In a publicly-circulated memo dated May 13, 1996, and written to the Orange County Environmental Management Agency, the national Air Line Pilots Association reached an alarming conclusion: The safest way to convert El Toro into a successful commercial airport may be to route the majority of takeoffs to the west of the facility - directly over the homes of most residents of Irvine.
The soothing assurances and political propaganda of El Toro Airport proponents can no longer hide the true facts. The County's Draft Environmental Impact Report and the environmental review process have already revealed that the proposed El Toro International Airport would devastate Irvine and other South Orange County communities. Here are the facts now on the public record:
Thousands Join Fight Against El Toro International Airport
It began in 1994, when a small band of wealthy Orange County land developers spent millions of dollars to barely win passage of an initiative called Measure A. Their goal: to force Orange County taxpayers to build a massive around-the-clock international airport at nearby El Toro Marine Corps Base - an airport that will provide a big pay-off for a few while bringing financial and environmental devastation to Irvine and other South Orange County communities.
That's why Project 99 was founded this past summer. What is Project 99? It is an organization of citizens working to ensure the sensible reuse of the Marine Corps Base at El Toro - the vast 4700-acre land mass that borders Irvine. Project 99 aims to guarantee that when the Marine Corps leaves El Toro - in 1999 - the base will be converted to high-quality non-airport uses. These uses must be consistent with the Irvine General Plan and they must be consistent with the highest standards of environmental protection that have characterized the City of Irvine's development.
Since its founding this past June, Project 99 has drawn support from thousands of Irvine residents. These include voters who cast "Yes on S" ballots in the March 26th election to repeal Measure A, and citizens who have made generous donations to Project 99 - donations that enable us to defend our quality of life.
Irvine residents have good reason to be concerned about the prospect of a new international airport in their backyard. Dating back to the 1970s, Irvine's General Plan has never contemplated development of a commercial airport at El Toro. In fact, all of the city's villages and neighborhoods - Northwood, Westpark, Orangetree, Woodbridge, Deerfield, University Park, Turtle Rock and University Hills - were approved and built based on traffic studies, noise studies, and air pollution and safety studies that assumed the nearby El Toro Marine Corps Base would never be converted to commercial airport uses.
Project 99 is dedicated to the proposition that El Toro should be converted to non-airport uses that will benefit our community, not force economic and environmental burdens on our children and on future generations.
Project 99 is organized into three Task Forces, which draw upon the active participation of informed citizens.
Organizers of Project 99 invite you, your family, and friends to join the effort to preserve and defend our quality of life. Please join Project 99 by becoming a volunteer, by attending one of our neighborhood meetings, and by making a donation to sustain Project 99's work. (Donations payable to Project 99/ Tides Center are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.)
Project 99 is organized into three volunteer Task Forces. All three Task Forces rely extensively on the active participation of informed citizens - the same remarkable citizens who have been instrumental in building Irvine and other successful master-planned communities right here in South Orange County.
Task Force No. 1: Legal Defense and Environmental Review. This Task Force, which already has nearly 100 participants, includes a panel of volunteer attorneys, scientists, public health experts and other citizens skilled in the technical review of environmental documents. Task Force No. 1 is taking the lead in publicizing Project 99's comments and criticisms in response to the County's 10-volume, 5,000-page Draft Environmental Impact Report on the proposed El Toro International Airport. Members of Task Force No. 1 will prepare memorandums, briefs and studies helpful in future litigation. Task Force members will also provide essential testimony at official public hearings and make other public presentations of its findings.
Task Force No. 2: Full-Use of John Wayne Airport. Task Force No. 2 will analyze the feasibility of meeting all foreseeable air travel needs in Orange County through a "full-use" policy for John Wayne Airport. John Wayne Airport currently operates at less than 50% of its full physical capacity and is not expected to reach its full physical capacity until the year 2020 or beyond. Task Force No. 2 will prepare and publish a comprehensive report in 1997.
