Opposing Groups to Meet Today for El Toro Base Talks

Hoping to thaw the icy relations between North and South County cities that stand in the way of future planning for the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, council members from both sides plan to meet privately today.

That the representatives of four North and three South County cities are even scheduled to meet formally for the first time is considered a breakthrough in the four-month political struggle to reach a countywide consensus on converting the base, which is scheduled to close in four to six years.

Negotiating on behalf of North County cities will be officials from Anaheim, Fullerton, Huntington Beach and Santa Ana. Council members from Irvine, Laguna Hills and Lake Forest are expected to attend on behalf of South County cities.

Left off the invitation list are members of the County Board of Supervisors, who are equally interested in controlling the future of the base but have not been able to broker a politically palatable solution.

“We have to resolve differences, or nothing will happen on El Toro. And the worst thing that could happen to the county is that nothing will happen on El Toro,” Irvine Mayor Michael Ward said.

Fullerton Mayor Molly McClanahan said both sides need to find a compromise so that “we don’t end up 30 years from now wondering why nobody ever did anything” at El Toro.

The question going into the meeting, however, is whether the first session will be the last.

South County city officials--who have sought control because they fear a commercial airport will replace military operations--said Wednesday that the starting point for the talks should be the tentative agreement they reached last month with Supervisors Gaddi H. Vasquez and Thomas F. Riley.

That plan calls for an intergovernmental agency that effectively gives veto power on any redevelopment plan to the South County cities closest to the base.

But officials from North County cities, who favor an airport, are pushing a plan that would let the five county supervisors, a representative from each supervisorial district and Irvine select the base conversion plan. Only Irvine and the county have land-use authority over the base because portions of it lie in their jurisdictions.

Laguna Hills Councilman Randal J. Bressette said that if South County cities had not stood up to the county and demanded a say in the process, none of the county’s 31 cities would now have a seat at the negotiating table. The South County plan gives every city a voice in the planning agency, he said.

“North County cities need to understand how much local control cities have in our (proposed) joint powers authority,” Bressette said. “Our plan gives them a voice and gives them far more than the county’s original plan,” which reserved final authority for the base redevelopment decision for the supervisors.

Irvine Councilman Barry J. Hammond also repeated his warning that Irvine will not agree to any plan that does not give his city equal power with the county.

“I haven’t seen a plan that provides as much parity as that (joint powers) plan does for everybody,” Hammond said.

The Vasquez-Riley plan has run into political trouble since it was unveiled nearly three weeks ago. The other three supervisors rejected the plan last week after opposition from North County cities.

Times staff writer Kevin Johnson and correspondent Bob Elston contributed to this report.