Council to Look at Uses for Acreage at El Toro

Council members tonight will consider planning options for 440 acres of city land in the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

But their options may be influenced by the defeat of Measure S, a March ballot initiative that sought to ban a commercial airport at the military base. The City Council unanimously endorsed the failed initiative.

If a commercial airport at El Toro is inevitable, Councilwoman Paula Werner said the city should capitalize on the economic potential of the area.

With nearby attractions such as the Edwards theater complex, Wild Rivers water park and Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre, Werner said it might be a good location for a sports complex and convention center.

“We’ve lost twice on the airport vote,” Werner said. “If there’s going to be an airport, we need to know how that will affect what we can put in there.”

Councilman Barry Hammond said the county needs the city’s cooperation to plan for development of the 4,700-acre base, which is scheduled to close in 1999.

The five county supervisors are the federally designated base-closure planning group. Supervisors withdrew from the original planning group, the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority, after the November 1994 passage of Measure A, which calls for a commercial airport at the base. Irvine and five other South County cities continue to fund the El Toro planning authority.

Hammond said that Irvine should be included on the county’s decision-making panel.

“The city’s always been willing to come to the table and be part of the process,” Hammond said. “The county is the one that walked away. We’d like them to walk back.”