A closer look -- Does Newport Beach need to give on El Toro?

Alex Coolman

Todd Spitzer wasn’t pulling any punches at last week’s meeting of the

Orange County Board of Supervisors: “The people of my district,” he said,

“want a quid pro quo.”

The 3rd District supervisor was referring to swapping political

favors. In exchange for supporting an extension of flight caps at John

Wayne Airport, South County residents want Newport Beach to ease up its

push for an airport at the former El Toro Marine Corps Air Station or at

least agree to limit potential flights at the location.

Spitzer didn’t get much cooperation at the meeting from Newport Beach

Mayor John Noyes, and his vote demonstrated his dissatisfaction.

Spitzer cast one of two “no” votes Tuesday that sank Supervisor Tom

Wilson’s proposal to start the environmental work connected with

extending John Wayne flight caps.

No quid, no quo, no dice.

But the clock continues to tick. In 2005, the caps that were placed on

daily departures and flight times in 1985 will expire.

And as frightening as the idea of working with other parties might be,

the prospect of more flights into John Wayne is one that fills many a

Newport-Mesa heart with terror.

The Board of Supervisors plans to reconsider the question of the cap

extension Dec. 5, and the question looms: Is there a way Newport Beach

can come out on the winning side?

TIME AFTER TIME

The supervisors who shot down the flight cap extension were Spitzer,

Cynthia Coad and Jim Silva, with Coad abstaining from the vote and

Spitzer and Silva voting no.

Coad and Silva said they simply hadn’t had time to review the proposal

and didn’t want to cast uninformed votes on a complicated question.

To some, such as Wilson, this hesitation seems overshadowed by the

short time remaining before the caps expire.

“If we don’t start early enough, you won’t make that 2005 deadline,”

he said.

But Barbara Lichman, who heads the political action committee for the

Airport Working Group, which supports the construction of the El Toro

airport, said concerns about the complexity of the issue are very real.

In principal, Lichman said, her group is strongly in favor of

extending the flight caps at John Wayne.

But the deal that Wilson and the Newport Beach City Council seem to be

pushing for, she said, leaves her cold.

“Wilson looks like a good guy,” Lichman said. “But what he’s doing is

ephemeral. It has no substance, either legally or politically.”

The problem, she said, is that a few people seem to be trying to

hammer out a cap extension without consulting all the parties involved.

The Airport Working Group, which was a signatory to the 1985

settlement agreement, has not participated in the new drive to extend the

limits.

Airline companies, whose commerce stands to be affected by the caps,

so far have not been part of the process either.

Lichman said the exclusions mean a potential settlement extension

could be vulnerable to legal challenges.

The Federal Airport Noise and Capacity Act, passed in 1990, limits the ability of municipalities to impose noise and access restrictions on

airports.

Lichman said the law could be the basis for a legal attack on flight

cap extensions at John Wayne, depending on the way the extensions are

created.

“We can work out what we feel to be a fair deal,” she said. “But the

people who are affected have to be involved.”

THE SOUTHERN VIEW

While El Toro advocates tweak Wilson for his efforts, South County

residents, oddly enough, seem to be able to view him with a certain

amount of charity.

“I think Tom Wilson is trying to do the logical thing here” in his

efforts to extend the caps, said Larry Agran, mayor-elect of Irvine.

But Agran’s mellow outlook may have to do with his sense that a future

with no El Toro is growing more likely as time passes.

“If in the final analysis the grand resolution is no airport at El

Toro and the extension of the limits at John Wayne Airport for a long,

long time to come, that strikes me as the consensus agreement that people

should be going for,” he said.

NEWPORT WRANGLING

Moving toward that goal -- if it requires moving away from a pro-El

Toro position -- is something that Noyes explicitly rejected at Tuesday’s

meeting.

Both Noyes and Wilson have argued that the issues of John Wayne and El

Toro should be regarded as politically separate.

But while Noyes was quoted in the media for saying “the short answer

is no [concession on El Toro],” he typically speaks about the issue in a

way that is more moderate than the sound bite suggests.

“I don’t think we can insist” on the separation of the treatment of

the airports, he said. “The two issues are totally intertwined.”

In recent months, Noyes said, Newport Beach has negotiated with South

County cities in a way that he thinks has lessened polarization.

“We’ve sort of struck a relationship that says, ‘We think El Toro is

an option. We hear that you think there are other options, and we’re

willing to look at those and begin a dialogue.’ ”

Noyes is aware that the strongest El Toro advocates will be angered by

this moderation, but he argues that the time remaining has grown too slim

for more dogmatic options.

“I admit we’re walking a fine line here,” he said. “But we’re really

trying to get back to a point where we realize that we’re all citizens of

the county.”

FYI

The Newport Beach City Council will discuss proposed flight cap

extensions at John Wayne Airport at its meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday.