JWA will keep curfew, increase passengers and flights as O.C. approves new regulations

An extension to a legal agreement that makes Orange County’s John Wayne Airport one of the most tightly regulated commercial airports in the nation cleared a major hurdle Tuesday as county supervisors voted unanimously to approve it.

“It seems like the day I was elected, it was like, ‘Let’s work on this settlement agreement,’” said Supervisor John Moorlach, whose district includes the airport. “It’s been a long process, but I’m pleased with the results.”

The current agreement, which resulted from a 1985 legal settlement aimed at curbing the airport’s noise effects on the community, is set to expire in 2015.

The extension comes after years of closed-door negotiations among the four settlement parties (two Newport Beach residents groups, the city of Newport Beach and the county) and a months-long environmental review process. It will keep in place the airport’s strict flight curfews until 2035 — a victory for Newport Beach residents who have long fought to limit noise from jets roaring over their homes.

However, it also allows yearly passenger and flight caps to grow starting in 2021.

Because the county was allowed to grandfather in its airport regulations after the 1990 passage of the Airport Noise and Capacity Act, which essentially made it impossible to impose new airport curfews, negotiators had to strike a careful balance.

Though Newport Beach residents have pushed hard to keep passenger and flight caps at their current levels, officials cautioned that the airport must be allowed to grow or community members would risk having those regulations thrown out altogether.

At Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting, a string of Newport Beach officials thanked county officials for their partnership in crafting an agreement that Councilman Keith Curry called a “great compromise.”

He added that their approval was an important step in maintaining the quality of life in communities countywide that lie in the airport’s flight paths.

Supervisor Todd Spitzer, whose district encompasses cities under the airport’s arrival corridor, said that although the airport is an economic driver for the county, “I’ve never taken the position that Newport Beach should absorb the expansion of John Wayne Airport.”

The curfews, he said, are key to keeping that from happening.

John Wayne’s noise-based curfews prohibit commercial departures and arrivals before 7 a.m. Mondays through Saturdays and before 8 a.m. Sundays. Departures are prohibited after 10 p.m. daily, arrivals after 11 p.m., except in emergencies.

According to the extension agreement, a cap on annual passengers would stay at 10.8 million through 2020. In 2021, though, the number would be bumped up to 11.8 million, effective through 2025.

In 2026, the cap would be subject to another increase, based on whether the airport’s actual traffic hits a “trigger” level of 11.21 million annual passengers in any year from 2021 to 2025. If traffic hits that level, the passenger cap would increase to 12.5 million annually between 2026 and 2030. If not, the cap would rise to 12.2 million.

Starting in 2021, the number of passenger flights would increase from an average of 85 daily departures to 95.`

The agreement will go once more before the Newport Beach City Council, which has already voted to approve its terms. Then it will go before a U.S. District Court.