Rohrabacher Attacks Plan to Swap Parcel at El Toro Site : Land use: Defenders say the federal deal with Irvine Co. would preserve wilderness and speed development at the base without cheating taxpayers.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher is trying to quash a proposed land swap by the Interior Department that would give the Irvine Co. 800 acres at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station in exchange for about 2,000 acres of the company’s land near Cleveland National Forest.

In a sharply worded letter sent Thursday to Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) said the proposed deal is “a rip-off” of Orange County taxpayers, especially in light of the county’s bankruptcy.

“Giving this property to Orange County’s wealthiest land-owning company in exchange for land which has little commercial value is offensive to the county’s hard-working citizens,” Rohrabacher said in the letter. “Our county is in desperate shape. Having the federal government give away this potential resource for our county to a wealthy private interest will be seen as kicking us while we are down.”

Rohrabacher also has written to Defense Secretary William J. Perry, recommending that the Pentagon employ an obscure law that would allow the Pentagon to turn over the entire 4,700-acre base to the county at no cost. The county could then sell the land.

Spokesmen for the Interior Department and the Irvine Co. said taxpayers would not be cheated because the land swap would be based on a fair land appraisal. In addition, they said, it would preserve environmentally sensitive land and speed up economic development on the 800 acres at the base.

Interior Department spokesman Jay Ziegler said that, from the start, the agency has encouraged the county’s comment. He added that the plan “will go only as far as local support takes us.”

Ziegler maintained that the proposal “is in the economic interest of the county as well” because it would get that portion of the base into the hands of a private landowner--and on the property tax rolls--more quickly than if it went through the usually lengthy base closure planning process.

The proposed land swap, officially announced last week by Babbitt and the Irvine Co., would give the developer three parcels totaling about 800 acres on the edge of the base--land that will not be needed if the county moves ahead with plans to develop a commercial airport.

In exchange, the Interior Department would pick from 9,000 acres of Irvine Co. land roughly 2,000 acres, depending on the appraised value of the El Toro parcels. The Navy and the Defense Department would have to approve the deal.

“The strength of (the proposal) is that it’s fundamentally good for economic development and the environment,” Ziegler said. “It really offers the potential to the county to turn it around. . . . What they get out of it are property tax revenues and a substantial open space dividend.”

Environmentalists seeking preservation of pristine canyons near Cleveland National Forest first proposed the land swap to the Interior Department, which then approached the Irvine Co., Ziegler said.

“Obviously, the Irvine Co. would greatly benefit,” Rohrabacher said in an interview. “I do not have hesitation about the Irvine Co. owning that land, but if they are going to benefit, they should not get that land for free.”

But Irvine Co. spokesman Larry Thomas emphasized that the company “is not being given anything.”

“Congressman Rohrabacher represents an important voice in the discussion,” Thomas said. “If he has a better or more thoughtful proposal, we certainly would welcome it and we would listen to it. But we were not the initiators of this idea.”

Thomas agreed with Ziegler that the exchange conserves open space while beginning the economic development around the base set for closure by 1999.

However, Rohrabacher said, “I don’t think this deal will ever go through when people recognize that worthless land (near the forest) is being given for some of the most valuable land in Orange County. That will be outrageous. The (base) land could be helping us out of our financial crisis.”

In his letter to Perry, Rohrabacher noted that the county bankruptcy, combined with the closings of El Toro and Tustin Marine Corps Air Stations, justify that “ownership of these bases be transferred with all possible haste to Orange County without consideration.” If the land swap occurs, “Orange County will be the big loser,” Rohrabacher added.

There has been speculation in recent weeks that the county could quickly gain control of the base and then sell it as an asset to settle its debts. However, a contentious political debate over whether to turn El Toro into a commercial airport, as required by last November’s Measure A, has raised questions about its future use.

Newport Beach businessman William Buck Johns, who supports an airport at the base, called Rohrabacher’s letters “perfect.”

“In my estimation, that’s what should be done,” Johns said. “If the Irvine Co. wants to buy it, that’s fine. We are not running out of kangaroo rat land.”