Cox Going to Bat for Airport Foes

In his strongest denunciation of county plans for El Toro Marine base, Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach) blasted Orange County officials Wednesday for disregarding South County residents who oppose an airport there and suggested he would use his clout in Washington to affect the decision.

Cox, the fifth-ranking Republican in House leadership, pledged to work with the House and Senate armed services committees to assure that South County communities get heard before the Department of the Navy deeds the property to the county next year.

“I haven’t exhausted all of the possibilities in Washington,” he said.

Federal law clearly requires that affected communities be included in decisions involving closed bases, Cox said. The Board of Supervisors, which has authority over El Toro reuse, supports the new airport by a 3-to-2 majority. The two South County supervisors oppose it.

“The Clinton administration and the county have stood the base-closure law on its head,” Cox said. “I’m profoundly disappointed that the county continues to give the back of its hand to the affected communities.”

Cox’s view got no backing from fellow conservative Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach). He said the county is not running afoul of the law because the airport’s benefits extend well beyond county borders.

“There is a bigger picture here than the NIMBYs,” Rohrabacher said. The process shouldn’t be held hostage to those “unwilling to suffer some discomfort so the rest of society can prosper.”

Rohrabacher is close to George L. Argyros, the biggest backer of an airport at El Toro.

Cox, who signed a petition over the weekend to place an anti-airport initiative on the ballot, said he did so because the measure is “the only recourse left” for local residents to affect the airport issue.

The initiative would require a two-thirds countywide vote before an airport, large jail or hazardous-waste landfill could be built in the county. Organizers want to put the measure on the March 2000 ballot.

Cox has long advocated that the base be sold to the highest bidder, with the cash used to offset the $1-billion cost to relocate personnel from the El Toro and Tustin Marine bases, which closed last week. Selling the base hasn’t been considered by federal officials, who are working with county officials to turn over the property for a publicly run airport.

Courtney Wiercioch, manager of the county’s El Toro planning program, said Wednesday that county officials are open to the idea of a privately operated airport and will explore it “at the appropriate time” with federal officials.

Cox has straddled the thorny airport issue in the past because he represents both Newport Beach, where residents strongly favor the El Toro airport, and South County, which mostly opposes it. Newport Beach is near John Wayne Airport, where a court agreement limiting flights expires in 2005.

But Wednesday, Cox was unequivocal. “It’s unacceptable to jam one community’s views down the throats of its neighbors,” Cox said. “There has to be cooperation.”

He said he would support an airport at El Toro if a private company offered the most money for the land and obtained approvals to build an airport there. But doing so would require consensus from surrounding communities, something the county has failed to achieve, he said.

A private buyer might be difficult to find, he said, because a developer would not agree to existing procedures that could restrict how it could use the property.