Airport Foes Can’t Do Study and Sue, O.C. Says

Following a tense public airing, the Orange County Board of Supervisors decided Tuesday that South County cities won’t be allowed to produce a study of alternative uses for El Toro Marine Corps Air Station unless they drop their legal efforts to block the county’s airport plans.

The four-hour board debate seemed to reinforce the rift between the South County cities and the county, which is moving ahead with plans to develop a commercial airport at the base after it is retired by the military in 1999.

“We are right back to the polarization and the politics,” said Laguna Niguel Councilwoman Patricia C. Bates, an airport opponent. “We had an opportunity to bring people together and, instead, we’ve widened the schism.”

Bates and other South County leaders have long sought to perform the study, which would look at a variety of uses for the 4,700-acre base ranging from homes and commercial buildings to a rail transportation hub.

The Board of Supervisors requested such an alternative study in December when it approved preliminary plans to build an airport at the base.

County Chief Executive Officer Jan Mittermeier proposed last week that South County cities produce the study of alternative uses but only if they drop their lawsuit against the county.

Her proposal, she said, was a way to give airport critics a voice in El Toro planning and cool the fierce political battle over the base’s future.

Airport opponents, however, said Tuesday they will not drop their lawsuit, a stance that effectively scuttles Mittermeier’s proposal.

Critics maintained that the lawsuit should not be linked to the study and accused the county of using the litigation issue as a “red herring.”

County officials, meanwhile, insisted that the lawsuit must be dropped as a sign of good faith and to make sure that any information the county gives opponents for the study would not be used against it in court.

“We would always be looking over our shoulders,” explained Michael S. Gatzke, an attorney for the county. “It would not make for a productive process.”

The 3-2 board vote mirrored the division surrounding the airport issue: Board Chairman William G. Steiner as well as Supervisors Charles V. Smith and Jim Silva voted in favor of Mittermeier’s plan, while South County Supervisors Todd Spitzer and Thomas W. Wilson voted against it.

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Wilson proposed that the South County cities do the study of alternative uses without dropping their lawsuit, but his motion failed on a 2-3 vote.

Nonetheless, both Wilson and Steiner expressed optimism that the two sides might still reach an agreement and called for further negotiations over the next few weeks.

“My preference is to have the litigation dismissed, but I don’t want it to be a deal breaker,” Steiner said. “I’m wary of us always being at each other’s throats on this issue and would like to get this plan together.”

Wilson said Steiner’s comments provided a “crack in the armor” that might result in a compromise later on.

“There is room for movement,” Wilson said. “I don’t think this is a dead issue.”

Under Mittermeier’s proposal, the study would be prepared by a coalition of South County cities known as the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority.

The organization’s report would be included in Orange County’s final environmental impact report for El Toro as an alternative to converting the base into a commercial airport.

The Board of Supervisors would then have the option of selecting South County’s proposal, even if it doesn’t find any “fatal flaws” in the final airport plan, which is now being developed.

The proposal does not call for the county to give funds directly to the South County group but does require it to perform some studies at an estimated cost of at least $500,000.

The conflict centers on a lawsuit South County cities filed in February, contending that the county’s preliminary environmental impact report failed to properly address an airport’s noise, traffic and pollution effects.

Spitzer quizzed county officials at length Tuesday about whether the lawsuit would actually have any bearing on South County’s study of alternative uses for El Toro.

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“This has nothing to do with the lawsuit at all, it has to do with people coming together in good faith,” Spitzer said. “We can take a huge step forward today by not holding this [plan] hostage with the litigation issue.”

Lake Forest Councilman Richard Dixon agreed. Ending the lawsuit is “unacceptable and unrelated to the development of a non-aviation plan,” he said.

But Smith and Silva disagreed.

“It’s hard to work with people who are suing you,” Silva said.

The county’s attorney also said that with the lawsuit still in court, officials would have to wonder whether requests for information from South County cities was for the non-aviation study or for use in their litigation.

Dixon, chairman of the South County group, said that while he was disappointed at the board’s vote, he and others will continue to work toward a resolution.

If an arrangement cannot be worked out, the county could hire its own consultant to do the study. But several supervisors said they would likely oppose such a plan, saying such a study would lack credibility with some in the community.