Airport study a long process

Paul Clinton

JOHN WAYNE AIRPORT -- A scathing letter from an influential airline

trade group has raised the possibility that officials negotiating the

extension of flight restrictions here might need to complete an

exhaustive study.

An attorney with the Air Transport Assn. criticized Orange County’s

environmental review of the extension deal in a letter sent to the county

Monday.

Association attorney Katherine Andrus said airport officials would

need to mount a Part 161 study, a three-year review of the effect of the

proposed restrictions on interstate commerce.

Having to complete that study easily could foil city efforts to nail

down an extension before the March 5 election on a Great Park for the

closed El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

The Part 161 study, created in 1990 when a federal law was enacted

prohibiting airports and cities from imposing curfews and other such

restrictions, is essentially an application to the Federal Aviation

Administration for the measures.

“Aviation is a federal domain,” FAA spokesman Mike Fergus said.

“Anything that impedes aviation, we need to look at, yea or nay . . .

People may want [the restrictions], but they can’t impose them locally.”

Newport Beach leaders who are negotiating with Orange County to extend

the 1985 settlement agreement said they admittedly disagreed with Andrus’

letter.

Newport Beach Councilman Gary Proctor said the 1990 law, known as the

Airport Noise and Capacity Act, doesn’t apply to John Wayne.

The settlement deal was, in effect, granted an exception at the time

because it predated the law.

“The bigger issue is do we need the FAA’s approval and the airlines’

approval,” Proctor said. “We don’t believe we do. . . . It just doesn’t

apply. We have a grandfathering provision.”

Late last year, Newport Beach’s Rep. Chris Cox tried to attach a

trailer to an aviation security bill that would have eased the way for an

extension. He was unsuccessful.

The Part 161 process is fraught with peril. Officials at Burbank

Airport, hoping to secure an overnight curfew similar to the one in place

at John Wayne, began one on July 15, 2000. The study is still almost two

years from completion.

“It’s going to be a very thorough process and a very scrutinized

process,” Burbank Airport Commissioner Charles Lombardo said. “You have

to be very precise in your analysis.”

* Paul Clinton covers the environment and John Wayne Airport. He may

be reached at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail ato7

[email protected] .