Newport takes next step in JWA plan

June Casagrande

A three-man committee created by the City Council on Tuesday will

explore ways the city can play a bigger role in some county

functions, including possibly managing John Wayne Airport.

The council voted unanimously on Tuesday to create a Sphere Issues

Committee to begin looking at ways the city might expand its role in

the airport, administration of tidelands in and around the city,

environmental protections at the closed Coyote Canyon Landfill, and

Santa Ana Heights redevelopment.

“We really don’t know what to expect at this time,” said

Councilman Steve Bromberg, who as a member of the city’s Airport

Issues Committee helped conceptualize the plan.

The idea is for city officials to begin talks with county

supervisors and perhaps other county officials to discuss ways that

city involvement in these county operations could prove mutually

beneficial. At their last meeting in November, the council agreed to

direct staff to draft a letter to send to county officials asking

them to begin talks. On Tuesday, they completed the second step in

the process by creating the committee.

The original plan was to appoint members of the original Airport

Issues Committee -- Councilmen Bromberg, Tod Ridgeway and John

Heffernan -- to the new committee. But Heffernan stepped down Tuesday

from the airport committee. Councilman Steve Rosansky is the third

councilman on the ad hoc committee.

The committee’s meetings will not be held in public.

County Supervisors Tom Wilson and Jim Silva have said that they’re

willing to hear the city out. But whether they will support the

city’s goals of increased involvement remains unclear.

The city’s plan is fourfold. Management of the Coyote Canyon

Landfill appears to be the most straightforward. The county now

maintains the closed landfill which produces potentially hazardous

methane gas, to ensure public health and safety. City officials think

they might be able to do this more efficiently and with Newport Coast

residents’ interests an even higher priority.

City leaders also have their eyes on county-owned tidelands within

Newport’s borders. Managing those areas, particularly the Back Bay

and Newport Dunes, would give the city more power over such items as

applying for federal grants and could allow the city to take over the

county’s Harbor Patrol functions.

Controlling Santa Ana Heights would give the city power over the

Santa Ana Heights Redevelopment Agency. The agency is extremely

lucrative. It brings in about $3.7 million a year over and above

what’s needed to pay off its own debt. Partly as a result, the agency

has about $35 million sitting in the bank.

Though that money is earmarked specifically for Santa Ana Heights

improvements, it could also present some opportunities to spread the

wealth citywide. For example, some money set aside to build a fire

station to serve Santa Ana Heights might also benefit the rest of the

city because that fire station would likely also serve a portion of

Fashion Island.

The final piece to the puzzle is potentially the biggest:

controlling John Wayne Airport.

Were the city to have power there, it could handle any airport

expansion and be the sole negotiator for any future settlement

agreements about the airport’s operation.

The airport is also an extremely solid operation.

In 2002, the airport cost $59 million to run and brought in $76

million in revenue, for a roughly $17 million operating income. The

income goes into a reserve, which as of June 30 had accumulated to

nearly $39 million.

* JUNE CASAGRANDE covers Newport Beach and John Wayne Airport. She

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

[email protected].