South County sees no victory in V-plan

Deirdre Newman

NEWPORT-MESA -- Opponents of an alternate airport at El Toro lambasted

plans to get a new initiative on the November ballot as “a waste of time

and money.”

On Friday, the Committee for Safe and Healthy Communities criticized

the V-plan initiative as sour grapes over the success of Measure W, which

passed in March, changing the zoning at the former Marine base from

aviation to park use.

The V-plan calls for realigning the runways into a “V,” with flights

departing to the southwest near Newport Coast and landing over the

mountains to the north of the former Marine base.

“Let’s not get wrapped around the V-plan axle,” said Bill Kogerman,

committee chairman. “We need to give this some serious thought before it

really gains, if it were to ever gain, momentum.”

V-plan supporters quickly came to the initiative’s defense,

Robert McGowan, a member of the New Millennium Group, which is leading

the effort to get the initiative on the November ballot, charged the

V-plan is a safer, more viable option than the county’s version that was

rejected when voters approved Measure W.

“They threw the baby out with the bathwater because the right way to

fly it, which is far, far superior, was never given to people as a

choice,” McGowan said.

And while the committee complained that the Federal Aviation

Administration has refused to study the plan, McGowan said the agency’s

hands were tied because it could only analyze designs provided by the

airport operator -- which was the county’s version.

The V-plan is in a crucial stage as supporters are in the midst of

gathering about 72,000 signatures to qualify for the November ballot.

McGowan said that while the process has just begun, V-plan supporters

already have “quite a few signatures.”

In March, the plan gained the endorsement of the Orange County

Regional Airport Authority, which encompasses 14 North County cities,

including Newport Beach and Costa Mesa.

Additionally, Charles Griffin, a Newport Beach engineer and the chief

developer of the V-plan, maintains the FAA has already given its blessing

to the V-plan through comments in an environmental report for the

county’s proposal.

“The director of the Southern California Air Traffic Controllers said

that the V-plan was the obvious, safest and most efficient plan,” Griffin

said. “And the western regional administrator of the FAA has said that

the county’s plan is like driving the wrong way on the freeway.”

Newport Beach has chosen not to support the V-plan because it would

direct planes close to the newly annexed Newport Coast and jeopardize the

limited expansion at John Wayne Airport that the city is delicately

negotiating with the county.

The V-plan calls for a freeze on the number of planes and passengers

allowed to use John Wayne Airport.

V-plan supporters were also on the defensive Friday in response to a

county poll released by an anti-airport group that showed 61% of

respondents opposed any future airport at El Toro.

The poll, sponsored by the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority, also

found that 51% of residents in the 2nd Supervisorial District, which

encompasses Newport Beach, Costa Mesa and six other cities, a portion of

Garden Grove and three unincorporated area, oppose an airport.

The poll was conducted now to counter the momentum of the V-plan after

the North County cities endorsed it, said Meg Waters, spokeswoman for the

authority.

Proponents of the V-plan were quick to dismiss the poll as biased and

lacking credibility because it was done by the reuse authority, which

opposes any airport at the base.

El Toro Reuse Planning Authority officials maintain they opposed the

county airport at El Toro because it directed flights over some of the

cities the authority represented.

“Of course, you have to decide what kind of an airport they’re talking

about,” Griffin said. “If it was the county’s airport, that’s probably

right. If it’s an appropriateairport that utilized the 53,000 acres for

approaches and departures into the prevailing onshore wind, I think

you’ll have a large percentage of people say that’s the only place in the

county that makes sense for an airport.”

The poll, conducted between April 2 and Tuesday, included 750 Orange

County residents. It also asked respondents about alternatives for air

travel.

Most preferred Long Beach, Ontario and better use of John Wayne

Airport, the results said.

* Deirdre Newman covers education. She may be reached at (949)

574-4221 or by e-mail at o7 [email protected] .