Will Trojans Occupy El Toro? : Land use: Supervisor Stanton suggests converting the air station to a satellite campus for USC. The school has yet to respond.

Orange County Supervisor Roger R. Stanton, adding to the ever-evolving debate over how to redevelop the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, on Friday proposed converting part of the base into a satellite campus for USC.

Stanton, a USC alumnus, said he will officially make his pitch to university officials in a letter next week and will request a meeting with USC President Steven B. Sample.

“I think it would be great for Orange County and would be something the university would want to seriously consider,” Stanton said. “The school is kind of busting at the seams in terms of land area. They may want the option of having a satellite campus.”

Sample was unavailable to comment on Stanton’s proposal Friday. A spokeswoman for the university said his office would not respond until it receives Stanton’s letter.

USC currently has a satellite campus for graduate students in Irvine, but Stanton said he thinks the school might want to continue expanding in Orange County. He said he has spoken with local USC Trojan alumni in recent weeks and they have been very supportive of the idea.

The much-debated future use of the Marine base, which is slated to close by 1999, has focused on whether the 4,700-acre facility should be converted into a commercial airport or developed for other purposes.

A county agency, the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority, is studying how the base should be developed once the Marines leave. The agency’s study, which is not expected to be completed until next June, will be forwarded to the Board of Supervisors for approval. The plan selected by the supervisors must ultimately be approved by the U.S. Department of Defense.

Supporters of the commercial airport alternative have placed an initiative on the November ballot that asks Orange County voters to support the airport plan and force the reuse group to select it.

Under yet another proposal, the Irvine Co. would swap land it owns next to the Cleveland National Forest for all or part of the base.

Stanton said he has been unimpressed by the “creativity” of the various proposals for the base, including the airport and an option to build a jail on the land. Stanton said he thinks the idea of a USC satellite campus “is worth throwing into the hopper.”

The 1st District supervisor, who does not represent the part of the county that includes the base, offered no details of his plan for the satellite campus.

Officials from Chapman University in Orange said Friday they are also interested in expanding onto the base and will make a formal request in the near future.

“We want to make sure that our hat is in the ring,” Chapman President James L. Doti said. “We believe that the base will be a very desirable piece of land.”

Doti said Stanton’s proposal could go hand-in-hand with Chapman’s plan and could help create an “education park” similar to a business industrial park.

Bill Vardoulis, a former Irvine mayor and member of the planning authority, said the agency would have to study the merits of the satellite campus proposal, but added that his initial impression is that “it would be great. . . . Nothing is going to be excluded at this point.”

Mark Leyes, a Garden Grove councilman and delegate to the base reuse planning group, said he supports building an airport on the property, but thinks that Stanton’s proposal would complement that use.

“I think if we could get another university, especially one oriented for research, on the base, with the airport it would be a powerful one-two punch and help reinvigorate the Orange County economy,” he said.