Babbitt, Irvine Co. Discuss Possible El Toro Land Swap

Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt said Friday that his agency hopes to complete a land swap with the Irvine Co. within 18 months and give the giant Orange County landowner 800 acres on the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station in exchange for land in a pristine wilderness area near the Cleveland National Forest.

Babbitt, who attended a news conference with Irvine Co. and Orange County officials, called the proposed land exchange “one of those happy occasions” in which each side comes out ahead.

But Irvine Co. Senior Vice President Monica Florian said that for the deal to be finalized “it has to make good business sense for the Irvine Co.” Just how much land the Irvine Co. will give to the Interior Department in return depends on the appraised value of the El Toro parcels, Florian said.

Sources said the Interior Department expects to get about 2,000 acres of wilderness along a string of canyons stretching east to west on the edge of the Cleveland National Forest, from Fremont Canyon to Silverado Canyon.

Both sides said Friday’s announcement is merely the first step in a lengthy bureaucratic process. The Navy Department, which owns the Marine base, and the Defense Department have to approve the swap. Nevertheless, Babbitt and Orange County officials said the deal could be concluded within 18 months.

Under terms announced Friday, the Irvine Co. will get three parcels totaling 800 acres at the southern edge and northwest corner of the Marine base. Babbitt said the cost of cleaning up toxic waste on the land set aside for the Irvine Co. will be factored into the appraised value of the properties exchanged.

“We’re ascertaining what needs to be done and factoring it into the exchange,” Babbitt said. “The (cleanup) cost becomes another increment of value in the appraisal of the land.”

Interior Department officials said they intend to keep the property acquired from the Irvine Co. as open space to preserve its biological diversity while making it accessible to the public.

Irvine Co. officials said they intend to develop the El Toro properties for light industrial use. Florian said the company has no interest in owning or developing a commercial airport planned for the base when the Marines leave. El Toro is scheduled to close by 1999.

If the Irvine Co. gets the 800 acres it wants, that will leave only 800 acres available for further development on the 4,700-acre base. The Interior Department has already set aside 1,100 acres as a gnatcatcher preserve, and 2,000 acres have been reserved for a commercial airport.

Florian said the Irvine Co. plans to develop the El Toro parcels as part of a master plan approved by a “recognized reuse planning authority.” But just who is responsible for developing the Marine base when it closes is still in doubt.

The Orange County Board of Supervisors withdrew from the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority--the agency formed to develop the base--in January, leaving Irvine and Lake Forest as the group’s only members. Now, both the Board of Supervisors and the depleted authority claim to be the planning agency for the facility.

Thomas B. Mathews, planning director for Orange County, said the supervisors will be asked next week to approve the land swap and petition the Defense Department to sanction the deal with the Irvine Co. Two of the three parcels earmarked for the Irvine Co. are in unincorporated areas, while most of the remaining parcel is inside the Irvine city limits.

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Dealing for Acres

The Irvine Co. wants nearly 800 acres of the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station in exchange for 2,000 acres the company owns on the western fringe of the Cleveland National Forest. Where the land is: Source: The Irvine Co.