Initiative Seeks to Block Airport Conversion Plan

A coalition of south Orange County cities, boosted by a new survey, unveiled a proposal Wednesday for a countywide initiative aimed at halting the planned conversion of the El Toro Marine base into a commercial airport.

The so-called Safe and Healthy Communities Act would require two-thirds voter approval of any county project to build a new or expanded airport, hazardous waste landfill or large jail project near homes.

Leaders of a seven-city coalition, the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority, said Wednesday that voter approval of the measure would stymie further planning of the airport and eventually force the county to concede defeat.

A countywide poll conducted by airport foes earlier this month showed that 71% of residents supported the new measure. About half of the 500 respondents to the survey by Decision Research in San Diego live in the southern part of the county.

Airport boosters criticized the new measure as a dishonest attempt to kill the airport by tacking on unrelated projects to lure voters. No such measure has been tried anywhere else in California and would make it nearly impossible to obtain support for other necessary public projects, they said.

Airport foes “will not be honest enough to ask whether the community of Orange County wants an airport or not, so they’ve chosen to ‘demagogue’ the issue,” said Bruce Nestande, chairman of the pro-airport Citizens for Jobs and the Economy.

Members of the anti-airport group are expected to adopt the proposal at a meeting today and ask the pro-airport Orange County Board of Supervisors to place it on the March 2000 primary ballot.

If supervisors refuse, as a majority already has indicated, the group would begin collecting the 71,206 signatures needed to qualify the measure for the ballot.