Runways or Lakes for El Toro?

* Roger Gibb’s June 18 letter attacking me and the proposed Great Park at El Toro has a familiar ring to it. It’s the same kind of negative nonsense the pro-airport, pro-development crowd has been spouting for years now.

In the 1980s, when development was rampant in Irvine and our precious open space was vanishing, thousands of us joined together in a remarkable open-space preservation movement.

I was mayor at the time, and I recall the naysayers who fought us every step of the way. But we persisted. The result? By an 87% majority, Irvine voters in 1988 adopted a sweeping, open-space preservation plan setting aside 8,500 acres of hillsides, canyons and agricultural lands to remain forever free of development.

In the 1990s, when the pro-airport, pro-development crowd was telling us that El Toro international airport was a “done deal,” thousands of us organized the biggest, boldest, grass-roots movement in Orange County history. The result? With a thunderous 67.3% majority, this past March 7 voters said “yes” to Measure F and “no” to an El Toro international airport.

Now that we’ve gained the upper hand, we have an opportunity to finally bury the airport by replacing it with a magnificent Great Park at El Toro.

The 2,500-acre Great Park we envision will be more than twice as large and every bit as beautiful as San Diego’s Balboa Park.

Contrary to what Gibb and the other professional pessimists contend, the Great Park--located just minutes away from every Orange County household--will not only enhance the environment, it will actually generate revenue and create wealth far in excess of any public costs.

Gibb is, of course, free to ally himself with the developers and the pro-airport die-hards. As for me, I’ll happily stick with the people of Orange County who overwhelmingly prefer a Great Park at El Toro.

LARRY AGRAN

Irvine City Council member

* Is Los Angeles airport commissioner Leland Wong serious? How can he propose a fee for Orange County residents to use Los Angeles International Airport and not Riverside County, San Bernardino County or Ventura County residents (June 22)?

As for Orange County carrying its own weight, what about the residents of Santa Clarita, Palmdale and other rapidly growing areas in the high desert building an airport or converting existing airports to commercial use?

Have Wong and El Segundo Mayor Mike Gordon failed to notice that we already have an airport here in Orange County that handles airline passenger traffic? Why not pick on Ventura County residents, who nixed the conversion of Camarillo as a viable commercial airport?

The LAX Airport Commission controls Ontario International Airport also. Don’t they have enough to do to keep their airports profitable without telling other communities what to do?

KAREN HINTON

Newport Beach

* I was amused when I read that Meg Waters, spokeswoman for an anti-airport coalition, was first to squeal when Leland Wong proposed a user fee for Orange County residents at LAX.

The fee is very likely illegal, and Waters is only attracting attention to herself as one of those responsible for attempting to create the airport congestion of the future.

Perhaps it is appropriate that her name will be in the minds of those who will be sitting in gridlock, fuming, while trying to catch a flight out of LAX or Ontario instead of an easy drive to El Toro airport.

JOHN GARDINER

Costa Mesa

* Despite what propaganda Irvine or the anti-airport coalition El Toro Reuse Planning Authority spews, other regional airports cannot handle our future demand on top of their own projected growth.

Orange County has a lot less projected growth than L.A., San Bernardino or Riverside Counties, which is why they will need to use more of their airport capacity for their own population.

The mayors of L.A., El Segundo and Ontario have publicly stated this fact time and time again. Irvine and Susan Withrow of ETRPA are still arrogant enough to expect other counties’ airports to provide them air transportation while taking no responsibility for the explosive growth in their communities.

The use tax is probably illegal, but the message is clear. Other counties require Orange County to deal with its own transportation problems.

Any non-aviation plan for the El Toro Marine base must also include real plans for dealing with the county’s future transportation problems.

Supervisors Tom Wilson and Todd Spitzer should be chastised for not requiring this as part of every plan. This is the whole crux of the El Toro debate.

It was known in 1985 that John Wayne Airport would quickly outgrow its limited 500-acre general aviation site, which is why the agreement with the county required the selection of another airport site.

All these park plans ignore the real problem: how to provide adequate transportation for all of the extra people.

Currently the economy is good, and people are spoiled by it, but the pendulum will swing. Unlike a park, the El Toro airport will buffer Orange County from future economic downturns.

MARK BURY

Newport Beach

* I’ll step right up and pay a fee.

I’d be glad to pay a fee if it means keeping a noisy, polluting, 24-hours-a-day airport from being put up in the middle of the fastest-growing area of Orange County.

DAVE KIRKEY

Coto de Caza