El Toro Airport Proposal Draws Emotional Testimony

After nine hours of blunt and often emotional testimony, the Orange County Board of Supervisors late Tuesday was still weighing whether to press ahead with plans to build an international airport at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

The debate, which has bitterly divided the county between north and south, was expected to continue into the early hours as one side praised the airport as an economic boon while the other said it would ruin neighborhoods.

“Is it more important to make money than to protect the health and welfare of people?” asked Carmen Vali of Mission Viejo.

Lake Forest Councilwoman Helen Wilson said: “If this were any other time in history, there would be a civil war, a revolt.”

Although airport supporters were in the minority among the 700 audience members for the special board meeting, they were equally impassioned.

“El Toro has been an airport since Orange County had orange trees. Let’s go with this, because quality of life begins with a paycheck,” said Doy Henley, chairman of the Lincoln Club.

Supervisors were to vote on whether to support a controversial environmental impact report that portrays an airport capable of serving 38.3 million passengers a year as the best future use for the military base.

Driving the airport plan is Measure A, a ballot initiative Orange County voters narrowly passed in 1994 that changed the county’s master plan and calls for developing an airport unless it is deemed unfeasible.

The military has declared the 4,700-acre complex a surplus and intends in mid-1999 to abandon the facility, which opened during World War II.

The reuse of El Toro has been one of the most volatile and divisive issues in county history, pitting north county residents--who support it as a way to boost the local economy and create jobs--against south county residents, who live near the base and fear increased noise, traffic, pollution and safety.

The same geographical divide was evident among board members at the outset of the meeting. Newly appointed Supervisor Thomas W. Wilson stated his staunch opposition to an airport and requested more time to examine the impact on his south county constituents.

“There is no amount of testimony given today, tonight or tomorrow that’s going to make me vote yes,” Wilson said before seeking a 120-day delay. The request for a delay failed on a 3-2 vote.

More than 30 elected officials spoke, followed by representatives of various groups.

Supervisors had been besieged for weeks by faxes, phone calls and intense lobbying by both sides.

Among the partisans were businesses that rely on tourism, including Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm, and people who envision an airport giving the county a bigger role on the world stage.

“The future of the Orange County economy must include international trade, and that means an international airport,” Chapman University President James Doti told the supervisors.

On the other side of the spectrum, the Orange County Business Coalition, a newly formed group representing employees living near El Toro, fought to see the plan defeated. “Make this a showcase for enlightened reuse planning,” said coalition spokesman and Irvine businessman Peter Craig.

City leaders also joined in the lobbying.

Irvine, Lake Forest and Laguna Niguel sent elected officials to contend that an airport would destroy south county.

Laguna Hills Councilwoman Melody Carruth told supervisors that an airport would “Manhattanize” the county and likened airport supporters to the greedy farmer who gutted the goose that laid the golden eggs.

Taking a more militant stance, the Irvine City Council unanimously voted to file a lawsuit against the county if supervisors approved the environmental impact report. Mayor Christina Shea said the suit would challenge the validity of the report, which city officials say glosses over the airport’s impact on noise, traffic and property values.

Tuesday’s county board meeting--and what is likely to be legal wrangling for years to come--illustrated that there is little hope of crafting a reuse plan that will be agreed upon by all of the county.

At the start of the meeting, Supervisor Roger R. Stanton expressed the sentiments of many when he looked out into the crowded board chambers and said: “The Marines should have stayed.”

Times correspondent Lori Haycox contributed to this story.