Irvine’s El Toro Gambit

As county planners move closer to presenting a final El Toro commercial airport plan, the likely scenario is that supervisors next May will approve whatever is proposed. But don’t tell that to the city of Irvine just yet. The El Toro neighbor, located in the center of the county’s high-tech and residential development boom, continues to stir the pot. Long at ground zero for airport opposition, Irvine is doing some interesting things--some far-sighted, others not so--in forging ahead with plans for itself and for others.

On the minus side, the city began last month to initiate zoning changes for the Irvine Spectrum business park in areas around the base that previously were off-limits to development because of proximity to military jet operations. This prime real estate is either a great opportunity for new businesses or a new noise zone in the making, depending on whether the airport is built.

The city obviously is gambling that the airport eventually will be defeated, and is inviting others to do the same. If schools and office complexes spring up around the airport with a green light from the city, there will be all the more examples of the burden of an airport on the surrounding community to cite.

Trying to get an early start on what it wants isn’t much different from what the county did in trying to jump-start cargo flights out of El Toro. In both cases, a better policy would have been to wait until a plan for base reuse is set, instead of acting prematurely on what might be desirable. Lake Forest Councilman Richard T. Dixon, also an airport foe, describes a wiser strategy for his or any city: Wait to do any rezoning near the base--and thereby avoid having unhappy occupants--until the future is clearer.

But Irvine also has been doing for the base what the county has been derelict in doing. That is developing a credible alternative redevelopment plan for the base. Irvine has been touting its Millennium Plan II, with a 757-acre central park, a wildlife corridor, and commercial and home development as part of the city’s application to annex the base. Before voting to rezone the base for a commercial airport under Measure A in 1994, voters in Orange County should have had the option of considering alternatives like this one. The county didn’t do its job. It has been left to Irvine and other cities in South County to come up with one.

Then there was Councilman Larry Agran’s measured call for regional approaches recently in response to concerns raised by El Segundo about a proposed expansion of Los Angeles International Airport. Although El Toro opponents came under fire from El Segundo, Agran refrained from engaging in a war of parochial interests by retaliating.

But as in all things related to El Toro, nothing is simple. Newport Beach residents obviously would have a similar claim on not being burdened by additional passenger traffic to serve the region at John Wayne Airport if El Toro isn’t built. Irvine, located right in the middle of the controversy, hasn’t been shy about pointing out the potential for more passengers at John Wayne Airport once a court-imposed cap is lifted.