Airport Opponents Brainstorm Other Uses

Buoyed by a recent court ruling and opposition by another pilots union that cast doubt on a commercial airport at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, airport opponents held a brainstorming session Sunday to propose alternatives for the development of the base.

Residents of several South County communities that would be affected by a civilian airport at El Toro met at two workshops to discuss wide-ranging proposals for the future of the 4,700-acre facility after it is closed by the military in mid-1999.

The workshops, sponsored by Project 99, a citizens group founded last year to oppose an airport at El Toro, resulted in an eclectic list of recommendations that included building a “Smithsonian West” museum, a veterans cemetery and a mini city that would combine the best qualities of Big Sur, New York City and Irvine.

Project 99 Chairman Larry Agran said the recommendations will be collected in a report that will be released before the end of the year.

He said the report also will be forwarded to the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority, which is responsible for submitting a non-aviation use plan for the base to the Orange County Board of Supervisors.

The board, which favors an airport at El Toro, is recognized by the Pentagon as the sole planning agency for the development of the Marine base.

Airport opponents were still giddy Sunday about two victories earlier this month, which they say bolster their position that an airport is not the best environmental and economic alternative for the site.

In a tentative ruling, San Diego County Superior Court Judge Judith McConnell found that portions of the county’s environmental impact report would have to be rewritten before airport planning can proceed.

McConnell called the report “unrealistic” and said it minimized the environmental impact an airport would have on nearby South County communities.

Two days before McConnell issued her ruling, the Allied Pilots Assn. warned the Board of Supervisors that the county’s airport plan included unsafe landing and departure routes.

The warning came in a letter released by the group, which represents 9,000 American Airline pilots.

The Air Line Pilots Assn., which represents 44,000 commercial pilots nationwide, issued a similar warning in 1996.

County officials said that McConnell’s ruling and the warning by the pilot groups raised issues that can be resolved. The criticisms do not mean that an airport cannot be built at El Toro, county authorities said.

On Sunday, airport opponents were still pushing forward with proposals for a non-aviation use plan, arguing that they will offer “a real choice for a better future” for the Marine base.

“We may not be professional planners, but we deputize ourselves as professional planners,” Agran said. “We’re not here to bash or discuss the county’s airport proposal.”

The workshops debated eight land-use categories for the base: conservation and open space, residential, multiple uses, commercial, institutional, research and industrial, transportation, and a category that studied uses “consistent with the recent history of El Toro.”

Before issuing the final recommendations for each category, the workshops have to consider how the development proposals will affect jobs, income, public costs and revenue, traffic and the environment.