South County Officials Gird to Fight Airport : El Toro: Expressing concern about momentum gained by backers of commercial facility for the Marine base, group says it must form its own independent agency.

Concerned that pro-airport forces are gaining momentum and political clout, a group of South County officials said Wednesday that they must form their own independent agency to study the future of the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

The officials, who will meet privately tonight to discuss the matter, said a partisan push for a commercial airport to be developed at the Marine base has begun prematurely, disrupting hopes for an unbiased evaluation of the issues.

They cited the powerful, conservative Lincoln Club and a pro-airport North County group as hindering a process designed for objective study of potential “highest and best uses” of the 4,700-acre base, which is scheduled to be vacated by the Marine Corps in 1999. They also complained that the newly formed El Toro Reuse Planning Authority is moving forward without offering them a voice in the process.

Although the Lincoln Club has officially remained neutral, several of its most prominent members have launched an initiative drive to put the question of a commercial airport at the base on the Nov. 8 ballot. Newport Beach businessman George L. Argyros and Marion Knott, a partner in Knott’s Berry Farm, signed the proposed ballot measure.

Laguna Niguel Councilman Mark J. Goodman said Wednesday that the club itself is “trying to skew the process” and has done a “disservice” to everyone in the county by short-circuiting the reuse authority’s studies and attempting to railroad a commercial airport into El Toro.

“The uneasiness on the South County’s part has been generated by the Lincoln Club’s actions,” said Goodman, a former aide to 5th District Supervisor Thomas F. Riley. “To say the least, we are pretty upset about their efforts.”

Laguna Hills City Councilwoman Melody Carruth also leveled a charge at the club, despite the fact that her husband has been a member for 10 years.

“The focus of Lincoln Club organization is to promote good government,” Carruth said. “But with all of the recent antics of some of its members, I’m sure Abraham Lincoln is rolling over in his grave.”

Lincoln Club President Doy Henley could not be reached for comment.

*

Goodman and other South County officials said they need to become “a lot more aggressive” and form their own joint powers authority to raise money to do environmental and job studies as well as a market analysis of the future of the base.

“Our mission is still to ensure the integrity and objectivity of the process,” said Mission Viejo Mayor Susan Withrow. “I’m not going to say (the reuse authority) is not going to do that. But the only one sure way to do that is to do it ourselves.”

The officials, called the South County Cities Working Group, said they will lobby their individual city councils during the next two weeks for money to sponsor forming the joint powers authority. She estimated they would need about $500,000.

“This is budget discussion time . . . and I’m going to ask to put this in as a line item,” Withrow said, adding that she hopes Mission Viejo can come up with “up to $200,000 or $250,000.”

In the year since the federal government announced that the base would be vacated by the Marine Corps, its future use has generally divided in the county along north-south lines.

North County cities have favored developing the Marine air base into a commercial airport while South County cities have insisted that an airport would foul their communities with noise and traffic.

After seven months of battle over the makeup of the reuse authority, South County officials as recently as Jan. 27 seemed to be satisfied with the organization, although not altogether pleased. Only one council member--from Lake Forest--was delegated to the nine-member authority board of directors, with the other South County officials relegated to the 52-member executive council.

*

In recent weeks, however, the authority board has applied for federal funds for environmental and market studies without any input from the executive council, a move that has made some South County officials nervous.

“They are doing some very critical things without our input,” said Dana Point Councilwoman Karen Lloreda. “It’s like, when do we get into the process?”

The first meeting of the executive council was set Wednesday for April 18.