Keeping JWA on the radar

From time to time, the opinion pages of Orange County newspapers are

dotted with letters penned by holdout veterans of the El Toro airport

wars. Only rarely now are they followed by bemused rebuttals from

those who won their Great Park.

Persistence is admirable, but only to a point. Eventually it

becomes pitiful.

That aside, what’s to become of John Wayne Airport over the next

20 years and beyond is an entirely different matter, and one that’s

far from settled. It’s on this front that the energy of El Toro

airport advocates would be better spent.

Costa Mesa’s elected leadership -- previous city councils were

booed for their passive engagement in the El Toro struggle -- would

do well to pay attention too. The danger is complacency. Here’s why.

In 1985, the county of Orange, the city of Newport Beach, Stop

Polluting Our Newport and the Airport Working Group entered into a

settlement agreement limiting the number of passengers John Wayne

Airport could serve to 8.4 million each year. It also capped the

number of daily departures of the nosiest commercial aircraft at 73.

The agreement -- originally set to expire at the end of this year

-- was amended in 2002, paving the way for expansion of John Wayne

Airport. Extended through 2015, the amendment bumped the annual

passenger limit to 10.3 million, increasing to 10.8 million

passengers beginning in January 2011. To boot, it OKs boosting the

daily departures limits of commercial aircraft from 73 to 85. And, it

bumps the number of terminal gates by 6 to 20.

This expansion of John Wayne Airport isn’t just a vision out there

in the ether. The Orange County Board of Supervisors has begun work

to mobilize the Settlement Amendment Implementation Plan, a

five-year, $436-million capital improvement blueprint whose

components include expanding the terminal facility west to the

intersection of MacArthur Boulevard and Campus Drive and the addition

of the six additional gates. The county has already issued a request

for qualifications to manage the implementation of the plan. It’s

also close to beginning construction on additional apron capacity for

parking jets overnight, as well as on a new maintenance facility.

While these imminent expansion moves are important to keep on

Costa Mesa’s radar screen, it’s the looming specter of what John

Wayne Airport could become beyond 2015, when the settlement amendment

expires, that should be capturing the city’s attention. That’s

because the settlement amendment does not override the county’s

Airport System Master Plan, the long-range planning scheme for the

eventual build-out of John Wayne Airport that was ratified by the

Board of Supervisors in October of 2001.

The Airport System Master Plan contemplates two options for the

build-out of John Wayne Airport known as Alternative F and

Alternative G.

Alternative G is the real monster; an ambitious build-out plan

that would create capacity for 25 million annual passengers.

Alternative G envisions the extension of runway 19R east to the San

Diego Freeway (405) and west to the Corona del Mar Freeway (73).

Also, it expands the geographic footprint of the airport north to

Redhill Avenue between the 405 and Bristol Street, and south, taking

out everything north of MacArthur Boulevard between the 405 and

Jamboree Road.

Both alternatives represent significant potential effects in Costa

Mesa. It behooves Costa Mesa’s leadership to take a seat at the table

as the specter of John Wayne’s expansion draws near. Ideally, that

seat should be on the Orange County Airport Commission, the Airport

Land Use Commission or both.

* BYRON DE ARAKAL is chairman of the Costa Mesa Parks and

Recreation Commission. Contact him at [email protected].

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