.us
There is encouraging news, today, for those who say that the Navy is responsible for cleaning up El Toro to park use standards. "Orange County water officials on Thursday announced a historic $169-million deal with the U.S. Navy and the Irvine Ranch Water District to remove ground-water contaminants, including a hazardous chemical from the former El Toro Marine base that threatens local drinking-water supplies."
"Water district officials said Thursday that the Navy also would retain liability for any base-related pollutants discovered in the future… EPA spokeswoman Lisa Fasano said that even without a liability clause, a 'polluter is responsible for the pollution that they leave--now and forever.'"
"The carcinogenic plume is only one of the environmental problems emanating from the El Toro base, which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has declared a federal Superfund cleanup site. The ground-water cleanup won't affect base reuse plans."
An attorney for a pro-airport group alleges that the map - which is printed on the back of all O.C. Central Park and Nature Preserve petitions - was not submitted to the Registrar of Voters with the text. Backers of the initiative dispute the allegation as false. They branded it as "a desperate attempt to delay the popular measure".
The Register reports: "'To be honest, we could have waited and sandbagged them after they filed all their signatures,' said [Fred] Woocher, an attorney for Citizens for Jobs and the Economy."
At least two individuals who were present when it was turned in to the Registrar's office will attest that the map was submitted with the document. However, the Registrar does not issue receipts stating the number of pages in a filed document. There is no explanation for why the submitted map went astray.
Leaders of the initiative drive huddled this afternoon to determine the best tactic to follow. They do not want to allow the pro-airport side any technicality with which to challenge the legality of the initiative. Signature gathering has been temporarily suspended while attorneys review all legal options.
"Laguna Woods City Councilman Bert Hack announced … that the city had sent a letter to various federal agencies. The letter notes that the [Leisure World] Golden Rain Foundation had taken the United States to court and won the lifting of avigation restrictions on its land." The city has amended its general plan to remove the easements
"The letter continues, that the city is entitled to 'full use of all legal process necessary' to protect its citizens' health, safety, and general welfare with regard to overflights by any kind of aircraft."
"The letter notes the city is ready to go to court since its nearly 100% senior population is particularly vulnerable to noise and air pollution which could not just impair health but increase mortality."
"A group of North County officials who favor changing the way planes would land at the proposed El Toro airport said Wednesday that they want to put their proposal before voters. Villa Park Councilman Robert E. McGowan, a retired airline pilot and air-traffic controller, said he has given up trying to convince Orange County officials that changing the direction of landings and takeoffs at the airport would make it safer, more efficient and more palatable to North County residents. [Editor: But not for South County residents.]
"The 'Orange County Public Benefit Initiative,' which supporters hope to place on the March ballot, would amend the 1994 voter-approved ballot measure calling for an airport at the closed Marine base. The proposed size of the airport and a park around it would stay the same. But instead of planes landing from the south and taking off to the north, the initiative would reverse those flight paths."
The Orange County Central Park and Nature Preserve Initiative is already well on its way towards collecting signatures on petitions to qualify for the March ballot.
Editor: McGowan's action shows that even aviation boosters oppose the County's airport plan. The proposed change will still put an airport in the wrong place, but shift the noise, pollution and traffic around.
With all precincts reported as counted, anti-El Toro candidate, Carolyn Cavecche has defeated her well funded Airport Working Group-backed opponent, Scott Steiner.
The Times reports on Wednesday that Cavecche, "charges that Steiner, a 27-year-old deputy district attorney, was a pawn of forces trying to build a commercial airport at El Toro. The Orange City Council was split 2-2 on El Toro, and it is widely believed the victor in Tuesday's race will tip the scales."
"Although Steiner started the campaign expressing support for an El Toro airport, he backed away from that stance as the election drew near, saying he opposed any plan that results in more flights over the city. Cavecche campaigned against the county's plan for an airport at the closed El Toro Marine Corps Air Station."
At 10:18 PM Tuesday the Registar reported that the complete vote was:
CAROLYN V CAVECCHE 6,362
61.3%
SCOTT STEINER
3,658
35.3%
MICHAEL VOGELVANG 354
3.4%
ETRPA Chairman and Laguna Hills City Council Member Allan Songstad will debate Art Bloomer, executive director of Orange County Regional Airport Authority (OCRAA) this Thursday on Cox Forum TV at 7 p.m. The show is live and they will take call-ins.
