Irvine Bucks Odds With Stadium Plan

The city of Irvine is moving ahead with plans for a sports stadium on a 440-acre portion of the closed El Toro Marine base, disregarding Orange County’s plan to put an airport business park and golf course on the site.

The city’s effort is part of its resolve to do whatever it takes--regardless of the odds--to thwart the county’s plans to build an international airport at the 4,700-acre base.

“It is our contention and expectation that there will not be an airport at El Toro,” Councilman Larry Agran said.

Irvine has been leading the attack on the proposed airport, arguing that it would destroy the city’s carefully crafted general plan and that the noise, pollution and traffic would obliterate South County’s quality of life. The city has positioned itself as the pocketbook of the anti-airport effort, thanks largely to a $17-million budget surplus.

But federal and state officials say the city has no authority over what happens to the 440 acres, which are part of the 4,700-acre base but lie within Irvine’s boundaries.

Airport supporters see the city’s planning for the 440 acres as an exercise in futility. The city, they say, neither owns the land nor has any prospect of gaining planning authority over it once the property is deeded to the county.

Under its airport plan, the county would put in a nine-hole executive golf course and an office park--the only non-airport commercial development planned. The property is at the southwest corner of the base.

City officials are undaunted.

“People keep forgetting that almost 10% of the base is within the city of Irvine,” Councilman Mike Ward said. “We have a legal responsibility to plan for that area.”

Irvine leaders unveiled changes to a non-aviation development, called the Millennium Plan, for the entire base last week. They want to make it a more attractive alternative to the airport by reducing density and traffic.

Today, the City Council is scheduled to appoint two members to serve on a redevelopment agency for the 440 acres to begin planning for the sports arena and an expanded Irvine Auto Center. Such agencies, typically formed to rehabilitate blighted areas, also can be used to rebuild closed military bases for civilian uses.

Picking a fight with the county over land-use control could be a loser for Irvine, said Ben Williams, director of the Commission on Local Governance in Sacramento and formerly in charge of reuse issues for the governor’s office.

“Hypothetically, I don’t think the county would have to get land-use permits or anything from the city [to build on the property],” he said.

State law exempts counties from complying with city general plans and other regulations on county-owned property, except for the construction of airport facilities.

That makes the county “good to go” on the golf course and office park adjacent Interstate 5, said El Toro spokeswoman Ellen Call. “Frankly, these uses are fully consistent with Irvine’s general plan and zoning,” she said.

Agran and Irvine senior analyst Dan Jung said the city will ask the Department of the Navy to deed the base’s 440 acres to Irvine, instead of to the county, after the environmental process concludes in December.

Irvine officials argue they are entitled to the land under base-closure law, which awards planning authority to the public entity responsible for an area’s zoning.

Getting approval, however, would be a longshot, officials with the federal Office of Economic Adjustment said. Bases generally are conveyed in their entirety through the designated Local Reuse Agency--which in El Toro’s case is the Orange County Board of Supervisors.

Even if the 440 acres were deeded separately, development must be compatible with the approved reuse for the rest of the base, said Bryant Monroe, who heads El Toro’s transition at the federal Office of Economic Adjustment in Arlington, Va.

“We have a recognized local reuse agency, and that is the county,” Monroe said. “Their reuse plan is the one that drives all of our responses.”

The city has banked on the stadium proposal for more than two years, hoping to persuade the National Football League to send Irvine a team. Instead, the league is close to signing a deal for a new team to play at a revamped Los Angeles Coliseum.

Irvine approved spending about $400,000 on its stadium plan. A private group led by former USC football star Anthony Davis offered to raise $500,000 to fund a football stadium if the group is granted exclusive development rights on the property.

The city found out in a survey in April that there are limits to its aggressive opposition to the airport.

In the survey, residents rejected the idea of subsidizing a football stadium on the base. They and residents in other South County communities also were reluctant to raise taxes to buy the base.

Irvine Mayor Christina L. Shea, a lead proponent of the stadium, said the city is convinced there will be enough interest to privately fund a facility with up to 40,000 seats. Another sports league has expressed interest in locating a team in Irvine, she said. She declined to identify the league.

“Before we sign an agreement, we want to make sure we take care of the land issues,” Shea said.

Last month, the city tabled its application to annex the entire base, saying planners needed time to retool the size and impact of the business and residential development within the Millennium Plan.

Last week, city staff released a preliminary redraft of the annexation application, including a “new, lighter” Millennium Plan, Ward said.

The new plan reduces commercial development from 25.2 million square feet to 16.8 million square feet; residences from almost 5,900 to 3,300 units; and traffic from 324,102 average daily trips to 215,000, according to principal planner Glen Worthington.

Open space would grow to almost 900 acres, including a central park and wildlife corridors.

Revised plans should come before the City Council for approval in early August.

Irvine intends to offer the revised Millennium Plan to the federal government as an alternative to the county’s airport plan, Ward said. The original non-aviation plan already is included in county and federal environmental reviews as a potential alternative.

“The county trying to plan an airport for our land is like your neighbor coming over to fix up your backyard,” Ward said. “They’re not welcome and shouldn’t be there, but they’re determined to do it anyway.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Stadium Issue: Irvine Vs. County

In hopes of thwarting an international airport at El Toro, Irvine is moving forward with plans for a sports stadium and arena on a 440-acre portion of the closed base despite Orange County’s plans to put a office park and golf course on the site.

Source: City of Irvine