Newport can veto airport growth

A groundbreaking pact between Newport Beach and Orange County would give the city veto power if the county ever tries to build a second commercial runway at John Wayne Airport.

After months of negotiations to get here, city officials are eager to go ahead. But a seemingly small provision about an equestrian trail could raise noisy opposition to the deal.

The airport issue is the key element of the agreement, but it also provides for a cooperative study of how best to manage Upper Newport Bay, looks at how city and county services are administered in the harbor, allows the city to develop — but not own — a park site at Mesa Drive and Birch Street in Santa Ana Heights, and says the county won’t object if the city nixes plans for an equestrian and bike trail near the Back Bay.

The City Council will consider the pact Tuesday, and Orange County supervisors are scheduled to discuss it Nov. 17.

The so-called sphere-issues agreement — issues touching Newport’s sphere of influence — has been in the works since December 2003. It has included a variety of city-county topics, most of which dropped out in the course of the discussions, but the airport has always been the centerpiece.

The airport now has one commercial runway and one runway for general aviation. Airport operations are governed by a legal settlement agreement that caps the number of flights and passengers, and limits future expansion.

The sphere-issues pact won’t affect the settlement agreement, which lasts through 2015, Newport Beach City Manager Homer Bludau said.

But if the county tries to acquire land or otherwise plan for a second commercial runway, Bludau said, “We get to vote it up or down, and they will respect our decision.”

There are no current plans for a second runway, but the idea is particularly threatening to Newport because it would mean not only more flights, but flights over more parts of the city, Bludau said.

And 15 or 20 years from now, when flights out of Los Angeles and perhaps other Southern California airports are capped, there could be more pressure on John Wayne Airport, he said.

The new agreement would also let the city block county attempts to lengthen the existing commercial runway to accommodate larger aircraft.

Newport Beach City Councilman Tod Ridgeway, who began pushing a comprehensive agreement with city officials four years ago, said he has talked with the airport “corridor cities” — Tustin, Irvine, Costa Mesa, and others — and expects them to support the pact.

Costa Mesa City Manager Allan Roeder, who only got a copy of the agreement Friday and hadn’t reviewed it in detail, said the overall goal of limiting expansion of the airport “is totally consistent with Costa Mesa’s objectives, and to the extent that this agreement gets us closer to that, we would feel that’s great.”

But one provision of the pact may gum up its progress. The trail in Santa Ana Heights is in the development plan for that area, and the council already faced an angry crowd in May when the issue came up as part of the discussion of the city’s general plan.

Some residents, namely a contingent of equestrians, want to see the 1,400 feet of trail built. But others, including those whose homes border the city-owned stretch slated to become a trail, say it’s unnecessary and would hurt their property values.

Trail supporters will likely protest the agreement’s provision that would let the city ax plans for the trail.

Barbara Venezia, who chairs a committee that represents Santa Ana Heights residents to the city and county, said the trail issue doesn’t belong in this agreement and only ended up there through special-interest lobbying.

“We’re not looking to stop this agreement,” Venezia said. “We just want them to take out the trail portion.”