Supervisors to Ask Navy for El Toro Land for Airport : Base conversion: Letter will officially request 2,000 acres. Meanwhile, the FAA has agreed to act on behalf of the county in federal talks on the Marine facility’s future.

Taking another step toward converting El Toro Marine Corps Air Station to a commercial airport, the Orange County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to officially ask the Navy Department to set aside the 2,000 acres it will take to build the facility.

Meanwhile, the Federal Aviation Administration, which certifies major airports in the United States, has agreed to act on behalf of Orange County’s interests when other federal agencies meet to discuss the future use of the 4,700-acre Marine base, said Jan Mittermeier, manager of John Wayne Airport.

Other federal agencies interested in acquiring property and developing the Marine base include the Bureau of Prisons, Department of the Interior and the Air Force, which wants to relocate a California Air National Guard facility there from its Costa Mesa site.

Supervisors authorized Mittermeier to send a letter to the Navy Department to alert military officials that the county wants 2,000 acres at the base to build a civilian airport when the Marines leave by 1999, as mandated by Measure A. The letter will be sent today to meet a Dec. 1 federal deadline.

John Wayne Airport officials said the FAA has agreed to send a separate letter to the Navy endorsing the county’s intent to study the El Toro airport plan. Airport proponents called the FAA’s role a key development in their plans to build an airport, but Mittermeier described the federal agency’s move as “a routine process.”

FAA spokesman Fred O’Donnell was unable to confirm that the agency was going to send a letter in support of Orange County’s plan for an airport.

But Mittermeier said the FAA agreed to write a letter of support because the agency wants to make sure it has a role in discussions by federal agencies about the base’s future as long as an airport is included in the county’s development plans.

“The only thing that the FAA has done is tell the Navy that if the (local planning authority) is interested in pursuing (a commercial airport), we are interested in helping to sponsor the effort,” Mittermeier said. “That does not mean than an airport will be there. A feasibility study still needs to be done.”

David Ellis, a spokesman for a group of airport proponents, put a different spin on the FAA’s involvement.

“The mere fact that the FAA is willing to consider El Toro as an airport is an important development,” Ellis said. “In this giant bureaucratic process called base closure, to have a federal agency willing to sit at the table and review data for an airport is an important development.”

Measure A, which was approved by voters earlier this month, obligates the county to build an airport at El Toro, provided that it passes federal scrutiny.

Although supervisors authorized Mittermeier to send the letter to the Navy to meet a Dec. 1 deadline, Dan Miller, executive director of the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority, said the Navy has agreed to extend that deadline for all agencies interested in acquiring property at the base to April 1.

The planning authority, which was formed to plan the development of the base, will formally request the extension at the group’s meeting today, Miller said.

“The Navy has already given us an indication that getting the extension will be no problem,” he said. “However, the Board of Supervisors wasn’t taking any chances. Everyone wanted the letter sent out to make sure we’re covered, and let the Navy know the county is interested in the 2,000 acres needed for the base.”