Three Meetings to Air Reports on El Toro

Orange County officials who helped write the environmental report on the reuse of the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station recommended Tuesday that key commissions approve the report and a plan to build a civilian airport at El Toro.

The Orange County Airport Commission will meet at 1:30 p.m. today, followed by the El Toro Citizens Advisory Commission meeting at 6 p.m. to consider the environmental report and airport plan.

The Orange County Planning Commission will tackle the controversial issues at 1:30 p.m. Thursday. All hearings will take place at the County Hall of Administration.

Some opponents of the airport proposal have questioned whether commission members are getting objective information from the staff of the Environmental Management Agency and John Wayne Airport, which worked on the environmental review and the airport proposal.

“I think this is a done deal. I think this is all part of a process rubber stamping an airport at El Toro,” Trabuco Canyon resident and airport opponent Edward Gogin said.

Kathleen Campini Chambers, a county spokeswoman for the El Toro reuse project, said the planning process has been unbiased and that commissioners are open-minded. The staff recommendations are just advisory, she said.

“This is a public process and the commissions will be accepting public comment at these meetings as they deliberate their recommendations,” she said. “By no means has a decision been made up to this point.”

The commissions will make recommendations to the Orange County Board of Supervisors, which will meet in December to decide the most sweeping land use issue facing the county.

Reuse options for the base include a passenger-cargo airport, a cargo-general aviation airport or turning the 4,700-acre base over to non-aviation uses such as homes, businesses, tourist attractions and recreation areas.

While many airport opponents who live near the base or under projected flight paths are expected to attend the meetings, Orange County residents who have twice voted to back an airport at El Toro are also being urged to show up.

The Airport Working Group, made up mostly of Newport Beach residents who support an El Toro Airport as a way to curb aircraft traffic at John Wayne Airport, is asking members to speak out at the meetings, officials said.