Clue to El Toro’s Future Could Lie in Past

The weeds and crumbling buildings in an otherwise picturesque area of Marin County tell the story of what can happen when there is a long, drawn-out struggle over whether to convert a former military base into a commercial airport.

This is a cautionary tale of how one side can win the airport war but suffer for years over the consequences.

After a 24-year struggle with anti-airport forces, Marin County officials finally killed plans to build a civilian airport at the closed Hamilton Air Base at Novato.

But this once-prosperous city--when a thriving Hamilton Air Base was its neighbor--now finds itself struggling to pick up the pieces and to heal the wounds caused by the years of raucous debate. Only now are plans finally underway to improve what had turned into a decrepit eyesore since the Air Force pulled out in 1974.

The circumstances surrounding Hamilton are remarkably similar to those in Orange County, with its proposal to build an international airport at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, opposed by a large majority of South County residents.

As in Orange County, the Novato battle pitted cities against each other and against the county.

And just as in Orange County, the airport controversy eclipsed any other issue. Politicians’ careers were made or broken based solely on their position on the airport. In fact, one of those local anti-airport politicians--now U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer--launched her career on the Hamilton base issue. Construction projects that had nothing to do with the airport were held hostage.

“We would litigate until hell froze over,” said Rod Wood, Novato city manager. “There were a lot of projects that the county wanted, so if they they wanted an all-out war we would give it to them. We promised mutually assured destruction.”

Orange County residents should brace for a similarly long and painful battle if a compromise is not reached soon, veterans of the Novato battle warn.

“The community has to inflict enough pain on itself until the pain of doing nothing is worse than forcing a plan on themselves,” said Ken Bell of Robert Bein, William Frost & Associates, an Irvine engineering firm that served as a consultant to Novato. “From what I have observed, the same initial local arguments are occurring here that occurred in Marin County many years ago.”

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When the military closed Hamilton, Marin County officials dreamed of the base becoming a cargo facility or a reliever airport for San Francisco and Oakland airports across the Bay. They saw it as the best way to stimulate the local economy, which had relied heavily on the military.

In addition, if the land were used for an airport, the county figured, the federal government would likely sell it for less than market value or even give it away.

But the city of Novato, where the base is located, refused to support the idea because of fears over noise, pollution and traffic. Novato already had Gnoss Field, a small private commuter airport.

“People were saying we could buy it for a dollar and that it would be terrific for the community,” said Ernie Gray, a retired Novato official who was on the council for 20 years. “There were people who thought it would be good for business, but then there were the rest of us who were not willing to live next door to an airport.”

Both sides volleyed their share of threats and dreams of what would become of the base if not an airport. It would become a federal prison, airport supporters suggested (Orange County airport boosters threatened the same). It would become a center for recovering drug addicts or a homeless shelter, they warned. Anti-airport environmentalists had their own idea for a commune-style “solar village.”

In addition, both sides in the Hamilton debate lobbied heavily in Washington with military and airline officials. But as they found out--and the Orange County contingent has become aware--the federal government wants nothing to do with local land use planning decisions. The feds would tell them time and again: agree on a compromise and come back when you’ve decided what it will be.

While Marin County and Novato haggled, the 1,500-acre base languished.

“The base is like an old ghost town that is crumbling around you,” Wood said. “If you ever wanted to get a photograph of what blight looks like, this base is it.”

Six ballot initiatives--all of which were won by airport foes--and a countless number of politicians later, Hamilton is finally set to be developed into a residential and commercial site. Six years ago, county officials stopped pressing for an airport and nobody ran on a pro-airport platform, officials said. Yet it took four more years for the county and city to agree on a new development plan.

“I think our reuse plan has tended to bring all kinds of folks together,” Supervisor Annette Rose said. “We took it as granted that we would not return air traffic to Hamilton and with that issue off the table we have been able to satisfy the neighbors in Novato and the larger community.”

Not everyone is feeling so harmonious.

The Hamilton debate polarized the city of Novato itself, with one faction taking the anti-airport side and another group of residents promoting the airport. That fissure was so deep, it halted other construction plans--unrelated to the airport--for as long as 15 years in some cases, Councilwoman Cynthia Murray said.

“People became entrenched in the community and it made it very difficult to plan together,” she said. “People had already gone to their battle stations over Hamilton so it was really easy to translate that into another project.”

Former Novato Councilman Gray said many of the buildings on the base could have been put to good use if the battle had not dragged on for so many years. Now, most of those buildings will have to be torn down. And some airport boosters were so burned out by the experience, they resigned from the community’s civic life, he said.

“Some of the people are still seething because of it and they have stopped participating,” Gray said. “But the healing has begun. We have so far to go now to get back to where we were financially.”

Now it will cost Novato several million dollars to tear down dilapidated buildings and otherwise ready the base for development, City Manager Wood said.

“Base closures are a gut-wrenching, god-awful experience,” he said.

To be sure, there are some differences between the two communities. Marin County has not pursued growth and development as aggressively as Orange County. With 240,000 residents, Marin County’s population is not even one-tenth the size of Orange County’s.

Airport boosters say Orange County--and particularly South County--has brought a need upon itself by promoting population growth.

“There is not an urgency or the need for air transportation in Marin County that you have in Orange County,” said Bruce Nestande, head of the pro-airport group Citizens for Jobs and the Economy.

But the opposition in Orange County is just as adamant as it was in Marin.

In Orange County, the cities of Irvine, Laguna Niguel and Lake Forest have pledged to fight El Toro airport plans at all costs. The Marines depart in July of next year and the Board of Supervisors is scheduled to take a vote on the airport plan in December 1999.

But foes hope to derail the airport plan before next year’s deadline.

The city of Irvine is looking into the possibility of annexing the base--which is in its sphere of influence. Councilman Dave Christensen said the city is also trying to help raise money to purchase the property.

“There are a lot of people in Congress who are saying why should we give this land away if there is somebody there willing to buy it?” he said. “We think a lot of things are going to happen between now and December 1999. . . . I’m willing to wait this out 20 years if that is what it takes.”

South County officials are well aware of the financial and spiritual mess the Hamilton controversy left in its wake. But, having an airport as their neighbor would cause their communities more hardship in the long run, they agree.

“An airport of any size is unacceptable,” said Richard Dixon, a Lake Forest councilman who chairs the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority, an anti-airport group. “Reluctantly I’d rather see a chain-link fence go up at El Toro than see an airport there.”