Navy Puts Damper on Irvine’s Plans to Annex El Toro

Dealing a blow to Irvine’s attempts to annex the El Toro Marine base, a Navy official said the city should defer any action until the Navy completes its transfer of the base to the county.

Irvine hopes to annex the 4,700-acre base in a longshot bid to block construction of an international airport there. But the likelihood of such an annexation would disappear if Irvine is forced to wait until after the land is given to the county, which strongly supports the airport.

Assistant Secretary of the Navy Robert B. Pirie Jr. told Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach) by letter last month that the reuse of El Toro is a local decision “best settled by local authorities.”

However, speaking on behalf of Secretary of the Navy Richard J. Danzig, Pirie said the annexation application--awaiting final approval in February by the Irvine City Council--should be postponed until after the Navy approves a reuse for the base and turns over the land.

“What the Navy has done has made it very clear that they’re going to see the process through with the county,” said airport backer Bruce Nestande, who met in October with Navy officials in Washington. “And if it stays with the county, the annexation is dead.”

Added Supervisor Charles V. Smith: “Airport opponents had made it clear they were using [annexation] to interrupt the planning process. It appears to me that this issue is now moot.” Irvine City Atty. Joel Kuperberg, however, said the letter reflects the Navy’s preference but nothing more.

“There’s a big difference between the Marines suggesting to Cox how the city should proceed and formally opposing the annexation,” Kuperberg said.

Annexation is one of several paths Irvine is traveling to try to stop the conversion of El Toro into a commercial airport. The county has asked the federal government to turn over most of the land for what would become Southern California’s second-largest airport. The rest of the land would be used for a large regional park or left undeveloped as a wildlife refuge.

Irvine applied earlier this year to take over the base through the Local Agency Formation Commission, which handles annexations and cityhood requests. About 440 acres of the base lie within city limits.

This month, the city released its environmental review of a non-airport plan for the property.

If the Navy doesn’t want Irvine to annex the base, it must file a formal protest, commission Executive Director Dana M. Smith said. That protest would end the annexation, she said.

That’s not the only stumbling block facing Irvine. Before an annexation hearing can be scheduled, Irvine and the county must agree on how to split future property taxes, Smith said. County and city officials “are working on that,” she said, but county officials have vowed to block the annexation by refusing to sign any tax-sharing agreement.

“I don’t see the Navy taking sides; they’re commenting on the process,” Nestande said of Pirie’s letter. “A change in jurisdiction would be going back to square one. Their role is to get the property off the books.”

Irvine’s annexation of the base would mean that the city’s non-airport zoning would replace the airport zoning established in 1994, Kuperberg said.