Golfers and Residents Fight Expansion Plans

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The Daily Pilot in Newport Beach CA this week ran an editorial against a plan to demolish the back nine holes of a municipal golf course to make way for a parking lot.

Like Joni Mitchell sang in the sixties, “paving paradise and putting up a parking lot,” is not the most popular thing to do these days. Apparently the move is being proposed so that the expansion of John Wayne Airport can move ahead and this is where they will park the extra cars. Right on top of the ninth hole!

“Residents near John Wayne and beyond in Newport Beach have for years clamored for and won controls over the airport and its noise…they fought valiantly to convert the closed El Toro Marine Corps air station into an airport to alleviate the pressures on John Wayne, to no avail.

“To lose a valued recreational spot in the golf course to the creep of the airport would be a clear slap in the face to Newport Beach, not to mention the owners of the golf course, who have built a thriving business that would be taken away.

The airport needs to abandon this idea and renew the lease on the golf course–and seek space for more parking elsewhere.” Travelers flying out of John Wayne can find plenty of airport parking off site at the APR website.