El Toro to Host Olympic Aquatic Training

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 El Toro Marine base.

In a rare unanimous move by the five-member board, which has been deeply divided over plans to build an international airport on the base, supervisors voted to open the base’s indoor pool to the Irvine Novaquatics.

The swim club is known nationally for producing some of America’s best swimmers, including Gabrielle Rose and Stacianna Stitts, who competed in the Olympics in Sydney last summer.

The board also voted to increase fees to cover costs of 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. The club will have a permit to sell alcohol, the absence of which dried up bookings a year ago.

In a third vote, which reverted to the board’s traditional divisions over El Toro, a majority of the 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 might 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 came after supervisors honored several Olympians from the Sydney games, including swimmer Jason Lezak, who won gold and silver medals; Julie Swail, a silver medalist on the women’s 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.”

Supervisors later joined to praise the efforts of county staff to raise fees for the base golf course, stables and RV storage lot, making them more competitive with 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 300 RV parking spaces.

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

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

Supervisors also approved reduced green fees for elementary and secondary school students.

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