Proposed Measure Would Require Two-Thirds Vote on Airport, Jails

A coalition of South County cities, boosted by a new survey, unveiled its proposal Wednesday for a countywide initiative it hopes will halt the planned conversion of the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station into a commercial airport.

The so-called Safe and Healthy Communities Act would require a two-thirds approval by voters for any county project to build a new airport or expand airports, hazardous-waste landfills or large jail projects.

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.

“They’ll get a new county before they get an airport,” said Irvine Councilman Larry Agran, an authority member.

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

Airport boosters criticized the proposed initiative as a dishonest attempt to kill the airport by tacking on unrelated projects to lure voters. Such a measure requiring a two-thirds local vote would be a first in California and would make it nearly impossible to obtain support for needed public projects, critics said.

Airport foes “will not be honest enough to ask whether the community of Orange County wants an airport or not,” said Bruce Nestande, chairman of the pro-airport Citizens for Jobs and the Economy. “It won’t work.”

ETRPA’s board of directors is 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.

Should supervisors refuse, as a majority already has indicated, a group of South County airport foes would begin collecting the 71,206 signatures needed to qualify the measure for the ballot.

One group already has formed, calling itself Citizens for Safe and Healthy Communities. Organizer Jeff Metzger said he expects a broad coalition of supporters from around the county to collect signatures.

“This is a concept citizens will embrace,” said Metzger, a trial lawyer who lives in Coto de Caza and works in Laguna Hills.

Airport foes said they expect to spend as much as $3 million to promote the measure once it qualifies for the ballot. Airport supporters have estimated they will spend $5 million, much of it coming from real estate developers, to fight the measure.

The initiative provides plenty of room for the county to continue with any plans for normal growth, the backers say. It would not affect projects being planned by cities or projects within city boundaries.

It also would not affect all plans in the three areas it would regulate. With jails, for instance, the measure would require a two-thirds vote only for expanding or building new jails that would have more than 1,000 beds and would be located within a half-mile of 100 or more homes.

Meg Waters, spokeswoman for ETRPA, said the group wants to place the strongest measure it could on the ballot. Polling, she said, has shown that nearly three-quarters of the county’s residents favor a measure that gives them the ability to vote on large county projects that could harm their neighborhoods.

In the past, however, Orange County ballot measures have had a tough time winning at the ballot box even when polls showed that voters favored them. A slow-growth measure in 1988, for example, had support from 73% of voters four months before the election, but eventually lost with only 44% of the vote.

The 4,700-acre Marine base is scheduled to close in July, and the federal government is expected to turn the property over to the county sometime within the following two years.

Airport foes said they want their measure passed before the deed changes hands because the initiative would bar the county from accepting the property for an airport without first obtaining voter approval.

Pro-airport forces have said they will challenge the initiative in court if it passes. The only precedent for two-thirds votes is within the state Constitution and cannot be done by a local measure, they assert.

Richard Jacobs, a lawyer for the South County cities, said the measure includes a provision that would call for a simple majority vote should a court overturn the two-thirds requirement.

The South County group said it still supports the non-aviation Millennium Plan for the base, which includes homes, businesses, a park and sports complex. They hope to place the plan on the ballot in a subsequent election.

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Taking the Initiative

The proposed Safe and Healthy Communities Initiative would require a two-thirds vote by countywide election to complete big projects such as converting El Toro Marine Corps Air Station to a civilian airport. Here is the central tenet of the initiative:

“No act by the County of Orange to approve any new or expanded jail, hazardous waste landfill, or civilian airport project shall be valid and effective unless also subsequently ratified by a two-thirds vote of the voters voting at a County General Election.”

The initiative also would place limits on the amount of money allocated for planning such projects before a final vote. It allows funds to be spent only after a public hearing and a vote by the Board of Supervisors and only for the following purposes:

* To define the project

* To prepare a required environmental impact report or other documentation

* To evaluate and certify such a report or documentation

* To hold required public hearings

* To place the approved project on the ballot

* To pay expenses that may be required by state or federal government

Source: El Toro Reuse Planning Authority