Like a majority of Orange County residents polled in UCI’s 2000 OC Annual Survey, I am against a commercial airport at El Toro. I am also against any expansion or increased flights out of John Wayne. Fortunately, Measure F provides safeguards.
The truth is nobody desires to live under the flight path of a large commercial airport. JWA’s caps and restrictions will be lifted in 2005 and the clock is ticking. Unless they hope El Toro will lead to the closure of JWA, those honestly wishing to prevent any possibility of expansion should accept South County’s frequently offered “olive branch” and support former Newport Beach Mayor Tom Edwards’ proposal before it’s too late.
Only by working together in good faith can we preserve our quality of life and protect our communities from becoming “LAX South”!
Sergio Prince
Laguna Hills
The county’s justification for spending $34 million on planning a destructive and un-needed El Toro airport: It’s only 1% of the $3.5 billion land valuation! I guess we can thank God that the feds didn’t want to give us something worth $3.4 trillion!
The independent UCI poll, together with the massive yes vote for Measure F, ought to cause Smith, Silva and Coad to admit that the El Toro airport is a dead horse, regardless of the outcome of F in the courts. They should concede to the will of the people, or face recall.
Michael Smith
Mission Viejo
With the recent events and complexity of planning a modern airport built around an existing, somewhat archaic air station that has ruffled the feathers of the South County ETRPA representatives and local officials, it is no wonder people are not supporting the airport.
For this reason, a poll like UCI’s annual survey is simply ineffective and means little. Ask a thousand people if they would like to see an end to all pollution, crime, increased population, traffic, etc. and the response would be 100% yes. However, reality dictates that we live on planet Earth not Disneyland, and we as a whole must plan for the long term and provide for our generated responsibilities, positive and negative.
In the case of El Toro, a better poll would be to ask the people if they prefer an airport that impacts their community or an airport that does not impact their community. Fortunately, there is a choice. Unlike every other airport in Southern California, only El Toro has a vast amount of non-developed and non-noise-sensitive open-space corridors surrounding the facility. In fact, there exists a 3-mile-wide non-developed southwest corridor which could easily accommodate two flight tracts into the facility without impacting a single existing resident!
The second key poll would be to ask the people if they think preserving this southwest corridor from noise-sensitive development to allow for a safer, quieter El Toro airport is more important than overdeveloping and building thousands more houses there.
Save your time, really there is only one person to ask such a question of: Don Bren, owner of The Irvine Company.
Russell Niewiarowski,
The New Millennium Group
Santa Ana Heights
