Editor’s Notebook:

This corrects an earlier version.

Time has healed many of the wounds inflicted during the divisive El Toro airport debate of the 1990s and early 2000s.

Evidence of that came by way of Irvine Mayor Pro Tem Larry Agran, who addressed the Airport Working Group’s annual meeting this week at the Balboa Yacht Club in Newport Beach.

You read that right.

An official representing the strongest of El Toro airport foes — Irvine City Hall — crossed into Newport Beach, the strongest of El Toro airport supporters.

When he received the invitation to speak before the group, Agran quipped, “I wasn’t sure if it was some kind of joke or a trap.”

It was neither. The invitation was an olive branch extended by the AWG to a respected opponent on an issue that once divided Orange County like the Mason-Dixon line.

For those who weren’t around then, Irvine and many South County cities strongly opposed the idea of building an international airport at El Toro — the site of the old Marine Corps air base — while Newport Beach and many of the North and West County cities concerned with growth forecasts at John Wayne Airport, supported it.

There was intense debate. There were ballot measures and lawsuits.

But eventually the El Toro airport plan lost out to the Great Park concept.

The reason El Toro airport proponents and opponents can now work well together, Agran explained, is that the debate “never got personal” and was conducted with dignity.

Agran’s speech was well received by the AWG members, largely because it eschewed past problems and focused on what the Irvine mayor called the cities’ common goals: reducing air traffic by diverting more flights to Los Angeles and the Inland Empire; moving toward rail and shuttle buses to get people out of their cars; cleaning up the region’s air; and continuing to build a regional park that everyone hopes will indeed be great.

“We have so many common challenges and opportunities to work together for a better Orange County community,” Agran said.

Agran is also a proponent of a high-speed rail that can shuttle passengers to the Bay Area in as little as three hours. More than half of the flights out of Orange County are to destinations 400 miles or fewer away, and Agran believes trains can become an attractive alternative to flights out of JWA.

Though the El Toro debate is safely in the rear-view mirror, airport issues remain a continuing concern in Newport. And the AWG meeting also set aside time to discuss growth forecasts at JWA and the slight adjustments to take-offs and landings that can reduce the impact of noise on Back Bay and other Newport residents.

Chapman Law School Professor Mario Mainero, who is the airport assistant to county Supervisor John Moorlach, delivered a passionate speech about keeping the settlement agreement in place that restricts JWA’s uses beyond its expiration date for passenger limits in 2015 and curfews in 2020.

Doing so, he said, is “essential to preserving quality of life in our community.”

JOHN CANALIS is editorial director for the Daily Pilot, Laguna Beach Coastline Pilot and Huntington Beach Independent. He can be reached at (714) 966-4607 and [email protected].