Task Force No. 3: Alternative Uses for El Toro. Task Force No. 3 will involve hundreds of citizens working to bring about sensible non-airport uses for the Marine Corps Base at El Toro. Citizens who volunteer for Task Force No. 3 will participate in official and unofficial "brainstorming" sessions to study and recommend alternatives uses for the 4700-acre base at El Toro, for example: college campuses; a "railport" for modern train systems including a countywide monorail; arts and entertainment facilities; sports arenas; and a vast 2000-acre agricultural, open space and wildlife preserve that could be part of a magnificent Orange County Central Park.
This Task Force might also initiate a conceptual design competition that could spark nationwide and even worldwide interest in a master plan for El Toro - a master plan for development, for open space preservation, and for later annexation as part of the City of Irvine.
An Appeal for Help. Concerned citizens are invited to participate in Project 99 in two specific ways: (1) by volunteering to serve on a Task Force, and (2) by making a tax-deductible contribution of $25, $50, $100 - or whatever you can afford - to help this vital effort succeed. Project 99 is the best investment you can make in protecting and improving our shared future.
On March 26, 1996, more than 70 percent of voters in Irvine, Lake Forest and other South Orange County cities cast "Yes on S" ballots to block development of an international airport at the nearby El Toro Marine Corps Base.
Although the anti-airport Measure S was defeated countywide - primarily through the financial efforts on the part of wealthy land developers along with voters in North Orange County and Newport Beach - other South Orange County residents are standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Irvine citizens in their opposition to El Toro International Airport.
A recent statement released by concerned residents of nearby Leisure World exemplified this concern over construction of a huge, around-the-clock commercial airport. "For approximately 18,000 elderly, retired residents [here] who voted more than 9 to 1 against a commercial-cargo airport March 26, the airport proposals crafted by county planners spell disaster - destruction of our quality of life and our property values which typically represent lifetime savings."
The statement goes on to echo a sentiment felt by thousands of Irvine citizens: "How can a vote of a North County resident not directly impacted by a local planning issue have the same weight as a vote of a resident living directly under a flight path of a proposed international airport?"
Citizens of Three Arch Bay Homeowners Association in South Laguna are similarly concerned about the negative impact of a commercial airport at the El Toro site. A letter from the Three Arch Bay executive director to the El Toro Redevelopment Authority reported that this "community of approximately 500 homes with assessed values in excess of 230 million dollars [has] reason to believe . . . property values will be negatively affected by an international airport. This use would, in effect, be inverse condemnation of [our] properties."
These reactions elicited from various South County neighborhoods show that Irvine residents are not alone in their concerns over the environmental destruction threatened by development of an international airport at El Toro.
Project 99, founded in Irvine, is of course open to all Orange County residents who share our determination to see the Marine Corps Base at El Toro converted to sensible, non-airport uses.
Project 99 is on the move!
On October 15, 1996, on behalf of Project 99, it was my honor to transmit to the Orange County Board of Supervisors a 141-page document which we have since entitled In Defense of Our Community. This remarkable document includes comments and questions - 1,568 questions - challenging the County's proposed El Toro International Airport and the deeply flawed Environmental Impact Report (EIR) that accompanied it.
In Defense of Our Community was the product of Project 99's Task Force on Legal Defense and Environmental Review. More than 50 citizen volunteers - environmental planners, scientists, aviation experts, teachers, physicians, lawyers and journalists - reviewed the El Toro Airport Environmental Impact Report. They raised the most profound questions about the environmental devastation an airport would bring: noise from around-the-clock overflights, huge increases in automobile traffic and air pollution; serious threats to public health and public safety; and destruction of wildlife, agriculture and irreplaceable open space.
By law, County officials must answer the questions we've raised. If they don't, then Project 99 may have to join with others to file a major lawsuit in 1997 to compel the County to obey state environmental laws and prepare a complete and truthful EIR.
On request, a copy of In Defense of Our Community will be mailed free of charge to Project 99 donors. (See the reply form on page 4.)
Good news. As Voluntary Chair of Project 99, I am proud to announce our affiliation with the Tides Center, a duly registered public charity nationally recognized for its work to promote healthful and environmentally secure communities. With this affiliation, all donations to Project 99 / Tides Center are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.
For more information contact:
Project 99, PMB # 147, 5319 University Drive, Irvine,
CA 92612-2935
Telephone: 714-554-5410
