El Toro Swap Wouldn’t Alter Tollway Plans : Land use: Environmentalists’ view that Irvine Co. deal would end need for road is disputed.

Countering the views of environmentalists, officials at Orange County’s tollway agency and the Irvine Co. said Monday that a proposed land swap between the federal government and the development giant would not threaten a planned $1-billion toll road.

Tollway agency officials said they likely would turn to their powers of eminent domain if necessary to seize the right-of-way needed for the Eastern Transportation Corridor.

The tollway is slated to run across a 10,000-acre swath of Irvine Co. property being eyed by federal officials, who have discussed a swap for the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, slated for closure late this decade.

Environmentalists have suggested the land exchange would eliminate any need for the tollway because the Irvine Co. property would be absorbed into the Cleveland National Forest and many of the 18,000 housing units now planned in Gypsum Canyon and East Orange would never be built.

But officials at the Irvine Co. on Monday are voicing a different view.

“Frankly, I can’t imagine a situation where a land exchange would preclude or eliminate the Eastern Transportation Corridor,” said Monica Florian, an Irvine Co. senior vice president. “The company and the (tollway agency) have been working a long time to implement major regional roadways. I envision we will simply continue to do that.”

Conservationists, however, almost certainly won’t go along with any swap plan that permits the tollway, according to David Kossack, an environmental consultant and vice president of Friends of the Tecate Cypress, the Orange County group that has pushed for the deal to preserve ecologically sensitive terrain in the Santa Ana Mountains.

“We just don’t see a trade if the Eastern Corridor remains a part of it,” Kossack said. “We certainly wouldn’t support it. . . . It would rip that area in half. It would be right through the middle of the thing. It would be visible from just about any ridge top.”

Kossack also said he believes Florian’s stance is calculated.

“It’s a negotiating strategy,” he said. “She’s not going to let the idea of giving up the tollway get onto the table, especially so early,” he said. “I’m not surprised she’d say something like that.”

But officials at the Transportation Corridor Agencies, the outfit planning three pay-to-use highways in the county, said they do not expect any land exchange to scuttle the Eastern tollway.

Even without motorists brought by new development, the tollway would retain its prime purpose--to serve commuters funneling from Riverside and San Bernardino counties into Orange County for work.

“It’s a major regional transportation improvement,” said Michael Stockstill, tollway agency spokesman. “Eliminating development near the route is not going to eliminate the need for that road.”

In addition, conversion of the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station to some civilian use would only heighten the need for the tollway, which would run near the base, Stockstill said.

If a land swap occurred before construction begins next year, the agency board would likely use its condemnation powers to acquire the highway right-of-way they need before it could change hands, Stockstill said.

“My assumption is we’d exercise our rights of eminent domain before an exchange could be made,” he said. “That’s certainly an option that would be available to the board.”