Supervisors Pooling Resources at El Toro

Hoping to continue Orange County’s legacy of Olympic medal-winning performances in swimming, diving and water polo, the Board of Supervisors plans to develop an Olympic training facility at the closed El Toro Marine base and open its indoor pool to a renowned Irvine swim club.

It was a rare unanimous move by the five-member board, which has been deeply divided over plans to transform much of the base into an international airport, with the rest developed into a large park.

But the board went further Tuesday, approving another El Toro-related item by unanimous vote: increasing fees to cover costs for upgrading the base golf course, horse stables and recreational-vehicle storage lot. The county also will open the Officers Club for weddings, receptions and conferences, aided by a permit to sell alcohol--the absence of which dried up bookings a year ago.

In a third vote that reverted to the board’s traditional divisions over El Toro, a 3-2 majority of the five-member board agreed to send Chairman Chuck Smith to attend meetings of the Southern California Regional Airport Authority, a revived multi-county group formed in the early 1990s to address Southern California airport issues.

Anti-airport Supervisors Todd Spitzer and Tom Wilson objected to the idea, alluding to fears that the board’s pro-airport majority may try to build the airport through the regional group. Smith said the county should be discussing airport issues with other Southern California elected officials.

“We already belong to it, and there’s no point in being a member if you refuse to appoint someone to attend the meetings,” Smith said, after the board majority quashed an attempt by Wilson to postpone action for 60 days.

Meanwhile, the vote to welcome the Irvine Novaquatics to the former base was a slam dunk. Smith praised the group for plans to teach swimming to thousands of children as a way of reducing pool drownings in Orange County.

The vote came after supervisors honored several Olympians from the Summer Games in Sydney, Australia, including swimmer Jason Lezak, who won gold and silver medals; Julie Swail, a silver medalist on the water polo team; and Ryan Bailey, a member of the men’s water polo team.

“This is the start of something good out of the base,” Wilson said. “All of this fits well into our non-aviation plan.”

The Novaquatics are known nationally for producing some of America’s most competitive swimmers, including Gabrielle Rose and Stacianna Stitts, who competed in Sydney. Coach David Salo said the Olympians bring home more than race results by becoming role models for local youth.

Also approving the pools’ use was Supervisor Jim Silva, who noted that the Olympic water polo team trained at the Los Alamitos Army base pool, where 15,000 children a year receive swimming lessons.

Supervisors later joined to praise the efforts of county El Toro staff to raise fees for the base golf course, stables and recreational-vehicle storage lot, making them more competitive to other facilities. The additional $400,000 a year raised will help pay for base maintenance and operations, specifically allowing county workers to repave golf-cart paths, buy 100 new golf carts, build new horse stables and add at least another 300 RV parking spaces.

There had been little or no maintenance on the base since 1996, three years before the Marine Corps moved out, said Cliff Wallace, El Toro manager for Cabaco, which manages the public facilities.

He said average cost for storing recreational vehicles will rise 36%, with golf course rentals up 20%, green fees up 10% and stall rentals up 12%. Military personnel still will get discounts; green fees will be lower on weekdays.

Supervisors also approved reduced green fees for students. Spitzer, an avid golfer, pointed out that capping the “junior” rate as planned for those aged 6-17 would cut off 18-year-old high-school golfers from taking advantage of the lower rate.

The county’s El Toro manager, Rob Richardson, said supervisors will be asked later this month to approve opening another 43 buildings for rental or lease at El Toro.

The earlier motion to rejoin the Southern California airport group included authorizing Silva to attend meetings if Smith cannot, and to use John Wayne Airport and El Toro planning staffs “for necessary support services.”