Non-Aviation Plans? Airport Foes Have Plenty

Cal State Fullerton wants 242 acres of El Toro Marine Corps Air Station land to build a 15,000-student campus. The Irvine Unified School District wants to keep its three schools, including Irvine High School, on the property it leases from the base.

The Orange County Community Housing Corp. wants affordable housing there. And dozens of horseback riders want to keep one of the county’s few public horse stables open, as well as 300 stalls, a riding ring and acres of horse trails through the Santa Ana Mountains.

It seems there is no lack of ideas on what should happen at the base when the Marines leave in July. The fight over whether the base should be converted to an international airport overshadows them all. But official comments prepared in anticipation of an extensive environmental review due later this year reveal that there’s more concern over the base’s future than just what happens to the runways.

Take the equestrians.

Out of 164 letters received from county residents, 58 were pleas for the county to keep the equestrian facilities at the base. Originally for base personnel only, the horse stable and trails gradually have been opened over the years, and horseback riders want to make sure they don’t lose a unique resource.

The county intends to either keep the equestrian center where it is off Irvine Boulevard or move it near a proposed regional park. But many of the base’s trails stretch to the east in an area designated for a future wildlife habitat to be managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. It is doubtful whether horses or people will be allowed in the new preserve, said Bryan Speegle, planning team manager for the county’s El Toro reuse team.

“We intend to do what we can to accommodate them,” Speegle said, including rerouting trails to connect with the rest of the county’s regional trail system off the base.

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Most of the comments on studying the base’s future centered on the proposed international airport, which would serve 25 million passengers a year by 2020. That plan also calls for John Wayne Airport to expand from about 8 million passengers a year to 10 million, with flights restricted to closer destinations. The airports may be joined by a light-rail system that would ferry passengers and luggage between the two.

Many writers asked county planners to study the non-aviation Millennium Plan proposed by a coalition of South County cities to the same level of detail as that for the international airport. Doing so would allow county officials to implement the plan for homes, businesses, parks and a research center without having to complete a separate lengthy environmental study in the event officials found an unspecified “fatal flaw” in the airport plan.

Requests for the heightened study of the Millennium Plan came from South County cities, organizations, individuals and even the Irvine Co., which has taken a neutral position on the airport.

Speegle said the county will study the Millennium Plan at a level equal to the airport only in those areas where non-aviation uses would create a “measurably different impact.” The challenge, he said, is that the county has a detailed site plan for the airport area but there isn’t one for the Millennium Plan.

Several letter writers prefaced their remarks with skepticism that the county will do anything other than make sure the airport is built, regardless of the environmental impacts. Many airport foes decided to hold their comments until this summer, when a draft environmental review will be circulated. The county is required to address those comments in writing.

“There’s no particular advantage to commenting now,” said Paul Eckles, executive director of the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority, a coalition of seven South County cities opposed to the airport. “Nevertheless, there were some issues we wanted to raise, and the obvious one was that we thought they ought to give the Millennium Plan a full level of analysis.”

Overall, written comments on the latest stage of El Toro planning were received from six state departments and regulatory agencies, 12 cities, six local agencies, 10 community organizations and six schools and school districts, as well as the Irvine Co., the Irvine Ranch Water District and the Air Transport Assn.