SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA / A news summary : The Regional Review / DEVELOPMENTS IN ORANGE, RIVERSIDE, SAN BERNARDINO AND VENTURA COUNTIES : Airport Foes Closer to Goal of Ballot Measure

Capping a six-month drive, opponents of the proposed El Toro airport on Tuesday turned in more than twice the number of signatures needed to qualify their Safe and Healthy Communities initiative for the March ballot.

Leaders of the drive said they filed 192,298 signatures with the Orange County Registrar of Voters. The petition needs to be signed by only 71,206 registered voters to qualify for the ballot.

The initiative calls for a two-thirds vote of the public before the county can build or expand airports, hazardous waste landfills or large jails within a half-mile of homes.

If passed, south county airport foes would use the measure to force a third vote on the county’s plans to convert the former El Toro Marine air base into an international airport. The base was earmarked for a future airport by a narrow vote in 1994; an attempt in 1996 to get voters to rescind that approval failed.

“The people of this county are sick and tired of being ignored and having our voices fall on deaf ears at the Hall of Administration,” Supervisor Todd Spitzer said at an initiative rally at the registrar’s office. Spitzer and fellow Supervisor Thomas W. Wilson form the board’s anti-airport minority.

The signatures should be verified by mid-October, Registrar Rosalyn Lever said. Pro-airport forces challenged about 80,000 of the signatures through a lawsuit, charging that they were collected on faulty petitions. No hearing date has been set for the suit.