SOUNDS FROM THE SOUTH

AT ISSUE: South County residents respond to airport proponent Tom

Edwards’ Community Commentary (“South County needs to show good faith,”

Dec. 21).

I live directly under the proposed flight path (Runway 34) and could not

believe the noise level during the June 4 and 5 flight demonstration.

A smaller airport at El Toro is not an option. Restrictions won’t be

implemented, in case you haven’t heard. Suggested “restrictions” have not

been endorsed by the Federal Aviation Administration or the airlines. If

El Toro goes in, we, along with many others, will be forced to move. That

is the bottom line. During the flight demonstration, some Anaheim Hills

residents also learned the truth about El Toro. It’s a bad deal for many

of us.

Maybe the county could have pulled this off 20 years ago, but there are

now thousands of us living under the proposed flight paths. The county

seems to have no problem deciding to place an airport in an area where

the affected residents don’t want one.

MIKE BARON

Aliso Viejo

The “scaled down” airport proposal as structured is significantly flawed

in the assumption that there will be nighttime curfews employed, similar

to John Wayne Airport. As usual, the north Orange County cities, along

with the three majority county Board of Supervisors, are still not

listening to the only governmental agency that can impose such

restrictions -- the Federal Aviation Administration. And they have made

it quite clear, on numerous occasions, that it is their policy to not

allow those restrictions. This policy was specifically adopted in

response to the restrictions imposed at John Wayne Airport and the

resultant complaints from the airline industry. Short of congressional

action to mandate a curfew, a prospect that is highly unlikely,

proponents of such a proposal continue to pipe dream.

As a former longtime Newport Beach resident who now resides in south

Orange County, I am as opposed to an expansion of John Wayne Airport as I

am to a commercial airport at El Toro. It is extremely unfortunate that

Newport Beach and Costa Mesa took the environmental brunt of an expanded

John Wayne, imposed on them by the county Board of Supervisors at the

time, and now live with the aftermath. But two wrongs do not make a

right. It is time for Newport Beach and Costa Mesa to get on board with

working with South County on alternative solutions to a regional airport

system utilizing existing, full-capacity airports in Riverside and

Ontario, communities that have welcomed airport expansion.

Those options are there, and if Newport Beach and the other North County

cities can get beyond “the politics,” then maybe the win-win solution can

be achieved.

GARY THOMPSON

Rancho Santa Margarita