Supervisors to discuss extending airport caps

Mathis Winkler

SANTA ANA -- Orange County’s supervisors may begin discussing an

extension of the flight caps on John Wayne Airport next week.

Supervisor Tom Wilson, who requested Tuesday that the issue be brought

up at the next meeting, said he and his colleagues had to get moving

because the current flight limits will expire in 2005.

“It’s high time we started talking about this,” Wilson said.

He added that an approval by supervisors to begin discussions would

allow Newport Beach city officials to meet with the county’s planning

department and start working on the necessary environmental documents.

In August, the Newport Beach City Council voted to ask the Board of

Supervisors to get involved in the fight to extend the restrictions at

the airport for another 20 years.

The original limits -- which set a strict curfew as well as

restricting the number of flights and passengers at the airport -- were

put in place by a 1985 settlement agreement.

“If [Newport Beach] would like to take a lead, if they’d like to pay

[for the environmental documents], I’m going to ask the board to consider

that,” Wilson said.

He added that previous talks with other supervisors had revealed that

his proposal had a good chance to succeed.

“I’m optimistic,” Wilson said. “I have had some positive feedback and

hope that that will continue.”

Wilson made it clear that a “yes” vote by supervisors to begin talks

on the issue will not mean they endorse the extension of flight limits.

“It’s way too early for that,” he said. “That’s a decision in the

process that will take place much later.”

Also, the move would not affect proposals for an airport at the former

El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, said Wilson, who represents both

Newport Beach and South County cities -- rivals in the battle for a

second airport in Orange County.

“The problem with John Wayne Airport is that the settlement agreement

expires in 2005,” he said. “El Toro is on a much more extended course and

will go way beyond 2005.”

Members of the Newport Beach-based Airport Working Group, which is

fighting to stop expansion at John Wayne, have said in the past that they

would support city and county efforts to block growth at the airport. At

the same time, the group has insisted that there should be an airport at

El Toro.

Dave Ellis, the group’s spokesman, could not be reached for comment

Tuesday.

Officials for the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority, which opposes

airport plans for El Toro, said they support maintaining the limitations

on John Wayne Airport.

“I think it’s certainly not anything that [the authority] is going to

oppose,” said Meg Waters, a spokeswoman for the authority. “But it’s

really not our issue. Our issue is, ‘No El Toro airport.’ ”

Waters added that Measure F -- which requires two-thirds voter

approval for airports, jails and landfills and was approved by county

voters in March -- could also help to prevent an expansion of John Wayne

Airport.

The Airport Working Group is one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit

challenging Measure F. Should the measure be upheld in court, the

two-thirds majority requirement would make it more difficult to build an

airport at El Toro.