O.C. Could Lose John Wayne Facilities if Not Used for Airport

SANTA ANA — The terminal, runways and parking structure at John Wayne Airport are among the facilities that could revert to the Irvine Co. if the land ceases to be used as a public airport, according to a report by the Orange County Grand Jury.

The issue is important because of the El Toro airport debate. If the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station becomes a commercial airport, some people believe that a public airport at the John Wayne Airport facility will no longer be necessary.

At the urging of a concerned citizen, grand jurors reviewed airport land deeds dating to 1939 and found that some of the property that houses the airport’s most important assets could legally revert to the Irvine Co., the original grantor of the land.

Fifty-two percent of the airport parcels were deeded to the county specifically to be developed as a public airport and carry so-called reversionary clauses, the report says.

“We found that some of the deeds stipulate that the land must be used exclusively as an airport, and we felt that that was necessary information that all the residents of Orange County should be aware of,” said Dennis E.A. Keesee, chairman of the grand jury’s environment-transportation committee. “We found that not that many people knew about that.”

The grand jury report recommends that the County Board of Supervisors study the reversionary clauses before determining the future of the John Wayne Airport property.

John Wayne Airport spokeswoman Kathleen Campini-Chambers said Friday that the issue is academic because there are no plans to stop using the land as a public airport.

The grand jury report also raises a concern that if the property ceases to be used for an airport, the county could lose key facilities that now enable it to repay hefty bond debt for airport improvements launched in 1987. The budget for those improvements was $310 million, the largest public works project in the history of the county, the report says.

“Reduction in commercial airport operations would threaten the viability of [John Wayne Airport] because the repayment of the indebtedness depends on the revenue generated,” the report says.

But Campini-Chambers said debt repayment is also not an issue.

“If there is another county-owned airport, that revenue would be used to pay the existing airport bonds,” she said.

“Essentially, the bond debt of John Wayne Airport becomes the debt of any new or existing county-run airport.”

Irvine Co. spokesman Larry Thomas declined to comment on the grand jury report because he had not seen it.

But he said that it is not unusual for the Irvine Co. to have reversionary clauses in selling or giving away land for a public purpose.

“We do that regularly, both to protect us and to ensure that the people are going to do what they say they are going to do with the land,” Thomas said.