IRVINE
City officials said Wednesday they were not surprised that the Orange County Board of Supervisors has voted to sue Irvine over its El Toro reuse plan.
“It was expected only in the sense that the Board of Supervisors is consistently hostile to anything and everything that the city of Irvine does,” Councilman Larry Agran said. “Especially when we assert our land-use authority in a way that will block the airport and bring about the non-aviation reuse of El Toro.”
The supervisors voted 3 to 1 Tuesday to legally challenge Irvine’s attempt to annex the 4,700-acre former El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, which was vacated last summer. The county has been granted planning authority over the abandoned base and has proposed building an international airport there, a move supporters say will pump millions of dollars into the local economy.
Irvine officials have retaliated, spending more than $5 million to create and market their own alternative, which is called the Millennium Plan. The Millennium Plan would bring a central park, homes and businesses to the former base.
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