County planners release new airport review

Paul Clinton

NEWPORT-MESA -- As far as rewrites go, this one was a killer.

Slightly more than a year after a Superior Court judge blasted Orange

County’s environmental review for a commercial airport at the closed El

Toro Marine base as inadequate, county officials involved in the process

said Tuesday they have fixed the glitches.

A supplement to the county’s environmental review released Tuesday is

the most in-depth on record, County Planner Bryan Speegle said.

“What we have, in my opinion, is the most advanced and thorough

environmental analysis of any airport in the United States,” Speegle

said. “It goes beyond the [environmental review of] LAX.”

Officials said the supplemental report puts a cap on Environmental

Impact Review No. 573, first released in December 1999.

The report offers several additions to the county’s environmental

documentation -- an in-depth review of air pollution created by the

proposed airport, further delineation of traffic effects and the fleshing

out of a smaller airport plan.

Plans for a 28.8-million annual passenger international airport at the

base stalled after South County cities fighting the airport successfully

challenged the county’s environmental analysis.

Officials who have pushed for an airport, including Newport Beach City

Council members, said they welcome the conclusion of the county’s nearly

decade-long review, which began in the mid-1990s.

Delays caused by the South County lawsuits put the brakes on the

review, as well as the Navy’s plan to hand over the 4,700 acres to the

county.

“I’m glad that it’s out,” Newport Beach Councilman Gary Proctor said.

“The bad news is it’s two years late.”

Before the base can be turned over, the Board of Supervisors must

approve EIR 573. That won’t happen until the county circulates the

supplemental report for a mandatory 45-day public review.

South County civic leaders said they would probably not challenge the

latest report. Instead, they are putting their efforts into a ballot

measure they hope to present to voters in March. If approved, it would

pave the way for a central park at the base.

“The only way the county will tell the truth about El Toro is if we

take them to court,” said Meg Waters, spokeswoman for the South County

group fighting the airport.

County planners considered 12 alternatives to an airport at El Toro,

one of which included South County’s Millennium Plan, which called for a

business center at the base.

For more than a year, Supervisor Cynthia Coad has said an airport at

the base should not be larger than 18 million annual passengers.

Airport supporters have acknowledged the need to scale down their

earlier airport plans, after last year’s overwhelming passage of Measure

F, which would require a two-thirds vote for approval of any new airport,

jail or landfill.

Proctor and others said the scaled back plan will garner more support,

an opinion South County officials don’t share.

“It’s not gathering any steam,” Waters said. “The more they dumb down

the airport, the less credibility they have.”