Choice for El Toro, at Last

Last week, the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority released its long-awaited nonaviation plan for the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station. It is remarkable that the county has been battling over base reuse since 1993, but only within recent days can it be said that serious choices have been on the table. In 1998, Orange County residents actually can look at specific ideas for base reuse that include one fairly detailed product of community thinking with an official base reuse plan and compare them on merits.

The reality, of course, is that not much of this matters for now. The passage of Measure A in 1994 and the county’s decision in late 1996 to begin planning for an airport locked in the future of the base, unless there is another ballot initiative or change in votes on the Board of Supervisors.

The nonaviation planners like to think of the fruit of their diligent labors as a serious alternative plan to the airport, and are pitching it as such. They are to be commended for their ideas and for their thorough enlistment of citizen involvement. In fact it is regarded officially as a backup plan. Its importance is not so much as a substitute for the unlikely “fatal flaw” in airport planning. It really is a contender waiting in the wings in the event that the county returns to the ballot box to decide once again the fate of El Toro.

Despite the back-burner status, it is hard not to think how much clearer the long and contentious debate might have been had something like it been available for Orange County residents to reflect on before the die was cast.

The nonaviation plan was assembled in about six months, and in a highly charged political atmosphere when many people already have made up their minds about El Toro. How much better it would have been had the county insisted as early as 1994, or certainly as late as December of 1996, that a comparative proposal be available that truly reflected citizen participation. A detailed nonaviation plan should have been aired fully before the county went forward with its commitment on the airport.

Of course, airport proponents cannot be faulted for advancing a cause they believe passionately in to the exclusion of other ideas. It was up to the Board of Supervisors to take all this into proper account and perspective. It effectively passed on a responsibility to ensure that the public’s interest was served by a full and fair assessment of the future choices for a giant swath of land in the heart of the county.

There do remain important decisions to be made, but they have to do with the nature and size of an El Toro airport, and how it might fit in with the region’s future aviation needs. Also, how will a two-airport system work, or will it work at all, and does the county intend to keep John Wayne Airport open? Those are different choices from whether there’s an airport at El Toro or a park with botanical gardens, surrounded by high-tech and education.

Obviously, better late than never that the county should be able to assess alternatives. And it is good that the county has this proposal up and ready to fit in with its larger master planning.

The nonaviation plan also deserves solid marks for inclusiveness and thoroughness. Many public meetings were held, results were shared and public brainstorming sessions took place. The citizen and professional planners came up with a range of complementary proposals that seem to avoid the pitfalls of having a large number of people put their ideas into one pot.

Supervisor William G. Steiner has already raised his concern about whether a mini- metropolis would compete with other venues in the county. So now a real debate over ideas, jobs and revenue can begin.

The discussion until now has been focused pro or con airport. In the past, it has been up to pro-airport activists to defend their projections and cost benefit to the county. It now also falls to those who have had the privilege of promoting an alternative plan to defend it.

All of this is healthy for the county, even if overdue and late in the game.