Mayors Fling Wrench Into Plan for Base

Two county supervisors announced late Thursday that they have struck a deal with the city of Irvine for a planning agency that they said stands the best chance of directing development of the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

But as the supervisors were wrapping up negotiations, the mayors of Irvine and Anaheim told a California Senate panel Thursday that the state may need to step in if city and county officials cannot resolve their differences over a framework for planning the conversion of the El Toro base to civilian use.

In a blunt assessment of the failure to reach agreement on who should sit on the governing board overseeing the conversion process, Irvine Mayor Mike Ward suggested that a “state-mandated authority should be put in place if local officials cannot agree” on the makeup of a planning agency within six to nine months of the final decision to close the base.

Anaheim Mayor Tom Daly, in a separate statement presented to senators on the state panel, agreed that the state or federal governments may need to direct a resolution of the local dispute. Daly and other North County city officials favoring a commercial airport at El Toro have challenged South County’s attempts to block an airport by controlling the process.

“I believe surplus military facilities should be viewed as regional economic opportunities,” Daly stated. “Our complex economy has shown me that no community can function as an island.”

The comments were delivered as Supervisors Roger R. Stanton and William G. Steiner completed private negotiations with Irvine officials on a plan designed to break the impasse in the battle over the base redevelopment planning committee.

Under the latest agreement, which will be voted on by the supervisors Tuesday, all five supervisors would share the decision-making authority with three Irvine representatives and one from Lake Forest. North County cities will be represented on the panel by their county supervisors.

The proposal also reflects a major concession by Irvine, which had demanded the same number of votes as the county, since they both share land-use authority over the base.

But in return, Irvine will be allowed to annex the base by January, 1999, and any redevelopment plans must meet guidelines agreed to by Irvine and other El Toro board members.

“The plan stands the best possible chance of convincing the federal government that there’s consensus,” Steiner said.

Stanton said he believes that South County supervisors Thomas F. Riley and Gaddi H. Vasquez will support the plan, and that Board Chairman Harriett M. Wieder was being notified late Thursday night of the breakthrough.

But after several failed attempts by local officials to reach consensus, the comments by the mayors to the state panel reflected the uncertainty that the latest plan will be embraced by all sides.

In his prepared statement to the Senate committee studying California base closures, Ward said that the County Board of Supervisors’ early handling of El Toro issue had “undermined the county’s credibility” as an impartial agency, and that its influence has seriously eroded.

Ward also directed some of his criticism at his fellow South County city officials, who fear a commercial airport that could harm neighboring communities will be developed at El Toro if South County officials are not in control of the process.

“South County must realize that, in the interests of being thorough and fair, an airport must be considered,” Ward said in his statement.

Criticizing the North County cities’ interest in El Toro, Ward said Newport Beach was driven by the desire to diminish air traffic--and consequently airport noise--at nearby John Wayne Airport, and that Anaheim officials merely wanted to satisfy the needs of major business and tourism interests in their city.

“I have compared the validity of Anaheim’s role in El Toro to the validity of Irvine’s role in the expansion of Disneyland,” which, Ward said, does not exist.

A county official who spoke to the Senate panel, however, urged the senators to maintain a hands-off attitude toward the base conversion problem.

“This is an issue that can and will be resolved at the local level,” according to the county’s written statement presented by Tony Carstens, the county’s planning director.

Before the hearing, Sen. Ruben S. Ayala (D-Chino), who chairs the committee, said the panel was not inclined to tell local communities how to plan for the conversion of their bases.

“Having come from local government . . . I don’t want the state involved,” Ayala said. “I am a strong supporter of home rule and local control. I would think that they don’t want the state to put a hammer over their head and say ‘You have to do something by a certain time.’ ”

The plan hammered out Thursday is a variation of a leadership structure proposed by Stanton and Steiner three weeks ago that was opposed by South County cities, even though those officials would have had at least a one-vote majority.

But the two supervisors warned that if agreement could not be reached by Dec. 31, they would impose a plan favored by North County cities that further diminishes the South County influence.

If that, too, were to fail, both supervisors said they would recommend that the issue be placed before the voters on June 7.