Pentagon Says Navy Has Power to Cede Base : Land use: Proposed legislation unnecessary, official says, but local consensus on El Toro’s future is crucial.

Pentagon officials said Wednesday that proposed legislation to cede El Toro Marine base to Orange County is not needed because the mechanism already is in place to allow the Navy to do just that when local officials stop bickering over how to develop the facility.

Earlier in the week, Rep. Ed Royce (R-Fullerton) said he will introduce a measure next month to require the Navy to convey El Toro Marine Corps Air Station to Orange County. The base is scheduled to close by 1999.

Defense Department spokesman Glenn Flood declined to comment on the proposal but said that base closure laws already authorize the heads of the various services, in this case the secretary of the Navy, to surrender outright surplus military property to local communities.

“But of course, the community has to have its act together. The operative words here are ‘getting together.’ The onus is on the community to act quickly and get its act together,” said Flood.

His remarks were a reference to the bitter dispute between the Board of Supervisors and South County officials over how to go about planning the reuse of the base. Earlier this year, the supervisors withdrew from the agency they had formed with Irvine and Lake Forest in 1994 to plan the development of the base. The board was later recognized as the official planning agency for El Toro by the Pentagon.

The supervisors announced their intention to implement the voter-approved Measure A and build a commercial airport at El Toro. The South County cities, led by Irvine and Lake Forest, oppose an airport at the base and have been left without direct participation in the planning process.

Royce conceded that the county could try to obtain the Marine base through the base closure laws. But he said he will introduce the bill anyway to guarantee that Orange County alone will decide the future use of the base.

Under the present base closure system, the Department of Defense has to approve all final reuse plans for the base. The present system also allows a handful of federal agencies, including the Interior Department and Bureau of Prisons, to grab portions of the 4,700-acre base when the Marines depart.

“It should be left up to the county how to develop El Toro. Other federal agencies are trying to impose their own projects that don’t benefit the taxpayers,” Royce said. “This property truly belongs to Orange County taxpayers.”

Royce estimated the value of the base at $1 billion and said revenues generated by the sale of the base property could be used to help bail out Orange County from its financial crisis. Royce’s bill would also require the Pentagon to pay for the cleanup of toxic wastes at the base. The cost of the cleanup is estimated at more than $200 million, Royce said.

Irvine Mayor Michael Ward supported of the legislation Wednesday after criticizing it in an earlier report.

“I like the idea of allowing local people to determine what to do with the base, but I would also like to see language in the bill that would allow Irvine to be involved in the decision making,” said Ward.

He said Irvine should be involved in the planning for the base because 300 acres of the facility lie inside Irvine’s city limits and the entire base is within the city’s sphere of influence.

Lake Forest Mayor Richard T. Dixon said he was “adamantly opposed to this kind of legislation.”

“Quite frankly, this would stymie the fair planning process and effectively freeze out Lake Forest and Irvine,” Dixon said. “I still feel there is room at the planning table for the two cities and the county.”

Supervisor Marian Bergeson, whose district includes the South County cities and El Toro, declined to comment on Royce’s proposed legislation until she and other officials meet with Royce.

The proposal was endorsed by two other local Republican representatives. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) said, “We should get (the base) back with all deliberate speed and promptly sell it to help us out of our financial crisis.”

Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach) said he supported the proposal because “land-use planning for the base property is best controlled locally, rather than in Washington.”

“Under the current system, virtually any federal agency can claim the property for free for any use,” Cox said. “The essential principle would be that once the property is no longer used as a federal military installation, its future use is best determined in Orange County.”