Marines Hold Ground, Snarl O.C. Road Plan

The Marine Corps is refusing to relinquish about 70 acres at its El Toro Air Station for Orange County highway improvements until the county can complete a separate land swap that would provide new housing for military personnel, officials said Tuesday.

“What the military has done is, they have tied this whole package together so we are not getting any of our right-of-way we need for roads until they get the land they need for housing,” said Ernie Schneider, director of the Orange County Environmental Management Agency.

The financially strapped county government is balking at shelling out an estimated $40 million to complete a complex land swap involving property owned by the Irvine Co. near the Marine Corps’ helicopter base at Tustin.

The impasse, meanwhile, has created uncertainty over the timing of construction starts on the highway improvements, which are central to the county’s plans for future traffic management.

In a deal struck earlier this year but not publicized, the Corps agreed in principle to sell the county three parcels at the El Toro air base for major highway projects.

The projects involve construction of a new segment of Alton Parkway, creation of a new freeway interchange and underpass for Bake Parkway, and widening of the El Toro “Y” junction where the San Diego and Santa Ana Freeways meet. The county is handling the Alton Parkway project, while the California Department of Transportation and the city of Irvine are supervising the others, Schneider said.

The Corps would use proceeds from the land sale to build housing for the families of El Toro and Tustin enlisted personnel.

Although the El Toro property has not yet been appraised, an unclassified Marine Corps document states that “the sale would generate a minimum of $17 million” for the Corps. The money would finance construction of more than 140 housing units, the document says. More than 1,400 Marine personnel in Orange County are now on a waiting list for base housing.

But the Corps is unwilling to proceed with the sale until the county makes good on a separate land swap involving 41 acres of land owned by the Irvine Co. near the Tustin air base.

“Our whole deal with the county is: You don’t get Alton Parkway, you don’t get Bake, you don’t get the widening until you deliver the 41 acres over by Tustin,” said Col. Jack Wagner, community plans and liaison officer for Marine Corps air bases in Arizona and Southern California.

The agreement on the land swap near the Tustin air base was completed nearly two years ago, but has been stalled while the county has haggled over the price.

The Board of Supervisors in December, 1987, agreed to purchase the 41 acres from the Irvine Co. and turn it over to the Corps, which plans to use the land to build military housing.

In exchange, the Corps said it would deed to the county for use as a park 137 acres of land it owns in Mile Square Regional Park at Fountain Valley, a former military installation.

“Our agreement with them is that they obtain and convey” the Irvine Co. land, Wagner said. “How they obtain, we don’t care. If they deliver on that, we’ll then give them title to the other lands (at the El Toro base) for the road improvements.”

A major stumbling block has been the price tag on the three Irvine Co. parcels that make up the 41 acres.

“I think that’s the primary issue,” said Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez, whose district includes most of the El Toro air base. “The value of the acreage (near the Tustin base) has increased dramatically since the time we initiated the discussion.”

One appraisal done for the county has indicated that the Irvine Co. property is worth as much as $1 million an acre, several officials said.

Vasquez said county officials and the Irvine Co. are continuing to seek alternatives to a single cash payment. “We’re looking at different financing alternatives,” Vasquez said.

Another official familiar with the discussions said the Irvine Co. may seek concessions from the county in future development proposals in exchange for deeding over the land near the Tustin air base.

“We very much want to help the county and the Corps solve their respective problems, and meet their needs, but we need to go through a process to make that happen,” said Gary Hunt, Irvine Co. senior vice president.

“We’re discussing with the county what options might make sense in the context of this whole land exchange. . . . It would be our hope that this would be resolved within the next year to 16 months,” Hunt said.

Hunt dismissed suggestions that the impasse could affect future development of the 2,600-acre Irvine Spectrum business and industrial park near the junction of the San Diego and Santa Ana freeways. The Bake Parkway interchange is a key component of plans for a future phase of the project.

Hunt said construction of “Spectrum Five,” which includes the Bake Parkway project, will not begin for eight to 12 years.

“It’s a long-term project. I am confident that in the dealings with the Corps . . . that the Bake interchange issue will be resolved,” he said.

The Spectrum facility now houses 600 businesses employing about 20,000 people.

Congress has already authorized the Tustin-Mile Square land swap. An amendment to the 1990 Defense Department authorization bill to permit the El Toro land sale has been approved by the House.

County officials and an aide to Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove), who authored the amendment, said they expect a House-Senate conference committee will approve the Dornan amendment in the next few weeks. Dornan is a member of the House Armed Services Committee.