Newport awakens to ‘the controversy’

Stacy Brown

NEWPORT BEACH-- When more than 300 residents jammed the Newport Beach

Central Library for a question and answer session on the proposed El Toro

airport, the prevailing thought was: “Where have you been?”

At least, that’s what meeting organizers said they were thinking.

Although several years have passed since plans for a commercial airport

at the now closed Marine Corps base first developed, Newport Beach

residents had remained quiet about their position, which was assumed to

have always been in favor of the airport.

City Council meetings have come and gone with pro-airport groups

receiving five- and six-figure grants and other funding in an effort to

ensure that El Toro would be converted to a commercial airport.

Yet, residents were still reluctant to exercise their lungs and speak up.

Then, several lawsuits arose, prompting the city to spend hundreds of

thousands of dollars as the mayor and council struggled to build momentum

for El Toro.

Residents remained, at best, timid in their support of their elected

officials and the airport issue.

Anti-airport groups, led by South County politicians and residents, began

popping up everywhere. Still nary a peep from Newport Beach citizens.

Last month, county officials held flight demonstrations at El Toro to

prove -- although not to anti-airport activists -- that noise would not

be a factor for nearby residents. Unlike the planes, Newport Beach

residents remained relatively silent.

The base officially closed and the Marines departed in July, leaving

behind acres of open space and a thoroughly tested site for various

aircraft.

Throughout the silence, City Hall officials said they knew they had the

backing of the overwhelming majority of Newport Beach residents. They

just didn’t know how passionate residents were.

That is until their Congressman, Republican Christopher Cox, got

involved.

During the Fourth of July weekend, Cox signed the Safe and Healthy

Communities Initiative, which would kill chances for an airport at the

base.

The floodgates, if not the runways, opened wide.

“That was the catalyst,” Newport Beach Mayor Dennis O’Neil said. “If

there was one positive that came out of Cox signing that initiative, it

was that it was helpful in making people more aware of the issue.

“I feel he should not have signed it, but, as it turned out, it served as

a catalyst.”

Airport Working Group Director Bonnie O’Neil echoed the mayor’s thoughts

and added that the signing woke residents to the possibility that John

Wayne Airport could expand, while El Toro might never happen.

“What I heard is that a lot of people assumed that since the planning was

well underway, El Toro was a done deal,” O’Neil said.

“They didn’t understand that there was a possibility that an airport at

El Toro may not happen at all,” she continued. “But the (passion) started

when Chris Cox signed the initiative and that forced people to start

asking more questions in which they didn’t like the answers to.”

So when city officials and the Airport Working Group called for a town

meeting at the library’s conference room, residents came out in droves.

As the mayor stepped to the podium to address the large gathering, O’Neil

opened up two side doors at the library to create a little elbow room for

the cramped audience, who appeared to hang on every word that was said

last Thursday.

And although he was not present, Cox was given the credit for the turnout

and awakening the passion that is now prevalent all over Newport Beach.