City, county sign off on new JWA agreement

June Casagrande

City Council members on Tuesday approved a plan to allow more

passengers and gates at John Wayne Airport in exchange for assurances

that airlines won’t sue to overturn caps.

“This reflects the best possible agreement we could obtain in the

real world,” City Councilwoman Norma Glover said.

The county, which like the city is a party to the original lawsuit

that resulted in the settlement agreement, also approved the changes

Tuesday.

The Board of Supervisors’ vote, along with the Newport Beach City

Council approval, paves the way for the last step to assuring an

extension of the agreement to 2015: a letter from the Federal

Aviation Administration.

If the FAA sends a letter stating that it believes the settlement

agreement extension is in compliance with federal law, local leaders

could rest assured that no legal challenge could overturn the

agreement.

The deal was struck in meetings between the city, county, the

Airport Working Group and Stop Polluting Our Newport.

Those four groups agreed that, in exchange for the airlines’

blessings, they would add 1 million more passengers a year over a

10-year period and two more gates at the airport to the proposed cap.

In discussing an extension of the JWA settlement agreement, the

four groups had agreed to allow up to 9.8-million passengers a year

and 18 gates. The latest compromise would increase those caps to 10.8

million and 20 gates. The current curfews would remain in tact until

2020.

Under the original deal struck in 1985, the airport was capped at

8.4-million passengers per year, with 73 of the noisiest flights and

14 gates. Two cargo flights were added later.

In meetings between county officials and the Air Transport Assn.,

the latter group agreed to urge the FAA to support the settlement

agreement extension.

At Tuesday’s council meeting, several residents said they were not

happy with the deal. One said the city must continue to fight for an

airport at El Toro. Another warned that the modified agreement would

allow continued erosion of Newport Beach’s quality of life.

City officials said that they would prefer tighter restrictions,

but agreed that the extension was the best the city could

realistically hope for.

“We would not recommend any modifications to the settlement

agreement unless we were convinced that those changes would not

adversely impact residents,” Glover said.

* JUNE CASAGRANDE covers Newport Beach and John Wayne Airport.

She may be reached at (949) 574-4232 or by e-mail at

[email protected].