Cheers, Jeers for Agran’s El Toro Reuse Plan

* Hooray for Larry Agran! Finally someone has the guts to talk about a viable alternative for conversion of the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, a plan that’s feasible, economically sound, and that protects our environment from another commercial airport.

Agran’s commentary (“Let Irvine Co. Swap Farmland for Base, Then Wisely Develop It,” Feb. 6) was a serious approach and should be considered by the recently formed governmental authority that will decide El Toro’s fate. I challenge our elected federal officials not to pussyfoot around, and quickly lend their cooperation and leadership in a direction that will benefit all constituents in Orange County.

ANITA C. SINGER

Laguna Hills

* Three years ago I came to live in Southern California to escape the icy winters of the East. The sun was delightful but I found that I had lost my freedom to travel where I needed, to the closest large cities, Los Angeles or San Diego, from where I lived in Laguna Hills. It meant approximately 160 miles back and forth on a crowded, dangerous freeway. No system of railroads or buses was available in this large, modern state. No safe transportation system exists.

Then I read Larry Agran’s article in The Times on how the problem might be solved. I found it exciting. He describes a solution that would change the El Toro base into a National Center for Transportation and Environmental Excellence. My hope rose anew. No longer would we remain slaves to the automobile and dangerous freeway riding. With trains safely and swiftly taking us wherever we needed to go, what a godsend such a place would be!

CECELIA POLLACK

Laguna Hills

* Former Irvine Mayor Larry Agran seeks a billion-dollar gift from U.S. taxpayers in proposing the swap of El Toro Marine Corps Air Station for privately owned land he covets. Some things never change.

LLOYD SUMMERS

Tustin

* I’m impressed! Larry Agran’s thoughtful ideas for reconversion of the El Toro Base are innovative and make good sense. It is to be hoped that our supervisors and those who make up the El Toro base committee will give serious consideration to his views.

SARAH BRUCH

Laguna Hills

* I am writing in reference to Larry Agran’s commentary (Feb. 6) on the conversion of El Toro. Talk about someone blowing their own horn. Here’s a former mayor of Irvine, writing in a major newspaper, trying to sway public opinion. Repeatedly, he stated that no way should a commercial airport be built. He indicated that countywide consensus could not be developed in favor of an airport.

I think he is wrong, just like he was wrong in running for President. There are a lot more cities in Orange County than just Irvine, and I believe a majority of them (a consensus) would agree with me that the best and most economical decision would be to convert the military base into a commercial airport. He mentioned the noise that the airport would make; military aircraft make noise, and El Toro was there before the majority of cities in the south part of Orange County were built, so if he didn’t like the noise, he had the option of living elsewhere.

Mr. Agran did put forth one good idea; that was to include a monorail system in the conversion. The residents of Orange County have been asking for a monorail ever since Walt built one at Disneyland in the ‘50s. A major airport with rail transportation to outlying cities is a great idea.

MICHAEL C. COLLINS

La Habra

* Congratulations to The Times for printing Larry Agran’s innovative and economically sound proposal for the conversion of the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

Of course, the Irvine Co. should be the developer. Donald Bren has the vision, environmental sensitivity and outstanding team of planners and builders to create a world-class conversion model that will generate economic and quality-of-life wealth for all Orange County residents.

Agran’s public-private land swap concept is a winner!

DAVE BLODGETT

Laguna Hills

* Politicians and land developers are like children in a candy store with money in their pockets. Developers see the potential to make money, while politicians see the potential for development on land that they can then annex into their cities to increase the tax base and thus further their empires. In all honesty, I am quite surprised by Larry Agran’s position on the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

In the light of recent disasters that have hit California and the nation in the past year, I am surprised that any politician would promote the destruction of one of the few airstrips in Southern California that can handle heavy transport aircraft in the event of an emergency.

Between last winter’s rains shutting down the rail link to San Diego, the recent earthquake’s damage to Los Angeles freeways and the terrorist bombing of the World Trade Center (in New York), one doesn’t have to be very imaginative to see that any respectable natural disaster or a few terrorists could paralyze Southern California by disabling a handful of major land routes. It seems only prudent to preserve a potential “lifesaving” facility in the event of a disaster, either natural or man-made.

Again, on the fiscally conservative side, it would have made sense to mothball bases such as El Toro in the event that future world developments might indicate a need for such facilities.

When all of the ramifications of turning the base over to the private sector are examined, it would probably be cheaper to mothball the facility. After all, the Navy does mothball ships and, at times, has recommissioned such vessels in time of national need. It seems ironic that since the prime incentive for closing bases is a financial one, that the federal government does not take the least expensive way out, which would be the mothball route. The toxic materials could still be cleaned up by the same mechanism as proposed by Mr. Agran. The bottom line appears to be that politicians and developers are birds of a feather and they simply want all of the development that they can get. Anyone who has lived in Orange County since the 1940s can certainly appreciate the rape of the landscape by development and overpopulation.

ALLEN K. MURRAY

Newport Beach

* Reading Larry Agran’s slant on El Toro reuse explains why he is no longer mayor of Irvine and guards were posted to keep him out of the presidential primary debates. What puzzles me is why President Clinton hasn’t picked Agran for some post along with his other mouseketeers from Fantasyland. Could it be Hilly and Billy found Jerry Brown and Larry Agran inhaling?

BOB FORSBERG

Lake Forest