Early Lies Led to El Toro Support

* It is true that at one time, when the county falsely claimed that the conversion of El Toro to an international airport was a “turnkey” operation with no alternative, I voted for a Huntington Beach City Council resolution favoring an airport (Letters, Oct. 11).

Now that the facts have emerged, I, along with the majority of people in Orange County, oppose an international airport at El Toro.

We have learned that there are clear alternatives for airports: Ontario International and March Air Force Base. With a bullet-train system, built at no cost to taxpayers, these airports could be reached in 20 minutes without enduring freeway traffic.

There is now a reuse plan for El Toro, the Millennium Plan, which clearly is economically superior for Orange County. The use of El Toro as an incubator for a high-tech, information technology industry, combined with a science campus of a major university, will produce over 100,000 high-paying jobs, not the low-paying baggage handler and warehouse jobs of an airport.

The Millennium Plan also provides for a park, similar to Balboa Park in San Diego, with museums and sports venues. The Smithsonian Museum and U.S. Tennis Assn., among others, have expressed keen interest in the concept.

Further, we’ve become sensitive to the fact that flights every three minutes, 24 hours a day, will cause a 25% devaluation of 100,000 homes and destroy Orange County’s greatest resource, our quality of life.

Why on Earth would we “LAX” our county?

DAVE SULLIVAN

Candidate for Orange County

Supervisor, District 2