7 El Toro Scenarios on Table

Seven options for the future of El Toro--from continued airport planning to complete withdrawal from the base reuse process--will be discussed Wednesday in a special meeting of the Orange County Board of Supervisors.

The options were outlined Monday by County Executive Officer Jan Mittermeier, who said a review of the El Toro planning process is timely. The 4,700-acre base was closed by the Marines in July.

“It’s important for [supervisors] to have this discussion as a group . . . in view of all of the things that have happened recently,” Mittermeier said.

On March 7, voters passed Measure F, a ballot initiative restricting airport planning. Since then, a majority of supervisors has been unwilling to take further steps on El Toro until a judge rules on a lawsuit challenging the measure.

Airport planners said the county can absorb a six- to 12-month delay in the planning process and still make an airport opening deadline of 2005. But Mittermeier said other issues loom in addition to the uncertainty over Measure F’s impact. One is a revision in air-quality analyses from the county’s environmental review of the airport plan, which on its own could push back supervisors’ final consideration of an airport for a year.

Board members will discuss the options at the 8 a.m. Wednesday meeting but will not take public comment. The public will be allowed to speak at a May 16 public hearing, after which supervisors may take action.

Among the options to be discussed by supervisors:

* Plan an airport at El Toro in accordance with Measure F, which requires a two-thirds public vote before airports, large jails near homes and hazardous waste landfills can be built.

* Plan an airport but wait until the court decides the fate of Measure F. A Los Angeles County judge has been asked by two pro-airport groups and the city of Newport Beach to invalidate the measure or change the vote requirement from two-thirds to a majority.

* Plan an airport but delay further action until a countywide advisory vote on the plan can be held in November. Supervisors have until early August to place a nonbinding measure on the ballot.

* Plan an airport but expand the base reuse panel that now consists only of supervisors. The county could invite representatives of cities nearest the base to join.

* Plan something other than an airport but restrict planning action to the supervisors as the reuse panel.

* Plan something other than an airport and expand the reuse panel beyond board members.

* Ask the Navy to replace the Board of Supervisors as the El Toro planning authority.