Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/tag/john-wayne-airport/)
Newport Beach residents and small plane owners succeeded in getting county supervisors to step back from controversial plans to add more private jet spaces at John Wayne Airport.
Orange County supervisors on Tuesday will consider a plan to grow executive jet flight operations at John Wayne Airport, which has sparked intense opposition from neighbors who question campaign contribution connections to OC supervisors as well as environmental impacts.
Newport Beach residents are wary of expansion plans at John Wayne Airport to open a new private, executive jet terminal. While county officials says executive jets are a small part of revenues, a Voice of OC analysis of campaign filings shows a different nexus: campaign contributions to county supervisors from private jet contractors and their business associates. JWA expansion plans are up for approval next month by Orange County airport commissions on May 1 and by county supervisors on May 7.
A 15-story office building and 15-story hotel will be built across the street from John Wayne Airport after the Irvine City Council sided with the Federal Aviation Administration and overrode local and state decisions that had labeled the project a potential air hazard.
“I need to put my trust in someone to help me resolve that conflict,” said Councilman Jeff Lalloway, who made the motion to hire a consultant and bring the issue back for a vote Sept 12. “When public safety is involved, this is way too important of an issue just to dismiss.”
Developer Greater Far East will have to wait until July 25 to see if the council will overrule the commission because some council members said they didn’t have enough information to decide whether to overturn the Orange County Airport Land Use Commission’s (ALUC) April 20 decision or uphold it.
Signature Flight Support alleges supervisors were biased toward their campaign donors and violated federal rules in awarding a major lease at John Wayne Airport to the fifth-ranked bidder.
An intense battle over a lucrative John Wayne Airport lease further ratcheted up Tuesday, with promises of legal action after Orange County supervisors granted the lease to a firm that was ranked fifth out of six by the county’s evaluation panel.
Federal aviation officials are now digging into the awarding of a lucrative John Wayne Airport lease to a company that was ranked fifth by the county’s official evaluation panel.
Members of the public raised concerns about a shortage of housing options for homeless people, a troubling county economic future, and alleged improprieties by supervisors in choosing a major airport contractor.