HomeMy WebLinkAboutS22 - El Toro Reuse Planning Process - Airport Master Plan EIRCouncil Meeting: 09 -28 -98
Agenda Item: s22
CITY OF NEWPORT BEACH
OFFICE OF THE CITY ATTORNEY
September 25, 1998
TO: Mayor and Members of the City Council
FROM: Robert H. Burnham, City Attorney
RE: El Toro Reuse Planning Process
Airport Master Plan EIR
As you know, the Orange County Board of Supervisors is currently planning for the
reuse of El Toro MCAS. The Board has directed staff to prepare an Airport Master Plan,
and related Environment Impact Report (Master Plan EIR). The Board has also selected
a preferred project (Alternative C) and has been presented with a list of project
alternatives that would be analyzed in the Master Plan EIR. Two of these Alternatives
involve significant expansion of John Wayne Airport (Alternatives F and G). Supervisor
Wilson, who is opposed to a commercial airport at El Toro, has said he will ask the Board
to delete Alternatives F and G. While it may seem that elimination of these Alternatives
would benefit the City, special airport counsel and I believe Supervisor Wilson's action
could hurt the City by creating a potential flaw in the reuse planning process.
The City Council has consistently supported the conversion of El Toro to a commercial
airport as a component to a two airport system. The preparation of a legally adequate
EIR is essential to a successful conversion of El Toro. The California Environmental
Quality Act (CEQA) requires the County to evaluate, in the Master Plan EIR, a reasonable
range of alternatives to the project. CEQA also requires the County to evaluate a "no
project" alternative which in this case means studying the impact of no civilian reuse of El
Toro. Opponents of a commercial airport at El Toro filed a lawsuit challenging the first El
Toro EIR and special airport counsel and I believe the deletion of these alternative would
be a major argument in their next lawsuit.
The inclusion of these Alternatives in the Master Plan EIR does not present a threat to
Newport Beach or other cities impacted by JWA. These Alternatives, which assume no
commercial aviation reuse of El Toro, are "secondary alternatives" which will not be
studied to a project level of detail and could not be implemented without preparation of a
Memorandum
Mayor and Members of City Council
RE: El Toro Reuse Planning Process /Airport Master Plan EIR
September 22, 1998
page 2
master plan and another EIR. Further, these alternatives can not be selected under
Measure A unless there is a fatal flaw in the airport master plan.
Accordingly, I have prepared a letter expressing the Council's opposition to deletion of
these Alternatives and the Council's concerns about the position Supervisor Wilson has
taken on El Toro. I recommend the Council authorize the Mayor to sign and send the
letter.
H.BURNHAM
RHB:krs
Enclosure
F: \users\ cat \s ha red\ccme mo \C C De leteAlte rn F &G. doc
September 28 "', 1998
The Honorable Tom Wilson
Fifth District Supervisor
Orange County Board of Supervisors
Hall of Administration
10 Civic Center Plaza
Santa Ana, CA 92701
Re: El Toro Reuse Planning Process
Airport Master Plan EIR
Proposed Deletion of Alternatives F and G
Dear Supervisor Wilson:
The Newport Beach City Council has been advised that you intend to propose
deletion of Alternative F and Alternative G from the Draft Environmental Impact
Report (DEIR) being prepared in conjunction with the El Toro Airport Master
Plan. These two alternatives describe what could happen at JWA if the LRA
does not approve an El Toro Airport Master Plan. We want you to know that we
oppose deletion of these alternatives or any other action on your part that could
affect the legality of the environmental or planning process.
We are opposed to any deletion of these Alternatives because they are important
to a legally adequate EIR that, in turn, is essential to approval and
implementation of the Airport Master Plan. CEQA requires the Master Plan EIR
to evaluate "alternatives to the project or its location" as well as evaluate the
impacts of "what could reasonably be expected to occur in the foreseeable future
if the project were not approved ". The City Council believes the expansion of
JWA is almost inevitable if El Toro is not converted to a commercial airport.
Accordingly, the Master Plan EIR must evaluate JWA expansion scenarios and
the impacts associated with a reasonably foreseeable increase in operations at
JWA.
In our opinion, the deletion of Alternatives F and G will not decrease the potential
for expansion of JWA. The Alternatives are not going to be studied to a "project
level" of detail and could not be implemented without preparation of an airport
master plan and another environmental impact report. More importantly, these
Alternatives are premised on a non - aviation use of El Toro, which assumes a
non - existent "fatal flaw' in the airport plan. Deletion of these Alternatives from
the Master Plan EIR does not protect us from proposals to expand JWA. That
protection comes only from approval and implementation of a commercial
aviation reuse of El Toro — a result that requires a legally adequate Master Plan
EIR.
As you know, the City Council is on record in support of the preferred project
(Alternative C) which calls for a two- airport system with JWA serving 9.5 MAP.
We are willing to accept the additional impacts of a limited increase in service
level at JWA even though our residents do not have the advantage of an 18,000
acre "no home zone" as protection from noise impacts. The County, as the
proprietor of JWA has done an outstanding job in making that airport community
friendly and we appreciate your commitment to work with us to ensure a
continuation of noise restrictions after expiration of the JWA Settlement
Agreement.
While the City Council believes your desire to protect us from expansion of JWA
is sincere, any such commitment is meaningless in the absence of a commercial
airport at El Toro or an alternative site. In the past twenty years, two
comprehensive airport site studies (by the Blue Ribbon Committee and the
Airport Site Coalition) have failed to identify any feasible alternative to a
commercial reuse of El Toro. Airport opponents have made numerous
suggestions and have paid a consultant to evaluate "six existing" airports
(including JWA) and "nine existing or recently closed military airports" (including
Los Alamitos) to determine if they are viable alternatives to El Toro. We have not
seen the results of this analysis Orange County but recent suggestions strongly
suggest the consultant failed to find a feasible alternative. For example, airport
opponents are now touting March AFB as the site to serve Orange County air
cargo demand but ignore the distance from cargo customers and the expense of
constructing necessary infrastructure. Camp Pendleton is frequently mentioned
by airport opponents as an alternative site but there are no plans to close that
facility and the cost of constructing a new airport would far exceed the costs of
converting El Toro. In the absence of a feasible alternative, your active
opposition to a commercial aviation reuse of El Toro is the main threat to
Newport Beach residents — not Alternatives F and G.
In conclusion, we ask that you not propose the deletion of Alternatives F and G
and that you acknowledge the threat to Newport Beach posed by your efforts to
oppose conversion of El Toro to a commercial airport.
Thomas Cole Edwards
Mayor, Newport Beach