ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : First, You Gotta Have a Plan

The persistent lack of organization in Orange County over the future of El Toro Marine Corps Air Station is shocking. The county needs desperately to be examining all the options available to it. Instead, it can’t even agree on how to begin the process.

Last week, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) was no help when he offered a simplistic view of the debate; it was, he asserted, a matter of class warfare--rich South County opponents versus ordinary folks who could benefit from a commercial airfield at El Toro. Orange County deserves more serious deliberation.

It is high time to get the planning on track. But for that to happen, a couple of things must now occur:

First, there must be a coordinated approach. The Board of Supervisors has tried in vain to bring the various parties together. It may still be able to achieve a leadership role, but it appears handicapped by the recent empowerment of cities. Incorporations have produced some very independent city officials willing to buck the Hall of Administration. The flap over El Toro is a dramatic sign that cities take the issue of local control seriously.

Perhaps, then, this is a coordinating job best handled by the Orange County League of Cities. The supervisors could still have their say. However the planning is handled, everyone needs to be pulling together and someone needs to be laying out all the options. The way it’s going now, ideas are being tossed into a hat--an airport, a commercial development, a housing site for the homeless or jails. Let’s put all the options on the table and examine them so that the county can approach Washington with a unified voice.

And finally, the public ought to be told what’s in that Southern California Assn. of Governments report, which concluded that El Toro would make a good second airport for Orange County and that it would not compete with John Wayne Airport. SCAG officials understandably don’t want their report politicized by the timing of its release. But since the report’s conclusion is known, why not release the details? Let’s see whether its assumptions are valid.

El Toro is a matter of regional importance. Let’s get on with the serious planning.