Hurry Up With El Toro Plan, Officials Urged

A Defense Department official who will oversee the conversion of El Toro Marine Corps Air Station to civilian use warned Wednesday that a unified redevelopment plan is needed before federal transition funds will be released.

“Get organized, get a plan and implement it,” Capt. David A. Larson of the Defense Department’s Office of Economic Adjustment told about 175 people, including numerous elected officials, gathered here Wednesday night for a public hearing on the base’s future.

Larson’s comments came as city and county leaders continue to argue over the prospects for civilian use of the 4,700-acre base, a prime redevelopment parcel. One proposal that met with sharp criticism at Wednesday’s hearing was converting the base to a second regional airport. “How many airports does Orange County need?” asked Helen Lord of the Foothill Ranch area, one of about 20 speakers to appear before a panel of military and county representatives. “How congested does Orange County need to be?”

Speakers expressed concerns ranging from the noise, crime, pollution and congestion that redevelopment could bring to fears of toxic waste at the base and which governmental entity should have the final say on the base’s future.

Those attending included Orange County Supervisors Thomas F. Riley and Gaddi H. Vasquez, state Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach) and officials from cities throughout Orange County.

County Chief Administrative Officer Ernie Schneider tried to assure residents that no final plan has been developed for the base, but many continued to be skeptical. Schneider said all alternatives will be considered, including the possibility of an airport.

Larson said after the two-hour meeting that if local officials cannot devise a unified plan for the base’s future, federal officials could be forced to decide for them.

The base is slated for closure as part of the Clinton Administration’s plan to scale back military spending.

Strategies for control of the redevelopment are being mapped out daily in a three-way tug of war.

Six Orange County cities have been lobbying to convert the base into a second regional airport. Irvine officials oppose the airport idea out of concerns over traffic and noise, and are demanding a greater say in the final decision. County officials, meanwhile, promise to fight any proposal that does not grant them final authority.

Until there is countywide agreement on who will guide planning for conversion of the base, the Defense Department is unlikely to release millions in federal dollars to get the process rolling.

Hoping to present a unified voice, the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday postponed for two weeks a key decision on the formation of an El Toro Advisory Commission.

On Wednesday morning, officials of the Orange County Cities Airport Authority, the coalition of six cities that favor a commercial airport, discussed the possibility of forming a joint-powers authority in the hope of persuading federal officials to see things their way.

The cities’ airport authority board is made up of representatives from Anaheim, Newport Beach, Santa Ana, Stanton, Garden Grove and Yorba Linda.

Irvine officials, who oppose a commercial airport at El Toro, have expressed interest in forming a separate joint-powers authority that would give the county, Irvine and South County cities an equal voice in charting the base’s future. The proposal got a boost Tuesday when the Lake Forest City Council expressed interest in this idea.

Newport Beach Mayor Clarence J. Turner, whose city has been a leader in the movement to develop a second airport, admitted at Wednesday morning’s meeting that the cities’ joint-powers authority might not be viable.

Turner described the idea as a “long shot” and questioned whether the Pentagon would recognize the cities’ board as the “planning entity” for El Toro without the county being involved.

Turner said the Newport Beach City Council could decide later this month whether to stay with the authority or join the county’s proposed El Toro Advisory Commission, which would give the county the lion’s share of control but would also represent various cities and business interests.

Representatives of South County cities, however, have complained that they would not be adequately represented on the county’s proposed panel. If such an advisory board is established, county officials will probably force Newport Beach to choose between taking a seat on the panel or continuing to press for cities’ joint-powers authority.

Turner on Wednesday said the proposed county panel “looks balanced” and that leaving the cities’ panel “is something that (Newport Beach officials) are going to look at.”

But other members of the cities’ airport authority Wednesday said their plans remain workable--in part because unlike the county panel, the cities’ panel has asked every city in Orange County to join the board.

“The fact is that the city of Garden Grove is not invited into this supposedly broad-based process” by the county, said Mark Leyes, a Garden Grove councilman and the Orange County Cities Airport Authority’s vice chairman. “That means that the 148,000 people I represent are shut out of the process.”

Leyes said that if a cities’ joint-powers authority is formed, “everyone can have a voice and a vote.”

Leyes vowed to move ahead on the joint-powers authority even if Newport Beach leaves the group. “It will go on,” he said. “I hope Newport Beach doesn’t leave. . . . The ideal would be to have 31 cities and the county.”

Also at Wednesday’s meeting, Kenneth J. Delino, Newport Beach’s deputy city manager, resigned as executive director of the organization after more than five years in the position as an outspoken advocate of a commercial airport. He was replaced by David Morgan, an assistant city manager in Anaheim.

Delino said he quit because he was not able to devote the time required by the job as the cities stepped up their efforts to form a joint-powers authority. He said the move was not related to Turner’s concerns about the cities’ proposal.

Meanwhile, a divided Lake Forest City Council voted Tuesday to support a joint-powers agency to give South County cities a legal vote on any base-conversion plan. Although the final vote was 5-0, council members Richard T. Dixon and Helen Wilson expressed fears echoed countywide about a potential battle between South County cities and the county over control of the project.

“Quite frankly, there is major confusion out there,” Dixon said. “South County cities should take a leadership role, but there will be problems if Washington perceives that Orange County is bickering.”

After several heated exchanges between council members, Mayor Ann Van Haun told Dixon that she questioned “whether your loyalties lie with the city of Lake Forest . . . or with the Board of Supervisors.”