Measure A Ruling Expected Today

Warring sides in the battle over whether to build a new civilian airport at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station found Thursday they shared at least one thing in common.

After making legal arguments, neither side could predict what ruling might come from the inscrutable Charles R. Hayes, the San Diego County Superior Court judge who will decide the validity of Measure A, the pro-airport measure narrowly approved by Orange County voters in 1994.

Hayes, whose decision is expected today, agreed to hear the case after it was removed from Orange County courts because of potential conflict-of-interest issues among local judges.

“Well, he certainly didn’t give an indication of how he was going to go,” chuckled attorney Christy H. Taylor, who represents such North County cities as Fullerton and Anaheim, which envision an El Toro airport as the catalyst for thousands of new jobs.

“I’m not sure I’d like to play poker with him,” said attorney Richard C. Jacobs, who represents the plaintiffs--cities such as Laguna Niguel, Lake Forest and Irvine--that say the impact of a commercial airport at El Toro would have “devastating” consequences on the communities.

The issue at stake in Hayes’ ruling is the legality of Measure A, which calls for a commercial airport on 2,000 acres of the 4,700-acre El Toro air station when the military closes the base by 1999.

Should the outcome go against them, both sides plan to appeal.

Hayes is known for being anything but indecisive. In his most high-profile case, he sentenced to death former Navy machinist Cleophus Prince, who was convicted of stabbing to death six young women in San Diego in 1990 in a series of crimes that terrorized the city.

Hayes’ ruling on the airport was expected a week ago, but he surprised attorneys by postponing the outcome.

And although today’s anticipated decision indicates he had made up his mind, he certainly gave no hint of that in listening to a full day of complicated and often long-winded oral arguments.

“He didn’t want to signal how he felt about it, because he knows how important the issue is,” said E. Clement Shute Jr., who represents the intervening North County cities.

During arguments, Jacobs characterized a commercial airport at El Toro as having “enormous impacts on traffic and congestion in the county.”

“We know those impacts are going to be extraordinarily harsh,” he added, “and my clients--the cities around El Toro--are going to bear the brunt of all those impacts.”

Shute and Taylor, counsel for the North County cities, and Michael Scott Gatzke, a San Diego-area attorney representing Orange County, argued that voters were fully within their rights to approve--or reject--the full content of Measure A.

“I’m not from [Orange County],” said Shute, who, like Taylor and Jacobs, is a San Franciscan, “but everyone [in South Orange County] seems to have jumped to the conclusion that this was a disaster before they had an understanding of how it might work. So now, people are locked into this position of saying, ‘You’re trying to ruin our community.’ ”

Jacobs said it might do exactly that.

“If it merely operated on the same level as John Wayne Airport, it would have to accommodate 500,000 commercial flights a year,” he said. “Does Orange County really need that? Does it really want to be another Los Angeles?”

Ironically, voters go to the polls March 26 to decide Measure S, a rival measure that would repeal Measure A.