Orange County Register, Editorial,
December 19, 1997
From the Register web site at http://www.ocregister.com
Flying blind at El Toro?
In a pattern that might actually diminish the chances that a commercial airport ever gets created at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, some airport supporters persist in trying to push the project forward at a speed that outpaces the mechanics of sound and evenhanded study of all the options.
First, there was the Board of Supervisors' initial vote last year designating an airport the "preferred" use -- even though the impact studies that had been accomplished by that point were only of a very general nature.
Then there was the county's long-running refusal to sanction an examination of alternative, non-aviation uses for El Toro by the entities with the most incentive to produce a credible comparison report -- the cities of South County that oppose an airport and therefore would likely search diligently for a solid alternative. The county at length relented to the logic that says only honest, open-minded planning should underlie the project, and gave its blessing to a non-aviation-use study.
But now, the careful balancing in that approach is in danger of being upset by airport supporters who have raised the possibility of commercial cargo aircraft being introduced to El Toro even before the departure of the Marines in mid-1999.
A county issue report exploring this possibility was commissioned by the El Toro Citizens Advisory Commission, a panel appointed by the supervisors and arguably dominated by airport supporters. The Board's vote this week to receive and file that report, while in itself implementing no policy, raised alarms among airport skeptics and opponents concerned that the county, or any affiliated organizations, would be giving any consideration at all to El Toro cargo flights on such an accelerated timetable.
Such an initiative, coming before the completion and approval of detailed environmental-impact studies relating to an airport -- and before the non-aviation-use study out of South County -- would be disturbingly premature and, ironically, might contribute to public cynicism regarding an airport project.
Such an initiative might justifiably be perceived as an effort to establish a fait accompli at El Toro before planning inquiries are complete. If, to the contrary, the underlying concern is about the need for greater cargo-shipping capacity in the county -- as Supervisor Chuck Smith suggested -- why not first examine John Wayne Airport and the possibility of accommodating more cargo there? The board has certainly not displayed a great sense of urgency on this front in the past; it was only after a prolonged consideration earlier in this decade that the board voted to allow one flight each by UPS and Federal Express out of John Wayne.
Safety considerations, as it happens, make it unlikely that commercial cargo flights would be allowed alongside military aircraft. To be sure, Marine Col. Jim Ritchie of the El Toro command recently told the Register that while joint use is not advisable, there might be flexibility during the five- or six-month period between the time the military aircraft are expected to be out and the final departure of the Marines in 1999. However, Rep. Chris Cox's 1989 legislation -- restricting, on safety and security grounds, civilian air service at El Toro while the Marines are still present -- complicates the issue.
The best strategy for the county and for airport supporters in the private sector is to abandon consideration, however hypothetical, of staking a cargo claim at El Toro before the planning process has run its course.
Our own tenacious hope is that a market-oriented logic will prevail, in which the business community worldwide would be canvassed for possible projects and uses. Even if that ideal is unlikely to be realized, a relatively even-handed comparison of an airport with alternatives is still possible -- but only if the county makes a determination to let it happen and forswears initiatives that can give the public suspicions that the fix is in.