El Toro Reuse Planning Is Necessary

* The Nov. 26 editorial, “Spending on El Toro Plans Is Premature,” is based on the faulty premise that the sole purpose of the county’s reuse planning process is to plan an airport at El Toro and that federal funding for that process would be wasted if Measure S passes in March 1996. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The county is the federally designated Local Redevelopment Authority. As such it is the county’s duty to expeditiously develop a reuse plan which will provide the greatest economic benefit to the Orange County community. The county’s reuse planning process is designed to do just that by requiring analysis of both aviation and nonaviation uses as well as providing significant opportunities for public input. The federal funding requested by the county and referenced in The Times editorial would be dedicated to the non-aviation portion of the planning process--analysis which must be completed regardless of the outcome of Measure S.

The county’s planning process is also designed to meet the federal schedule for reuse of the base by providing the “screening” of local requests for property, per federal law, and for input to the Marine Corps’ environmental documentation. If the planning process were to be halted now, local homeless, education, nonprofit, and other organizations’ requests for base property would not be considered, and Orange County’s opportunity to provide a reuse plan to the Department of Defense would not be submitted in time to be considered and accepted. The Times and many others seem to ignore the fact that the Department of Defense is pressing forward with its plans to close the base and to determine the ultimate reuse of the property--with or without us.

Measure S does create some uncertainty as to whether an airport will be included in the final reuse plan: In fact, the measure holds an aviation use to a higher standard than any other use. There is also some uncertainty as to whether some provisions of Measure S are legally defensible. This uncertainty, however, does not warrant a suspension of the balanced and fair planning process which the county has initiated.

The editorial suggests there are issues to be resolved--there are. It suggests there is uncertainty as a result of Measure S--there is. It cites those who suggest the planning process is predetermined--it isn’t. It suggests there is no consensus on the use of the base--those who passed Measure A last year would probably disagree. The bottom line is this: It would be incredibly irresponsible for us not to move forward now because failure to do so means that the Department of Defense will decide the ultimate reuse of 4,700 acres of prime land in the middle of this county without input from those who will be affected by its decision. It is equally irresponsible to suggest that federal funding, which will facilitate the development of that input should be deferred.

JANICE M. MITTERMEIER

Chief executive officer

County of Orange