Building Real Consensus on El Toro Reuse

El Toro airport proponents and opponents agree on one thing: The controversy isn’t about to end soon. In fact, it will intensify as Orange County residents continue to ask: What are the best possible reuses of the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station?

Here’s the essential history. In 1993, the federal government ordered El Toro closed by mid-1999. In 1994, to plan for the base’s reuse, county leaders established a consensus-building process that included communities closest to the base--just as federal law prescribed.

But early hopes for a popular reuse plan were shattered when powerful developers and Newport Beach interests decided to hijack the planning process. They launched a countywide ballot initiative known as Measure A. It predetermined the dominant reuse of El Toro by mandating an international airport, and it destroyed the consensus-building process by excluding South County communities from decision-making and centralizing all power over El Toro with the Board of Supervisors.

In November 1994, Measure A passed by the narrowest of margins, 51% to 49%. Self-interested developers spent more than $1 million to win a bitter election that pitted North County voters against South County voters. It was the opposite of consensus-building. In fact, residents in communities nearest the base opposed a commercial airport by majorities ranging from 60% to 90%.

With Measure A on the books, airport opponents have joined together to shape a three-phased strategy that is gaining popularity across Orange County.

Phase I: Reveal the serious flaws in the county’s airport proposal. Compelled by state law and court orders, county officials are only now beginning to disclose the full extent of noise, traffic, air pollution and neighborhood blight an El Toro airport would bring.

Phase II: Create a real choice. Within days, the seven-city anti-airport authority known as ETRPA (El Toro Reuse Planning Authority) will unveil a nonaviation reuse plan for the 4,700-acre base. By any reasonable measure, this plan will be environmentally and economically superior.

Its centerpiece will be California’s fourth great metropolitan park, one that will rival San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, Los Angeles’ Griffith Park and San Diego’s Balboa Park. It will have botanical gardens, libraries, science centers, museums, performing arts facilities, veterans memorials and 1,000 acres of native habitat served by trails and nature centers. Nearby will be hundreds of acres set aside for colleges and universities and an extension of the Irvine Spectrum, where high-tech industry will provide tens of thousands of jobs for new “knowledge workers.”

Phase III: Offer a new ballot-box choice based on full information. Until recently, county officials dismissed those of us who have been urging a nonaviation reuse plan. They claimed that Measure A decided the matter--El Toro will be an international airport and that’s that. Now they are softening their approach a bit, claiming that their “airport community” plan also provides all the wonderful nonaviation reuses we’d like. Incredibly, they boast that their busy international airport will be surrounded by parks and colleges and high-tech businesses.

Does that make sense to you? Would you send a son or daughter to a college next to a commercial jet runway? Would you take a grandchild on a nature walk with roaring aircraft just 500 feet overhead? Would you want to work in a building located under the landing pattern of passenger and cargo jets?

With Measure A on the books, the only way we can resolve this controversy and begin to rebuild a consensus is to return to the ballot box. But this time a vote should involve a real side-by-side choice between the county’s airport community plan and the citizens’ nonaviation reuse plan. Putting opposing plans on the same countywide ballot is a complex matter--but it must be done. And everyone should insist on honest, impartial statistics about both plans.

Another countywide election could come as early as the year 2000 or, it seems, as late as 2005. For those who are impatient, a reminder is in order: No decision will more profoundly influence Orange County’s future than the redevelopment and reuse of El Toro. Since 1994, we’ve all suffered from the county’s leap-before-you-look philosophy. Let’s do things right this time no matter how long it takes.