Airport Authority Urges El Toro Study

An association of cities that wants the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station converted into a commercial airport called on the county Thursday to commission an independent study of the issue.

Members of the Orange County Regional Airport Authority said that an “unbiased and untainted” review is a logical way of determining how best to use the 4,700-acre base when it is closed at the end of the decade.

The airport authority officials suggested that the county use the Washington-based Urban Land Institute to conduct the study.

Institute officials who attended Thursday’s Orange County Regional Airport Authority meeting said that such a study would be carried out by a panel of economists, land-use planners, aviation industry officials and other experts.

All panelists would come from outside California, reducing the likelihood that conclusions would be drawn based on local political considerations, airport authority officials said.

“This is an opportunity for us to get some good advice on the El Toro conversion,” said Mark Leyes, a Garden Grove councilman and airport authority member. “This would be an unbiased review. (The panel) would have no vested interests.”

An Urban Land Institute study would cost about $100,000. Leyes suggested that the county and the airport authority might share the costs.

What to do with El Toro has been a hot topic ever since the Pentagon announced last year its intentions to close the base.

Some South County cities oppose converting the base into an airport, fearing that such a move would cause traffic, noise and pollution problems.

But other cities, including Garden Grove, Anaheim and Newport Beach, argue that building an air-cargo facility at El Toro would be a boost to the county’s economy.

The county has formed a nine-member board to oversee the conversion of El Toro. The panel is made up of five county supervisors as well as council members from Irvine and Lake Forest.