Irvine Set for Blitz on Airport

Voters throughout Orange County are being asked on television and through the mail to help Irvine plan what city officials have dubbed “the Great Park” at the closed El Toro Marine airfield.

Nevermind that the county is planning an international airport on the 4,700-acre base.

A mail-in survey to 450,000 voters countywide--and a 30-second TV spot airing on most cable systems beginning today--solicits ideas for planning recreation, education and research facilities at the base. The outreach program will run through June at a cost of $1.7 million.

“The city’s position is that there has been no final determination” for the reuse of El Toro, said political consultant Stu Mollrich, who spent four years working for pro-airport forces but has been hired by Irvine to develop its campaign.

“People have changed the zoning once. They could change it again,” Mollrich said. “This is an attempt to build a public consensus for what should be there.”

The mail and TV ads hit a day after Irvine released an environmental report with a blueprint for what it wants built at the base instead of an airport.

Called the Millennium Plan II, it features a 757-acre central park, a wildlife corridor, 15 million square feet of commercial space and about 3,000 homes. It is part of the city’s application to annex the base.

The city mailer comes less than a week after an opposing mailer was distributed to 200,000 households by a pro-airport group touting the county’s airport proposal. That plan foresees an international airport opening in 2005 and features a wildlife corridor and a 770-acre park, which the county tentatively has named Veterans Memorial Park.

The pro-airport mailer was distributed by Citizens for Jobs and the Economy, a private group funded primarily by Orange County businessman George Argyros. It included a survey asking people to offer new names for the airport and the park.

Mailer Fails to Mention Development

Bruce Nestande, president of the pro-airport group, criticized Irvine’s park mailer for asking people to help design the open space areas for the base while failing to mention that the city also wants to build houses and commercial buildings there. He noted that the city has no current authority to decide what happens at the base, which is owned by the federal government and lies within the planning jurisdiction of the county.

Nestande also questioned why the city mailers were sent solely to active voters, who will decide in March the fate of an anti-airport ballot initiative. The city is barred under state law from spending money to influence elections.

“This clearly is a campaign technique to try to sell a bad initiative through the park,” he said.

Mollrich said voters were targeted because they have demonstrated more interest in government and public policy and thus are more likely to return the survey.

The mailer didn’t include the proposed housing construction and commercial development because “the idea wasn’t to list all of the possible uses” for the land, said Peter Hersh, Irvine’s chief planner for El Toro.

Public opinion polls over the last three years have shown that support for the airport has eroded, with slightly more residents now opposed to the airport than in favor of it. Voters first approved the airport zoning in a countywide vote in 1994 and confirmed it in 1996.

That erosion indicates that Orange County voters want another shot at deciding what should happen at the base, Mollrich said.

“It’s up to the city to take public input from throughout the county and factor it into the plan,” he said.

Redesigning the base into a showcase for arts, entertainment, education and recreation is a far better use of the property than imposing an unwanted, around-the-clock airport that would bring noise, traffic and pollution, Irvine Mayor Christina L. Shea said this week.

The city, in fact, has further softened a redevelopment plan first proposed by a coalition of anti-airport South County cities, of which Irvine is a member. The original Millennium Plan featured about double the number of homes and commercial space and would have generated about 100,000 more car trips a day, according to a comparison by Irvine planners.

“Both the county’s and the city’s plans have shifted to ‘greener’ uses,” Mollrich said. “The question we’re asking is, should they go even greener?”

The public has until the end of January to review and comment on the city’s environmental documents for its El Toro alternative. The Irvine City Council will vote in February whether to approve the report.

Once that occurs, the city can pursue its annexation request with the Local Agency Formation Commission, a state body that oversees incorporations and annexations. Commission officials have been lukewarm about the city’s request, though, because annexation requires an unlikely agreement with the county on the distribution of future property taxes.

The county was set to release its environmental report on the airport plan this month but postponed it until next month at the earliest. The county Board of Supervisors, which has pushed forward airport planning on 3-2 votes, is scheduled to take its final airport vote in May.

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Irvine Proposal: Parks, Not Planes

Irvine is proposing turning El Toro Marine Corps Air Station into a “Great Park” divided into four districts. How they want to divvy up the base’s 4,700 acres:

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Education, Research and Technology District: 910 acres

For university/college, branch of a major private university, high-tech trade school, library

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Habitat Preserve District: 1,057 acres

Hiking trails, nature centers

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Arts and Culture District: 1,460 acres

Veteran’s memorial, art and earth science museums, artists’ village, children’s art park, central park with pedestrian trails, bicycle paths and gardens

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Sports and Entertainment District: 846 acres

Olympic training center, freshwater lake for fishing and water sports, 50 AYSO soccer fields and stadium, central sports complex

Source: City of Irvine