El Toro Airport Question May Go to Voters Again

County supervisors are considering placing an advisory vote on the November ballot to determine if enough public support exists to continue plans to build a commercial airport at El Toro.

The nonbinding vote is among a handful of options to be presented by County Executive Officer Jan Mittermeier to supervisors at a special meeting Wednesday.

Holding an advisory vote would not automatically change the county’s plans for El Toro. It would, however, allow supervisors to determine if support for an airport at the closed Marine base has dropped below a majority.

A poll commissioned in February by the Times Orange County Edition found that may be the case: 52% of voters said they opposed an airport at the closed Marine base, the first time opponents have comprised a majority.

A public vote would give the supervisors a fresh indication of what the public wants at El Toro. The pro-airport board majority, increasingly battered by a growing legion of airport opponents, has relied on a distant 1994 vote to justify its planning.

Pro-airport Supervisor Jim Silva said the time has come to send the issue back to voters. It would be the fourth such vote--an attempt to rescind the airport failed in 1996, and voters on March 7 passed an anti-airport measure that requires a two-thirds vote before the airport can be built.