Airport proponents firm in their challenge

Paul Clinton

NEWPORT BEACH -- Airport boosters facing an uphill legal fight to

overturn Measure W say they will prevail despite criticism of their

challenge by legal experts.

Their confidence is rooted in a successful campaign to dethrone

Measure F, the 2000 initiative that overwhelmingly passed at the polls.

The comparison isn’t made lightly. Attorneys in the pro-airport camp

say they have even crafted their challenge of Measure W on similar

arguments in the earlier case. And they have added others.

“We’ll take this one down just like we took the last one down,” said

Barbara Lichman, the executive director of the Airport Working Group.

“There are a lot of constitutional issues.”

The Orange County Regional Airport Authority filed the suit with the

working group and Citizens for Jobs and the Economy.

Nine North County cities, including Costa Mesa but not Newport Beach,

have joined the fray.

The groups filed a suit in Orange County Superior Court on Monday and

say they’re also considering a federal challenge.

Legal experts, however, don’t seem to share Lichman’s optimism about

the suit’s prospects.

“I think it’s basically a political lawsuit,” said Peter Reich, who

teaches environmental law at Whittier Law School. “This is a last-ditch

attempt by people who want the business advantages of having an airport

there.”

The lawsuit attacks Measure W, which passed on a 58% margin, on a

number of fronts.

The suit challenges Measure W’s fundamental tenant -- the rezoning of

the base from aviation to open space. The initiative would invalidate

1994’s Measure A, which established airport zoning at the base.

El Toro backers say decisions about the base are exempt from the

initiative process, which may sound odd given Measure A. But they say

several developments since that vote have changed the rules of the game.

In 1996, former Assembly Speaker Curt Pringle sponsored a bill that

named the Board of Supervisors as the entity with the power to drive the

base reuse process.

Also, the state Court of Appeal, in a Jan. 1 decision about the

validity of Measure F, said the state Legislature “intended to delegate

the exercise of local legislative authority exclusively to the local

entity’s governing body, thereby precluding initiative and referendum.”

But the argument loses steam, Reich said, because of the election of

Fullerton Councilman Chris Norby to the Board of Supervisors. His

addition to the board on Jan. 1 will shift the board to a 3-2

anti-airport majority.

“Now that the board majority has changed, that’s a moot point,” Reich

said of the challenge. “There may even be an argument that it could be a

frivolous lawsuit. It’s a dead horse.”

* Paul Clinton covers the environment and John Wayne Airport. He may

be reached at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail ato7

[email protected] .