Newport Coast may not share El Toro politics

June Casagrande

NEWPORT BEACH -- Some fear the city could become a house divided on the

issue of airport politics after Newport Coast is annexed Tuesday.

Residents in the unincorporated community who are working with officials

on annexing the roughly 2,600-home area say many in their ranks worry an

airport at El Toro, if it included the V-plan, could mean more noise in

Newport Coast.

“The V-plan would mean flights directly impacting Newport Coast and

Corona del Mar,” said Phillip Greer, an applicant to the Coast Advisory

Committee who fought the annexation. “There are contradictions, and I

want to see how the city is going to deal with that.”

Though the city has taken an official position opposing the V-plan, its

support of El Toro nonetheless looks like a potential threat to

neighborhood quiet. The V-plan would mean one flight path would come

closer to Newport Coast than those now at John Wayne.

Concerns date back to days when annexation was still uncertain: “Without

taking a public position supporting or opposing the [El Toro] airport,

we, like everyone else in this debate are opposed to the establishment of

any airport that would result in flights over the Newport Coast and

Newport Ridge communities,” Newport Coast Committee Chairman Jim McGee

wrote to the city in July.

The committee represents many Newport Coast residents to the city, as

does Greer’s Simple Vote group.

“There’s a flip side to that argument,” said Charles Griffin, a Newport

Beach resident and aviation expert who came up with the V-plan idea. “If

El Toro is not developed and John Wayne is developed, then planes could

come to John Wayne over Newport Coast.”

He explained that increases in flights at the existing airport would

require some to, in effect, make a U-turn over Newport Coast and nearby

areas to land facing the water.

City officials insist that their position on El Toro is good for both

communities.

“You don’t need to think about it long and hard to see clearly that

Newport Beach’s position on El Toro is to the benefit of Newport Coast,

as well as to the rest of the city,” Councilman Gary Proctor said.

The real threat, Proctor said, comes when people throughout the county

act with too little information.

“Fear of the unknown gives people more concern than the fear of the known

-- expansion of John Wayne,” he said. “But what we know about what can

and will happen at John Wayne without an airport at El Toro is worse than

any unknown of El Toro’s creation.”

* June Casagrande covers Newport Beach. She may be reached at (949)

574-4232 or by e-mail at o7 [email protected] .