The call in number will be displayed on the air. If you can call in, please do so. The show will repeat in a taped version for about a week."
The City Council met this afternoon to consider a motion that it withdraw from the pro-airport Orange County Regional Airport Authority, OCRAA. The vote split 2-2 on the motion with the 5th member abstaining. Therefore, Fullerton stays put for the time being.
The Times reports on Wednesday, "The swing vote, Councilwoman Jan Flory, said she would vote to drop out of OCRAA if her colleagues didn't also agree to join the anti-airport group--the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority, or ETRPA--for informational purposes. But when no one would vote to do that, Flory did not rejoin the two council members who wanted to drop OCRAA membership. Instead, she didn't vote at all."
"'I wasn't quick enough on the draw. . . . I dropped the ball,' she said after the meeting. That could mean Fullerton may drop out later."
"OCRAA officials lobbied hard to convince the council that it should remain a player." Villa Park recently quit OCRAA.
"'You are known by the company you keep,' said resident Frances Biggs.
'If you remain in OCRAA, you're saying that Fullerton is pro-airport. And
most here are not.'"
"Several proposals to change the boundary lines of Orange County's five supervisorial districts could dilute the clout of South County cities opposed to an El Toro airport. The maps are among a dozen options for district lines to be unveiled Wednesday at a public hearing in Laguna Hills."
"Most of the proposals move political powerhouse Newport Beach out of its South County 5th District. Most also either split Irvine between two districts or move the whole city to another district with cities whose officials back a new airport."
"'I think the motivation from Day One was for the pro-airport majority to reduce South County's representation to one board member,' said Supervisor Todd Spitzer, one of two anti-airport supervisors on the five-member board."
"Some issues, such as approving new leases for the airport, need approval by four supervisors."
"Among those unhappy with Campbell's proposals is [Tom] Wilson, who could find himself representing the entire southern half of the county. He said he'll oppose any map that clusters South County into one district or isolates Irvine from its southern neighbors.
"For board Chairwoman Cynthia P. Coad, the most important factor may be politics--but not the airport kind. Coad, who faces reelection in March, is from Anaheim but has built political and donor bases in smaller northern cities that would move to other districts under many of the proposals."
"'She has five full cities now, and these are cities where she has most of her political strength,' said Coad's husband and office volunteer, Tom Coad. Cynthia Coad also is unhappy with some of the maps that move a portion of Irvine into her district. Doing so would create instant political enemies for Coad, an airport supporter."
"District boundary lines are adjusted every 10 years, based on U.S. census figures. The 12 proposals will be distributed Wednesday at the county committee meeting at 3 p.m. at Laguna Hills City Hall, 25201 Paseo de Alicia, Suite 150."
"Besides Wednesday's meeting, the committee [chaired by James Campbell] will discuss the proposed boundary lines June 14 and make recommendations to the Board of Supervisors on June 20. The board will hold its first public hearing on the boundaries June 26 and will select the final map July 17. An ordinance outlining the new district boundaries is scheduled to be approved Aug. 21."
Editor: With airport opposition today at over 50 percent in North County, it is impossible to create 4 districts in which the residents are pro-airport. However, it is possible to create districts in which the political leaders take a pro-airport stand that is opposed to that of their constituents. That was apparent in the vote on Measure F, where several City Councils opposed the measure even though the residents voted for it.
Supervisor Jim Silva, perhaps mindful that Newport Beach may be moved into his district, will participate in a forum on the "JWA Settlement Agreement and extending the limits." Wednesday, June 6, 6:00 PM at the Riverside Restaurant, 151 E. PCH, Newport Beach with NPB Councilmember Norma Glover and OCRAA Chair Art Bloomer.
Congressman Dana Rohrabacher comes up with every imaginable objection to the anti-El Toro side, including branding opponents as an "odd couple". "There is an unholy alliance at work in Orange County. NIMBY (not in my backyard) Republicans have teamed up with environmental extremist Democrats to orchestrate a well-financed and insidious propaganda campaign."
Rohrabacher's letter is posted in the Early Bird section of the website.
