CAA: GA News, "Newport Beach won't join fight over airplane banners"

["Stephen Irwin" <stepheni@xxxxxxxxx>]

Thursday, August 15, 2002

Newport Beach won't join fight over airplane banners
By FERMIN LEAL
The Orange County (CA) Register 


NEWPORT BEACH - For now, it appears Newport Beach will watch from the
sidelines while a neighboring city takes on the Federal Aviation
Administration over control of the skies above beaches.

Restricting airplanes that tow banners over beaches is a dispute the
other coastal cities will have to fight, Mayor Tod Ridgeway said.

Newport Beach's top priority with the FAA remains the continued
negotiations to further extend the John Wayne Airport Settlement
Agreement, which places restrictions on the number of flights and hours
of operation at the airport, Ridgeway said.

"We don't want to go contrary with our larger goal," he said. "Although
we would obviously like to have some degree of control on banner
airplanes."

The recent resurgence of interest in Huntington Beach to regulate
airplanes that tow banners has raised the hopes of many in Newport Beach
who say they have had enough of the constant buzzing over their homes
every summer weekend.

"Something needs to be done about it," said Balboa Peninsula resident
James Ricci. 

"On the weekends, we can't get one moment of quiet because of the
planes. It's like someone is running a loud saw outside my window."

Huntington Beach officials, inspired by a federal court ruling upholding
a Honolulu law that restricts aerial advertising, are considering
banning that type of advertising. 

Before Honolulu, cities have had no authority to regulate airspace. That
responsibility falls to the FAA.


   Post your opinion on this story in the CAA General Aviation Forum
http://www.californiaaviation.org/cgi-bin/dcforum/dcboard.cgi?conf=DCConfID2

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