Airport Not Sole Option for Base Land

Orange County Sheriff Brad Gates wants a piece of it. The Juaneno Band of Mission Indians wants it all. Homeless activists also are asking for a share.

It’s hard to tell amid the clamor over proposals for a commercial airport at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, but that is just one of more than 50 formal requests for a slice of the 4,700-acre base being abandoned by the military.

“All this talk about airport, no airport, you’d think those are the only land use issues to negotiate at El Toro,” said Tim Shaw, head of the Orange County Homeless Issues Task Force. “From our view, we’re focused on using the base, or parts of it, for affordable housing.”

Orange County voters go to the polls Tuesday to decide Measure S, which would block a proposal to develop an airport at the base. But regardless of the election outcome, the final say on El Toro’s future rests not with voters, but with the Pentagon and a complicated process for turning over surplus federal property.

The Department of Defense requires the county to submit a base reuse plan that has taken into consideration the dozens of requests for a share of the land.

While it is believed that the federal government will turn over much if not most of the land to the county, even that is not certain, officials said.

“We don’t know what the Department of Defense will do with the base,” said Courtney Wiercioch, a county executive overseeing the planning process. “That’s something that’s going to be decided down the road. In the meantime, we’re putting together our proposal.”

That entails sifting through the several dozen proposals by local, state and federal government agencies and private groups. The base would have to more than double in size to accommodate all the entreaties filed with the county, from 2,000 acres for a proposed commercial airport to half an acre requested by a Baptist college hoping for its own office and classroom.

The largest single request comes from the Juaneno Band of Mission Indians of San Juan Capistrano, which is demanding that the entire base be turned over to Native Americans.

“That land will revert back to the Indians,” said August Spivey, a Native American activist who threatens to file legal action to prevent the land from being turned over to anyone else. “I’m wondering why all this money is being spent on this [Measure S] election when the land is ours. And we’re prepared to fight for it if we have to.”

For the county, prioritizing the requests isn’t a precise science. But first priority goes to requests from the federal government.

Although the U.S. Bureau of Prisons recently withdrew its request for prison space, the Interior Department wants 1,084 acres for a nature habitat, and the Federal Aviation Administration wants five acres for an existing radar facility. That leaves 3,611 acres.

Federal law previously gave priority for surplus land to programs serving the homeless. That law has since been diluted to require that a “reasonable accommodation” be offered for homeless providers, said Shaw of the homeless issues task force.

“The problem is the interpretation for ‘reasonable accommodation’ is up to the local planning authority,” said Shaw, who hopes nonetheless that some of the base can be used for shelters or day-care centers for the homeless.

It’s up to the county to incorporate the remaining state and local requests into its plan. The county staff is systematically going through each request and evaluating it.

Criteria include how effectively the proposal addresses unmet needs, its impact on traffic, police and fire services, and whether it would create jobs and generate revenue.

A citizens advisory commission then will take the county staff’s work and form three alternative recommendations for the Orange County Board of Supervisors, which is recognized by the federal government as the planning authority for the base. The passage of Measure S would disband the commission, but the county will still face a December deadline for producing a base reuse plan.

If an airport does land at the base, just over 1,600 acres would remain for other proposed uses. Some of those include a cemetery, a golf course, an entertainment center and a racetrack.

Many of the proposals are not likely to raise much controversy, such as a request by the Orange County Firemen’s Assn. for two acres for a museum and meeting center.

But a fight on a par with the airport battle is expected in the coming months when the county begins grappling with a request by the state Department of Corrections and the Orange County Sheriff’s and Probation departments for more than 1,000 acres for a prison, jail and detention facilities.

“I don’t think that anyone in the county can dispute the need for jail beds,” Gates said. “I wouldn’t have made the request if it didn’t make any sense.”

Wiercioch said one of the most difficult jobs so far has been urging people to look at all options.

“This is much more than just an airport issue.”