Candidates Unanimous Against Jail Expansion, Airport

There is absolutely no disagreement among City Council candidates over how the two hottest issues in the city should be resolved.

A commercial airport at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station? There are five candidates for two seats, and not one wants to see jetliners flying over Lake Forest.

Place more inmates at James A. Musick Branch Jail, about a quarter-mile from residential neighborhoods? None in favor.

“If any [candidate] were to support the airport or jail, they’d be in La-La Land,” said Marcia Rudolph, a former councilwoman running for another term after a two-year absence. “That’d be crazy.”

With little difference among the candidates over the airport and jail proposals, the election may swing on a third issue: the redevelopment of El Toro Road. It is the most clogged, congested street in South County, with 61,000 car trips per day. Motorists often have to wait for two or three light changes as vehicles inch toward Interstate 5.

El Toro Road is also a potential retail gold mine, with the shopping centers that line it. But all the candidates agree that its stores and restaurants are aging and that the area is badly in need of a face lift.

“Why do we have to see about 150 ‘for lease’ signs on El Toro Road without asking if there is something that needs to be done?” asked Ronald G. Nash, a part-time professional fund-raiser for nonprofit groups. “We need marketing plans, studies of traffic flow. We have to get going on this.”

The incentives to improve El Toro Road are many: a larger tax base and more revenue flowing into city coffers; a more attractive city; more tolerable traffic conditions.

Councilwoman Helen Wilson sees an opportunity to build an area that would strengthen the city’s sense of community.

“We could create some kind of historical shopping village,” she said. “It could be an opportunity to capture that community pride . . . create a strong identity for Lake Forest.”

Councilwoman Ann Van Haun, who is running for her second term, wants the businesses of El Toro Road linked in some manner.

One of the biggest problems with the retail corridor is that the shopping centers are blocked from each other, Van Haun said. Getting from one plaza to another requires a series of messy left turns into the busy traffic of El Toro Road, exacerbating the congestion.

“We need to connect the shopping plazas so that cars don’t have to go on the road,” Van Haun said. “I’d like to make it easier to walk by building a pedestrian walkway over El Toro Road.”

But before any kind of plan is considered, the candidates agree that there must be massive input from residents and the business community--and that planning has to start as soon as possible.

“This decision on El Toro Road is a citywide issue,” Rudolph said. “We need to put the citizens to work on it and come up with some kind of a master plan.”

James J. Richert, who is a national director of operations for Kia Motors America Inc., said Lake Forest needs projects such as a refurbishment of El Toro Road and surrounding areas to prop up city revenue.

“General fund revenue declined 2.5% in the last two years,” Richert said. “We’re not in a crisis, but we need to take a long-term view of financial responsibility.”

Richert also supports establishing a business alliance committee that would give store owners a chance to voice their needs to the council.

Not only do the candidates agree on the issues, they are unanimous that voters should demand leadership of their elected officials.

Wilson, Van Haun and Rudolph say they’ve got the experience to help get Lake Forest through the sticky airport and jail issues.

Richert and Nash counter by pointing out that city has plenty of experience already on the council, but what Lake Forest needs is a fresh viewpoint.

Whoever is elected should take a strong, no-compromise stance with the county on the airport and jail issues, Rudolph said.

“This is not a time to compromise, this is not a time to be mealy-mouthed,” she said. “We’ve got a war going on here, and we’ve got to win or our citizens will be in dire straits.”

Richert saw hope in a recent public meeting on the airport issue with the county, where members of the Board of Supervisors acknowledged the validity of critics who say the environmental impact report is flawed.

In campaigning door-to-door, Wilson said many residents feel that an airport is inevitable.

“I tell them that an airport is not a definite, it’s not a done deal,” she said. “We can’t give up and say the county has made its decision. People have to respond and make their feelings known.”

Nash said his approach to the airport and jail issues would be to lobby Navy officials, who control the Marine air base, and convince them not to allow an airport.

As for the jail, Nash said, “I would try my level best to convince the supervisors to shut down [Musick jail] and ship it to a remote canyon where it’s not so close to residential areas.”