Lawmaker Accused of Interfering in Airport-Site Plans

An Orange County airport committee charged Rep. C. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach) Thursday with interfering in local plans to find an alternative to John Wayne Airport by introducing federal legislation to bar commercial aircraft from the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

The Airport Site Coalition, a county-sanctioned and federally funded private organization that is searching for an alternative airport for Orange County, said in a press conference Thursday that Cox’s action “disrupts the due process of our airport site search.”

Lee Oliver, president of the coalition, said Cox’s legislation “interferes with the opportunity for Orange County citizens to achieve consensus without government intervention.

“We just think it was a not-well-thought-out idea that ought to be withdrawn to leave the playing field open for the people in Orange County to make up their own minds about this thing,” Oliver said.

Cox’s legislation passed the House Armed Services Committee Wednesday as an amendment to an overall defense-spending plan.

Cox said from Washington Thursday: “I believe the federal government should not dictate the (airport) site or sites.” He added, however, that the legislation was necessary because the opposition to commercial aircraft at El Toro was so strong that he did not want further effort or money wasted in studying the idea.

Cox said the commercial use is “vehemently” opposed by citizens and officials in the cities of Tustin, Laguna Beach, Mission Viejo and Irvine, as well as the Marine Corps and the Department of Defense.

Several people from those cities--representing a grass-roots organization called the Coalition for a Responsible Airport Solution--also appeared at the site coalition’s press conference Thursday, uninvited. They spoke in favor of Cox’s legislation.

“It would be impossible in our lifetime to overcome this opposition,” Cox said. “So spending further federal money” is unwise.

Cox also said he was following up on a campaign promise that was popular in his district. “I venture to say that had I equivocated,” he said, “I would not be in Washington, D.C., today.”