A closer look -- Heading in for a landing

Paul Clinton

JOHN WAYNE AIRPORT -- Almost two years after embarking on an extension

of flight restrictions at the airport, Newport Beach leaders appears to

be nearing the end of the road.

Orange County Supervisors are poised to approve an agreement Tuesday

between the city, county and two activist groups to push back the

expiration of the flight limits for another dozen years.

While they haven’t sealed the deal, supervisors offered broad

endorsements of the package back in February.

As city leaders reach the end of one path, another has risen to meet

them. With a team of lobbyists at their disposal, Newport Beach and

airport officials plan to work the channels of influence with

congressmen, the airline industry and the Federal Aviation Administration

to secure broad support for the agreement.

However, it may not be smooth sailing, even if county supervisors

endorse the deal on Tuesday. An influential airline trade group has

spoken out against the settlement, saying only the FAA can grant flight

restrictions.

“It’s in everybody’s best interest that this deal be approved,”

Newport Beach City Atty. Bob Burnham said. “It’s fair to say that the

only approval we think we need is the city, county and the two other

settling parties.”

Newport Beach’s City Council is also scheduled to vote Tuesday on a

deal that would extend the 1985 settlement agreement.

That deal, which came out of lawsuits filed against the county by

Newport Beach, imposed a cap on flights and passengers, limits on noise

levels and other ceilings on flight operations.

Two community groups that led the charge against expansion at John

Wayne in the late 1970s and ‘80s, and were co-signers to the initial

agreement, have already endorsed the extension.

The Airport Working Group and Stop Polluting Our Newport have already

signed the agreement, Burnham said.

THE PRESENT AND THE PAST

The package of flight limits heading to the City Council and board on

Tuesday hasn’t changed much in recent months.

The new restrictions, expected to result in a modest increase in

flight activity, are set to go into place on Jan. 1, 2003, three full

years before the previous agreement is set to expire.

Replacing the prior settlement deal, the new limits would allow the

county to step up the noisiest daily flights from 73 to 85, the number of

gates from 14 to 18, the annual passenger limit from 8.4 million to 9.8

million and cargo flights from two to four.

Newport Beach leaders also hope to extend the mandatory nighttime

curfew five more years to 2020.

Under that curfew, first put in place in the late 1960s, departures

are allowed from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 8 p.m. to

10 p.m. Sunday. Arrivals are allowed from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday

through Saturday and 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday.

For the better part of 2001 and this year, city officials have worked

to build support to extend the settlement agreement.

Council members Norma Glover and Dennis O’Neil, City Manager Homer

Bludau and Burnham have been shopping the deal all over Orange County.

On more than one occasion, Glover said she has exceeded her monthly

cell phone allowance of $200, sometimes by double, to network with key

decision makers.

“You just can’t go out on your own and be strident and put these

things together,” Glover said. “You have to have patience.”

Bridging a county divide

South County cities once at odds with Newport Beach about an airport

at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station readily supported it.

“From South County’s perspective, I think there’s a unified front,”

said Laguna Hills Councilman Allan Songstad. “We are on record as

supporting it.”

Cities laying under the airport’s flight path are also standing in

line to support the deal. Those “corridor cities,” as they are known,

include Costa Mesa, Orange, Tustin and Santa Ana.

With flights beginning to fan out over eastern Costa Mesa, Mayor Linda

Dixon said the extension offered a good deal for her city.

“I want to keep John Wayne Airport as close to the size it is now,”

Dixon said. “I don’t want to see growth beyond what’s imposed in the

settlement.”

With county supervisors and Newport Beach’s council set to approve the

deal, the city has already begun lobbying efforts in Washington D.C.

In May, the council hired William Lowery for $25,000 a month to draft

and implement a plan to convince a resistant airline industry and silent

FAA about the benefits of the deal.

Also in May, the council hired California Strategies, which is run by

former Irvine Co. executive Gary Hunt. For $30,000 a month, Hunt is

assisting the city’s longtime airport attorney Steve Pflaum as a

consultant.

Still, there are problems floating in the future.

The Air Transport Assn., in a Jan. 7 letter, called the extension

“fundamentally flawed,” leading some officials to worry about a future

lawsuit.

“Unless we get an agreement with the FAA and the airline industry,

this settlement agreement is meaningless,” Costa Mesa Councilman Chris

Steel said. “If we don’t, they’re likely to sue to increase the flights,

which would be very detrimental to the city of Costa Mesa.”

* Paul Clinton covers the environment, John Wayne Airport and

politics. He may be reached at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail ato7

[email protected] .