Top 10 List
Things you can do to kill the El Toro International Airport

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“Shake your chains to earth like dew/Which in sleep had fall’n on you,” wrote Shelly in Masque of Anarchy, “You are many--they are few.” Take Shelley’s words to heart! Don’t let the county’s impending El Toro PR campaign take the day! Here are our suggestions on how everyone can strike at the county’s international airport plans.

10. File a property tax reassessment
We’ve all heard the sob stories from developers about local governments “taking” their property through rezoning. Well, isn’t dropping a loud, obnoxious international airport in your city an assault on the value of your property? Don’t let the county sap your property values without lowering your tax payments. Send your requests to Orange County Assessor, P.O. Box 149, Santa Ana, CA, 92702.

9. Check out the El Toro Information Website
According to Peggy Ducey, Newport Beach’s executive director of all El Toro boosterism, the pro-airport lobby “is losing the battle at the federal level because South County is flooding every office involved in this process with letters, faxes and visits.” It’s a good bet many of those letter-writers got their ideas from www.eltoroairport.org--Dana Point resident Len Kranser’s online arsenal. There you can get names and addresses of local, state and federal officials, along with a sample letter and suggested newspaper article attachments. And while you’re there, check out the latest El Toro-related meeting schedules. Read digests of the latest El Toro news stories. Judge the potential noise, traffic and pollution from El Toro for yourself. See video interviews with county Supervisors Todd Spitzer and Tom Wilson. Have a ball, and keep sending those letters.

8. Get a copy of Dave Kirkey’s CD Under The Flight Path
Here’s where you can start making real mischief. Kirkey, who runs Eagle Canyon Music and lives in Coto de Caza, made a CD of aircraft arrivals at John Wayne and LAX. If you listen to the CD at a normal conversation level, you can get a realistic demonstration of El Toro’s potential noise. But don’t keep all that fun to yourself--share the CD with people you know will appreciate it. People like George Argyros, the airport’s chief bank-roller. Sail out to his Harbor Island home and play it for him. But don’t stop there--the Orange County Business Council and the Newport Beach City Council love airplanes just as much. You can get the CD for free by writing to Project ’99, P.O Box 252, Irvine, CA 92650.

7. Send Supervisor Chuck Smith a dime
First District Supervisor Smith is easily the most vocal airport proponent on the county board. He supports allowing cargo flights while the Marines are still in control of the base, despite objections by the Marines and Congressman Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach). He finds no problem with the county’s El Toro Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR), despite a San Diego Superior Court judge’s ruling that the document is “misleading.” Why does the former Westminster mayor want an airport so much? Perhaps the $20,000 he took from George Argyros and airport proponents in last year’s campaign is the reason. Don’t let Argyros put yet another supervisor in his hip pockets! Buy Smith back! At a dime per person, that means just 200,000 people need to contribute to beat out Argyros.

6. Carve the words “John Wayne Forever” into the Newport sand
Show how much you miss the Duke, and how sad you’d be if the county ever had to close the airport that honors his name. Newport Beach Mayor Thomas Edwards says we must have an El Toro International Airport because John Wayne “is a 470 acre airfield with no more ground space to grow.” Other El Toro boosters have said John Wayne can never meet the county’s international passenger demand. Really? Where is the Environmental Impact Report that says so? In fact, the county has undertaken no officials studies on the feasibility of expanding John Wayne’s runways. Any legitimate discussion of meeting future air passenger and cargo demand must start by examining existing county facilities. So get out to Newport Beach and let the good residents know how you feel--in six-foot letters.

5. Tell ETRPA what you want
A key weapon in the fight against El Toro is a better reuse plan than the county’s airport. The El Toro Reuse Planning Authority (ETRPA) only has until April 3, 1998 to devise their plan. Give them ideas on how to turn the El Toro airstation into something everyone in the county can cherish. Do you want a high-tech research complex? Or a 1,500 acre park? How about a pedestrian-friendly downtown? Unlike the county, who pretty much discounted all the comments sent them on the DEIR and reuse plan, ETRPA assured us that they will listen. Send your comments to El Toro Reuse Planning Authority, 23161 Lake Center Drive, Suite 100, Lake Forest, CA 92630.

4. Support anti-airport candidates and officials
There’s no shortage of these in the South County. Third District Supervisor Todd Spitzer’s public grilling of County CEO Jan Mittermeier and El Toro Program Manager Courtney Wiercioch should be the model for the other supervisors. North County opponents have been rare--until now. La Palma City Councilman Paul Walker is eyeing the 4th District, and former Costa Mesa Mayor Sandra Genis wants to knock 2nd District Supervisor Jim Silva off the board. If she and Walker win, the board will have the votes to kill the airport.

3. Stay off the toll roads
The proposed El Toro International Airport and the new toll roads are results of the same force: mad developer greed. In the 1980s, the developers had great housing tracts planned all over South County, but precious few highways to serve them. So they took their grievance to the county. Their solution is our political nightmare--tax revenues buttressing toll roads of dubious value. Toll road usage numbers are already 51 percent below expectations. Now finish the job--starve the toll roads of all revenue. Force the county Transportation Corridor Agencies to tear out its hair trying to keep the roads alive, and maybe the county will think twice about eternally granting developers their wishes. The San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor will cost the county $5 billion--$4.6 billion more than county officials projected a decade ago. Now who wants to gamble on the airport?

2. Attend LRA and County Board of Supervisor meetings
Although El Toro officials are always quick to “encourage” public attendance, the county’s power-brokers shudder at the prospect of a hearing chamber packed with “crazies” (read taxpayers, citizens, voters, etc.). But people should pack the chamber as often as possible. Although the Board only meets every three months to act as the El Toro Local Redevelopment Authority, there is time reserved at the end of every weekly meeting for public comments on any subject. We know the meetings are booooooring, and it’s scandalous that only one meeting a month is held at night, but there’s no reason for a meeting to go by without a couple dozen residents asking to be heard on El Toro. The board meets every Tuesday in the Board Hearing Room on the First Floor at 10 Civic Center Plaza in Santa Ana.

1. Think for yourself.
This is the most dangerous, subversive suggestion. It involves the agonizing exercise known as critical thought. Every time you read or hear someone say that the county needs El Toro or that El Toro will be a silent, quiet neighbor, ask the following questions. Why is it that the most energetic El Toro boosters come from Newport Beach, which has been fighting John Wayne expansion for decades? Why is it that developers, who stand to make billions over the next century from El Toro, are its greatest fans? Why is the so-called El Toro “Citizens Advisory Commission” stacked with former county officials and developers, most notably George Argyros himself? How can the county be doing a good job planning the El Toro airport if a superior court judge ruled that their DEIR minimized noise, traffic and pollution impacts? Keep asking those questions, and when it comes time to vote on the airport again, you’ll know what to do.

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