Countywide : Airport Backers Gathering Petitions

With $100,000 pledged for the first phase of their campaign, supporters of a commercial airport at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station began circulating petitions Friday to place the issue on the Nov. 8 ballot.

The airport proponents have until June 1 to collect 66,703 valid signatures--a task that they say is formidable because of the short time frame allowed to qualify the initiative for a countywide vote.

But opponents say they are worried that enough signatures will be gathered because the campaign is backed by some of Orange County’s most powerful business leaders, including Newport Beach businessman George L. Argyros and Marion Knott, a partner in Knott’s Berry Farm.

“This is a special-interest campaign, and there’s no question that the special interests are very well-funded,” Laguna Hills Councilman Randal J. Bressette said Friday.

However, Bressette said he believes Orange County voters will study the proposed initiative and reject it in favor of the more methodical county planning process now underway to determine the best use for the 4,700-acre base, which is scheduled to close by 1999.

“I cannot believe that our friends in Leisure World (of Laguna Hills) are going to take this initiative process quietly or lightly,” Bressette said.

Laguna Hills Councilwoman Melody Carruth said airport opponents in South County who live closest to the base probably would not organize to stymie the petition-gathering campaign.

“I think that our energy may best be spent during the actual campaign” before the November election, she said.

Garden Grove Councilman Mark Leyes, who will be involved in the pro-airport campaign, said that pro-airport volunteers would also seek signatures from South County voters.

Political consultant Dave Ellis said about a dozen volunteers will be stationed at retail centers in Costa Mesa, Huntington Beach and Newport Beach this weekend, while about 20 paid workers will fan out across other areas of the county in search of signatures.