Panel Endorses Some Ideas for Tustin Base, Rejects Some : Conversion: Most favored by 17-member panel are mixed residential and recreational projects. High school and law-enforcement academy options are turned down.

A panel studying the future use of the Tustin Marine Corps Air Station on Tuesday endorsed a range of possible uses for the 1,620-acre helicopter base that is scheduled to close in 1997 but rejected some educational and law enforcement proposals.

Most favored by the 17-member panel were variations of a proposal for a mix of residential and recreational development. But the panel, meeting at the Tustin Senior Center, also voiced support for some less conventional ideas.

These included a proposal to build what could be the first motion picture studio in Orange County and a plan to convert the two World War II-era blimp hangars on the base into large discount and specialty stores.

Santa Ana city officials and representatives of the Santa Ana Unified School District protested the panel’s decision to exclude a high school from the development plans.

Santa Ana Councilman Robert L. Richardson asked the panel to consider the school district’s request to set aside 70 acres for a high school to be located at the corner of Red Hill Avenue and Barranca Parkway.

Mike Vail, the school district’s facilities director, said that despite the fact that the school district has approved funding for two new high schools, space for an additional 3,900 students would be needed in the year 2005.

A proposal from a coalition of educational institutions, including Rancho Santiago College, for 1,230 acres of land for a complex of occupational education facilities, was also turned down by the panel.

However, Dwight Berg, a consultant working for the coalition, said the group would try to modify its proposal so that it could still be accommodated in the mixed-use plan.

The panel of elected and appointed officials from Tustin, Irvine, Santa Ana and Orange County, as well as business and community leaders, also rejected a request for a correctional facility from the county.

A county proposal for law enforcement training facilities that would include a training academy, a driver-training course and a pistol range was also turned down by the panel.

The panel has yet to review proposals from groups providing services to the homeless, which under federal law must be considered in disposing of surplus military property.

Tustin Assistant City Manager Christine Shingleton said that a community workshop will be held Saturday, from 9 a.m. to noon at the Senior Center, to allow public comment on the redevelopment plans.

Public recommendations will be included in the final draft that will be presented to the Tustin City Council next year. That draft will be the basis of a final report and environmental studies that will be submitted to the Department of the Navy for approval, Shingleton said.