Will it fly?

Susan McCormack

Despite the perception that Supervisor Cynthia Coad’s proposal for a

downsized El Toro Airport may have slipped off the radar screen, Coad

said Wednesday she is setting up a committee of North and South county

residents to consider the idea.

Since Coad’s proposal surfaced in late September, the board has yet to

vote on it or put out new campaigns endorsing a smaller airport, leading

some to wonder if it has been disregarded as an option.

Under the proposal, until 2010, the new airport would serve only domestic

flights, no more than 18 million passengers a year and be subject to the

same noise and departure regulations as John Wayne Airport. The board had

previously agreed to an airport that would accommodate 2020 passenger

projections.

“The proposal definitely hasn’t been dismissed,” said James Campbell,

assistant to Chuck Smith, chair of the Board of Supervisors. “It

definitely has merit. [2010 is] the logical stopping point for this

board.”

Federal legislation would have to be enacted for the curfew and other

restrictions to apply, but Congressman Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach)

said in a September letter to the Airport Working Group that he is

“working for a countywide consensus on new federal legislation to

authorize curfews and noise controls at any Orange County airport.”

Campbell said the board of supervisors will probably not vote on Coad’s

proposal until an environmental impact report on El Toro is finally

approved by the board in May.

Coad agreed. “We are not going to interrupt the process of the

[environmental report],” she said. “But if we don’t start some

conversation ... it will just progress to the 2020 project.”

Meanwhile, Coad said she is in the process of setting up an advisory

committee comprising North and South county residents -- although she

didn’t say who -- to focus on her proposal. She said she expects the

group to begin plans for meetings in the next 30 days.

Coad has said she hopes her proposal will help create dialogue between

North and South county officials. Antiairport forces have called the

proposal a sign that pro-airport forces are losing their battle.

If the board agrees to cut off operations at El Toro to 18 million annual

passengers until a future board deems more loads necessary, it won’t be

the first time the plan was modified in hopes of improving public

perception.

Since the four main El Toro options were unveiled in May of 1998, the

county has:

* agreed to a mid-size airport with dense commercial and office

development surrounding it

* eliminated the largest option

* scrapped the first plan in favor of the second-largest airport option

* and wiped out all proposed development surrounding the runways in favor

of green space.

All of these moves were made during key times for the opposition -- when

the non-aviation Millennium Plan was introduced and heavily marketed in

the county, and after polls showed antiairport sentiment was gaining

steam among county residents.

Coad’s proposal comes after South County successfully launched its Safe

and Healthy Communities Initiative drive for the March ballot.

Supervisor Tom Wilson was not vocal when Coad first announced her idea,

but recently said he believes the proposal is a “farce” because it

basically stops at the second phase of four in the county’s airport plan

and leaves it to future board members to decide the fate of the airport

-- which may be exactly the same as what the existing board is proposing.

“I am greatly disappointed at yet another shallow attempt to skirt around

an open, fair process in order to push an airport past an unwilling and

unreceptive public,” Wilson said, adding that the board must be

“desperate” to consider a smaller airport plan.

Pro-airport forces, including the Newport Beach-based Airport Working

Group, are supporting Coad’s proposal despite their previous assertions

that the county desperately needs international service and the capacity

to serve up to 28 million annual passengers.

Campbell asserted that the board is not giving up on the idea that a

larger airport serving international passengers may one day be at El

Toro.

“Demand is demand,” Campbell said, referring to projections that more

than 20 million passengers will need to use Orange County airports in

2020. “The nice thing about stopping at 2010 is that a future board can

update demand figures.”