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HomeMy WebLinkAboutOB 1 J.W. AIRPORT RPT 09-17-90GE�DA DATE: TO: FROM: SUBJECT: SEPTEMBER 17, 19 WILLIAM HUSTON, CITY MANAGER COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT OLD BUSINESS NO. 1 9/17/90 Inter - Com AIRPORT STATUS REPORT - JOHN WAYNE AIRPORT (JWA) PHASE 2 ACCESS PLAN RECOMMENDATION Pleasure of the Council. BACKGROUND AND DISCUSSION John Wayne Airport (JWA) Phase 2 Access Plan covers the operations of JWA for Commercial and Commuter airlines from 1990 through 2005. The City of Tustin has reviewed and commented throughout the public review process which started in 1988. The final access plan was scheduled to be presented to the county Board of Supervisors on September 26, 1990. As part of the preparation of the final plan, interested parties were requested to provide written comments on the final Draft Access Plan, the City's comments were forwarded to the County on August 30, 1990. In our comments we identified four areas of concern that were not addressed in the final draft plan, these same comments were identified to the county in three previous drafts of the plan in 1988 and 1989. The following summarizes the key issues enumerated by the Community Development Department: 1. Term The terms of this plan will be in effect for 15 years, a shorter time frame, such as intervals no greater than five years, needs to be used for re-evaluation of effects during a time period of rapid change in aviation technology and industry with significant changes in noise complaints, fleet mix or proposals for a new airport site triggering a re- evaluation. There should be a review within two years of the Plan Adoption so that it is possible to "fine tune" the plan. 2. Approach Noise "Limits" Establish a maximum Single Event Noise Equivalent Level (SENEL) at monitoring station M5, similar to those established at other monitoring stations. City Council Report Airport Status Report - JWA September 17, 1990 Page 2 3. Peak Hour Restrictions The County should maintain controls to limit the number of operations per hour and that operation should be restricted such that they steadily decrease after 7:00 p.m. This would reduce overflight noise impacts during the sensitive evening/night time hours. 4. All Cargo Operators The August, 1989, Phase 2 Access Plan report describes cargo carriers as older, larger, heavier and noisier aircraft and that cargo operators prefer to conduct operations during night time hours. The Review and comment Draft states that, pending additional environmental documentation and operational information, commercial cargo carriers will be permitted to request an allocation of Class E Average Daily Departure's for their operations. There is however, no discussion of why this would be justified or consistent with the original Environmental Impact Report for the airport expansion. We also believe that limitations on types of cargo carrier aircraft and hours of operation need to be discussed. Subsequent to our submission of comments, we received a letter from Mr. George Rebella, John Wayne Airport Manager, dated August 30, 1990, informing us that the Board of Supervisors took emergency action on August 29, 1990 to adopt the Phase 2 Access Plan. This action took place four (4) weeks prior to the scheduled September 26th meeting where the Board of Supervisors were expected to adopt the Plan. Mr. Rebella noted that although notice of the date change is not required by law, normally the County prefers to give notice to interested parties on possible Board actions related to airport access issues. It appears that the driving force behind the emergency action was to avoid possible FAA review and approval of the JWA Phase 2 Access Plan as a condition of its continued implementation. In his report to the Board of Supervisors, Mr. Rebella, recommended that public comments received during the public comment period, and not addressed in the Access Plan adopted by the Board may be treated as possible amendments to be brought back to Board on September 25, 1990. In addition to the unnoticed "emergency" meeting where the Access Plan was approved, the County has continued to blatantly dismiss our previous comments. Community Development Department City Council Report Airport Status Report - JWA September 17, 1990 Page 3 CONCLUSION It appears there are several courses of action that the City may take which may affect the final implementation of the Access Plan. The Mayor could prepare a letter to the Board of Supervisors, strongly reprimanding their action taken on August 29th, to approve the plan without public input and requesting their action be rescinded. The City Attorney's Office could be directed to conduct an in-depth review of the EIR which was prepared for the Airport Expansion in an attempt to identify areas of non-compliance with the approval Access Plan. Lastly, we could wait and see if the county addresses our comments and incorporates any "amendments" responding to our comments. It is unlikely that this last scenario would be viable due to County previously ignoring our input. Rit Westfield Christine Shing eto Asst. Dir. Community Development Director of Community Development RW:kf/jwaph2.rw Community Development Department