He lists among the benefits of an airport, that is prevents "hundreds of thousands of additional housing units [from being] built in what is now the buffer area." Editor: He asks us to believe that an airport's great benefit is that it pollutes a large area with noise so that it can't be utilized. If Rohrabacher doesn't want more homes, he could push to have the area near El Toro zones for non-residential use even after the airport is gone.
"Worse still, the 'Great Park' could end up just like New York's Central Park--recreational during the day, but a haven for prostitutes, drug addicts and other criminals at night. Build it and they will come." Has he walked at night in the area near LAX lately?
Regarding removal of the runways, whose concrete could be recylced on site, he writes, "For years to come… dump trucks will clog our roads and a gaping scar will mar the heart of our county." Editor: What about those jet fuel trucks?
Website viewer Derek Quinn sent a quick response to the Times, which we've also posted in the Message Board. Post your comments on the board, or better yet, write to the Times.
"The county executive overseeing the proposal to build an El Toro commercial airport has tentatively scheduled a Sept. 4 public hearing for the project's environmental report. On Sept. 18, the supervisors would consider certifying the massive document.
An environmental-impact report's hearing and ... [Board of Supervisors'] final vote usually occur in one day. But because many are expected to testify during the hearing, El Toro director Gary Simon decided on two meetings.
Editor: The hearing, scheduled immediately following the Labor Day holiday, brings to mind the release of the Environmental Impact Report's draft just prior to the Christmas holiday in December of 1999. The timing may cut into airport opponents' opportunity to review the report and prepare comments.
"Des Plaines is considering following the lead of Elk Grove Village by taking its assets out of banks that have declared themselves to be in favor of additional runways at O'Hare Airport. Mayor Tony Arredia said the city's finance department is looking into how much money Des Plaines has invested in four banks that signed a public letter supporting the expansion of O'Hare."
"Elk Grove Village Mayor Craig Johnson became the first member of the Suburban O'Hare Commission to move money, as punishment for the banks' position on O'Hare. As of Friday, Elk Grove had shifted about $4.5 million. Johnson has threatened to move as much as $87 million. [Five other cities] have all expressed an interest in withdrawing money from the banks, whose executives signed [a business group's]… letter backing more O'Hare runways."
Editor: In 1996, Bank of America sent letters of support for El Toro Airport to the County of Orange, presumably at the urging of the Orange County Business Council. The bank has been less outspoken since then, as the airport lost popularity with residents.
On June 5, City of Orange voters will choose between Scott Steiner and Carolyn Cavecche for a vacant seat on the City Council. Cavecche has stated her opposition to an El Toro airport, which will adversely impact traffic near her city, and favors a park.
"Steiner now says he opposes any plan that would bring flights over Orange. Never mind that his father, a former [pro-airport] county supervisor, kicked $15,000 into the Airport Working Group's mail campaign last time around…'We knew nothing about that independent expenditure,' said Frank Caterinicchio, a Steiner campaign advisor. 'If we had, we would have put a stop to it.'"
"'Scott was never on record in support of an airport,' he said. So is Steiner opposed to an El Toro airport? 'I didn't say that,' Caterinicchio said," ducking the question.
Editor: Steiner has been the subject of several newspaper reports about his alleged misuse of county property for personal political purposes during his last campaign. The Los Angeles Daily Journal (a legal periodical) reported yesterday that the State Attorney General has opened an investigation.
"Aloha Airlines is scheduled to launch nonstop service to Maui this morning, the second step in its expansion at John Wayne Airport. The 8:50 a.m. flight to Kahului will be preceded by a party featuring hula dancers and a blessing by a Hawaiian priest, repeating the colorful May 1 launch of the airline's service from Orange County to Honolulu."
"Current fares on Aloha are as low as $421 round trip to Honolulu and $471 round trip to Maui."
Editor: The added service draws attention to the adequacy of John Wayne Airport for meeting O.C. needs - if allowed to do so by Newport Beach and pro-El Toro supervisors, Smith, Silva and Coad. Aloha is using new, quiet airplanes that are not counted under JWA noise control regulations.
The OC Weekly comments, this week, that: "Walk into the main terminal at almost any hour of the day, and you’ll find a lot of vacant seats, empty luggage carousels and bored staff."
For more on the above, check the LA Times and Orange County Register websites.
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