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HomeMy WebLinkAboutOB 1 AIRPORT STAT RPT 11-19-90DATE: NOVEMBER 19, 1990 WILLIAM A. HUSTON, CITY MANAGER Qel COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT FROM: OLD BUSINESS NO. 1 11-19-90 Inter - Com SUBJECT: AIRPORT STATUS REPORT - COALITION FOR A RESPONSIBLE AIRPORT SOLUTION (CRAS) RECOMMENDATION Receive and file. DISCUSSION CRAS - Kathy Weil, our City representative for CRAS, attended a workshop on the High Desert International Airport (Adelanto). A copy of her report on that workshop is attached. Kathy's report also gives a status update on the Orange County Cities Airport Authority (OCCAA), formerly the ICAA, the Organization pushing for the commercialization of the E1 Toro site. i a Wes field Asst. Dir. of ommunity Dev. CAS: RW: kf/airp. rw Attachments: Memo from Kathy Weil Christine Shi gleton Director of Community Development MEMO TO: TUSTIN CITY COUNCIL FROM: KATHY WEIL RE: CRAS UPDATE To begin with, I would like to thank you, on behalf of CRAS, for approving the $1000 donation. It will be put to good use, I assure you. Though there was a bit of a hiatus in CRAS activity over the summer months, the organization has now resumed its former hectic pace. As before, most of this has centered around our "friend", from Newport Beach, Ken Delino and his entourage. To refresh your memory Ken created the OCCAA (Orange County Cities Airport Authority) and appointed himself as its Director. Ron May of Santa Ana, one of the member cities, is President of the group, but Ken is its actual spokesman. He is trying very hard to have OCCAA become THE Airport Authority in Orange County and, to the uninitiated, he has been marginally successful. (Remember, Ken's ultimate goal is the utilization of El Toro as a full commercial airport, with the downsizing of John Wayne to minimize its impact on Newport Beach.) CRAS' legislative aide, Sam Rake (on loan from the City of Irvine), has done an outstanding job of tracking Ken to keep tabs on his activities. According to Sam, though Ken has made a lot of contacts and received grant money from various legislative bodies, he seems to be having some trouble making any real headway. On the other hand at the Southern California Regional Aviation/ Transportation Workshop in Ontario, held on October 15, that I and several other CRAS members attended, Ken and his "groupies" presented themselves with great authority and credibility. This conference, which I will elaborate on later, was set up to answer some questions about the feasibility of converting the soon-to-be closed George Air Force Base in Atalanto to a commercial airport. Ken spoke, as the Director of Orange County Airport Authority, about Los Angeles County wanting to establish a new airport at Palmdale, which would interfere with the financial viability of Atalanto. He has tried to torpedo Atalanto as a viable solution to Orange County's air transportation needs, every chance he gets. The reason he sounds credible at times is that the information he gives contains half truths. In this case he failed to mention the extensive county plans for a high speed rail to connect this area with Atalanto. Ken's most recent effort at convinc- ing the community that El Toro is the ONLY airport solution is a series of presentations on what Ken feels are the three alternative airport sites. The presentation on Atalanto, which by the way was very poorly attended, was held in late October. The presentation on El Toro will be held in the Irvine City Council Chambers in late November or early December (I'll let you know the exact date). Obviously, CRAS will be in attendance, as well as on the panel of experts. It'll be interesting to see how Ken handles this. CRAS has a group of real experts on El Toro. These are some of the same people who defeated Ken on the Airport Site Coalition. A third meeting will be held to determine the feasibility of Christianitos (another site, near San Clemente, that won't work either). Though this effort of Ken's looks quite legitimate on the surface, he is using a "divide and conquer" approach here, pitting south Orange county against north Orange County because he knows that if all of us got together, we could defeat his goal of the commercialization of El Toro once an for all. Enough of "The World Turns Around Ken"!! On a more positive note our CRAS meetings have been attended by Art Bloomer, a recently elected councilman from Irvine and a retired General, who has very eloquently kept us informed about a relatively new group, to which he belongs, called Transportation Alternatives for Southern California (TASC). He talked not only about the High Speed train from Anaheim to Las Vegas, but also the creation of a Joint Powers Authority (Orange, Anaheim, Santa Ana, Irvine and Costa Mesa) to oversee the development of a light rail commuter system for Orange County, referred to now as the "Sky Train". They're looking at a hopeful time -frame of one year `til design time. Right now they're making decisions about routing based on density of population and job centers. Decisions about the placement of terminals and stations, and whether to have the same terminal in Anaheim for the High Speed train to Las Vegas and also a high speed train to Atalanto are all on the table. With all this, I want to give you my thoughts on the Workshop I attended in Ontario. This was more of a "brain -storming" session, than an organized workshop. January 1993 the Air Force will leave George Air Force base. They have already started the screening process to determine who orwhat will be allowed to operate the facility when they leave. This decision will be made in early 1992. One of the groups working hard to win the right to operate the airport is the City of Atalanto. They, as a town, stand to lose more economically, with the closure of the base, because they are the closest and probably the most involved with it. You really have to give the City Council there a lot of credit for their foresight. They've spent a lot of money and effort on studies and PR to promote the idea of a High Desert International Airport. They've hired the Planning Center of Newport Beach to shepherd them through this maze of detail. The big question on the horizon is whether they can muster enough support for the idea from the rest of the Victor Valley communities. I got the personal impression that Atalanto, being small and relatively new to big time politics, is a bit naive in thinking that they can be the sole creator and decision maker in this project. Obviously, I could be wrong. Larger and older Victorville, Apple Valley and Hisperia were all acting like kids, each in the possession of a critical piece of equipment for the ball game, but refusing to play unless they were made captain of the team. They all want an airport, but apparently can't agree on its size or who will operate it. Atalanto is the only one who's been willing to spend any money, and is also the only one who wants a full sized International airport. The large airport is the only alternative that would really do Orange County any good. And of course, the whole Victor Valley is upset with the pressure from Orange County. Bottom line is that if those guys don't get their act together, a high desert airport of any significance at Atalanto. may never happen. However, there is one really bright light on the horizon. It has just come to my attention that Peter D'Errico, the former 20 year manager of the Bangor Airport, has recently been hired to manage the transformation of George from a military base to a civilian airport. You will recall that Bangor, now a thriving commercial airport in central Maine, was once a military base also. Mr. D'Errico was responsible for their success. Conspicuous by their absence, at the workshop, though, was the Board of Supervisors from San Bernadino County, and all but Tom Riley, from Orange County. Also Bectel, the builder of the high speed rail to Las Vegas was not in attendance either. There were a lot of unanswered questions still on the table at the end of the workshop. Slowly, but surely, I'm confident that things will happen, though. There's a lot of momentum and need and those are always ingredients for ultimate success. And with the arrival of Mr. D'Errico on the scene, I'm even more confident, now. Say tuned!!!