Agency Unveils 3 Non-Aviation Plans for El Toro

The first public unveiling of alternative plans for the El Toro Marine base drew more than 100 people Wednesday night, many of whom complained that the ideas lacked pizazz.

Residents told the planners that the proposals needed a theme that might grab the public’s interest and stir enthusiasm.

“I really don’t see an attention-getter that will help us get leverage” over the county’s plan to build a commercial airport, resident Irv Smith said.

Irvine resident Ken Hansen said none of the plans would make people readily identify Orange County with this development.

“It didn’t have the excitement of a ‘Churchill Downs West’ racetrack,” Hansen said. “It was pretty mundane, and it didn’t have that snap that we would have hoped for. They really need an anchor tenant, and perhaps a university would be a good idea.”

Planners for the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority, made the lead agency for studying potential non-aviation uses by the Board of Supervisors, offered details of their three scenarios for the 4,700-acre Marine base, explaining the economic benefits of each over 25 years.

The three plans include:

* An “Urban Core,” with 1,154 acres of housing and nearly the same amount of land for commercial, industrial and hotel development. In addition, 1,000 acres would be recreational areas such as a golf course, an arena, a convention center, a museum and a college. Agency planners estimated that nearly 40,000 on-site jobs would be generated by the plan. However, there would be no open space and the plan would generate heavy traffic, planners acknowledged.

* The “Central Park” option entails more than 300 acres for a park with hiking trails leading into Limestone Canyon. Only 766 acres would be used for housing, with nearly 1,000 acres reserved for commercial and retail use. A museum, arena, theme park and convention center would be included in this plan.

Planners estimate that the gross revenue and number of on-site jobs would be nearly the same as with the Urban Center option, but they say there would be significantly less traffic.

* “College Town” would put housing on nearly 2,000 acres with about 700 acres for a college and research and development companies. The number of jobs generated, estimated at 30,000, would be significantly less than under the other options. Gross revenue would be nearly $2 billion less than any of the other plans.

Rather than endorse a specific plan, those who attended asked questions about the cost of the development, the focus of the plans and who would develop the property. But since the plans are very preliminary, the presenters said they didn’t know the answers to those questions.

Melani Crandall of Coto de Caza said that she preferred the Urban Core but that the planners needed to show “photographs of futuristic-type sites that are being developed around the world. They really need to start promoting those ideas.”

By January, the authority’s board will choose one plan to submit to the county by April. That proposal would only be considered as an option if a fatal flaw is found in the county’s plan to turn the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station into a commercial airport after the Marines leave in 1999.

The preliminary alternative plans were overseen by BV Engineering, an Irvine-based firm headed by Bill Vardoulis, former Irvine mayor.