Airport Foes Plan Descent on Supervisors Meeting

Protest organizers hope hundreds of South County residents will caravan to the Orange County Board of Supervisors meeting tonight to fight plans for an international airport at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

Residents will gather at 6 p.m. in Lake Forest, Irvine, Laguna Niguel and Laguna Hills for brief rallies before car-pooling to the Hall of Administration in downtown Santa Ana, said Chriss Erickson, an Irvine resident and rally organizer.

“We’re hoping for a good turnout, a real good turnout, so they’ll know how many people care about this issue,” Erickson said Monday.

After assembling outside the county building, protesters will attend the supervisors meeting--scheduled to discuss the county budget--and are being urged to speak out against the airport.

The military is expected to depart the 4,700-acre military base by 1999. The county is in the midst of deciding the future of the base, and a recent Environmental Impact Report commissioned by the county portrays an international airport as a favorable reuse option.

A majority of Orange County residents have voted to support placing an airport at El Toro. But South County residents, who live nearest the base, have been vocal in their opposition.

“It will just be awful, it will be devastating,” said former Irvine Mayor Larry Agran, who is organizing his own group, Project ‘99, to help block an airport. “We hope this will be a wake-up call.”

Supporters say an airport will bring jobs and stimulate the economy. Opponents fear it will bring traffic, pollution and noise.

Some of the most vehement foes of airport plans--Taxpayers for Responsible Planning--will not be formally involved in the rally but are backing the action.

“I can’t make it, but they have my support,” said Bill Kogerman, co-chairman of the taxpayers group. “I’m glad to see people getting involved.”

When South County residents arrive at the Hall of Administration, a rally will be held in the plaza, Erickson said. There, Agran and others will address the crowd.

Participants have even written a song for the occasion, to be sung to the tune of “Home on the Range”: “Oh, leave me my home, where the airplanes don’t roam, where my pets and my children can play.”

Erickson said participants will be encouraged to address county supervisors, who many South County residents believe are largely unsympathetic to their plight.

“The message we want to get across is that no one is speaking for the South County cities,” Erickson said. “People are feeling railroaded.”

The board meeting is already expected to be a long one given its topic--the county’s budget--and residents asking to speak could force the meeting to go into the early hours, some predict.

Protesters will meet at 6 p.m. at El Toro High School in Lake Forest, Irvine City Hall, Laguna Niguel City Hall and Leisure World in Laguna Hills.