Irvine Spurns County on Housing at El Toro

The city of Irvine on Friday scuttled an innovative proposal by the county to use military housing at the former El Toro Marine base for much-needed low-cost housing.

More than 1,100 units, including an 850-home tract, have sat vacant since the Marines pulled out of the base two years ago. The housing has essentially been held hostage in the stalemate between the county and Irvine over a proposed commercial airport at the base.

The airport plan, being pushed by county leaders and regional transportation officials to accommodate future passenger demand, is staunchly opposed by neighboring Irvine and other South County communities.

A disappointed county Supervisor Tom Wilson, who with fellow Supervisor Chuck Smith favors opening the base for housing, said he met with Irvine Mayor Larry Agran and Councilman Chris Mears at the base Friday with hopes of reaching an informal agreement. Wilson said he wanted them to put the item on Irvine’s council agenda next week.

According to Wilson, the meeting concluded with Agran saying, “I can’t help you out on this.” Irvine officials said they were reluctant to go along with the plan because it could jeopardize their hopes of annexing the base, despite Wilson’s assurances that it would not.

Agran could not be reached for comment.

“I’m very disappointed and frustrated,” Wilson said. “I thought they would understand that the plan would no way impact their annexation plans for El Toro and also allow us to use the base for housing.”

Mears said the plan was unacceptable to the City Council because the Board of Supervisors has the authority--with its pro-airport majority to open the base for housing anyway.

“The county is looking for some way, without trumping themselves with regard to our annexation, and I don’t think that’s agreeable to our City Council,” Mears said after the meeting.

County supervisors have been trying for more than a year to open the base for housing, albeit temporarily, until a final decision is reached on whether to build an airport. According to housing advocates, the base presents a golden opportunity in a county where two-bedroom apartments rent for about $1,200 and the vacancy rate is lower than 2%.

But Irvine has submitted an application to annex the 4,700-acre former base to stop the county’s commercial airport plans for El Toro. That also has the effect of preventing any housing plan from succeeding.

Under state law, as few as 12 residents living in an unincorporated El Toro area could vote to have Irvine annex their neighborhood. The biggest obstacle for the county remains how to allow people in but not permit them to vote for annexation to Irvine, which wants to take over the base to prevent the airport from being built.

Dana M. Smith, executive director for Orange County of the Local Agency Formation Commission, a state agency that redraws local government boundaries, found a legal mechanism that would allow Irvine’s annexation plans to continue and not influence county officials’ effort to use the base for housing.

The plan called for Irvine to resubmit its LAFCO application and adopt a 20-day notice, giving the LAFCO director authority to declare the base “uninhabited.”

“That small change is actually very simple and really could help put people in housing without unduly burdening either Irvine or the county,” Smith said.

From Irvine’s perspective, Mears said, there is nothing preventing the county from opening up the base immediately for housing.

He said he supports Supervisors Smith and Wilson, whom he portrayed as having a “sincere desire” to see people in base housing. The problem, he said, lies with the Board of Supervisors’ pro-airport majority, leaving Wilson, who is anti-airport, in the minority.

“The problem is they don’t have three votes on the Board of Supervisors to let them put in housing [without the ‘uninhabited’ designation], so they’re looking to Irvine to sign on with some mechanism, and our council doesn’t support that,” Mears said.

Irvine Councilman Greg Smith is also wary of the county’s proposal. For annexation to succeed, the county needs to approve a property tax transfer, a decision that puts the pro-airport Board of Supervisors in the driver’s seat on base annexation, he said.

“I just don’t trust the board majority by giving away something now that could mean an airport in the future,” Smith said.

Wilson stressed that the housing idea is not dead. If necessary, he said, the county will seek legislation in Sacramento to open the housing.

There is also interest at the federal level in using El Toro’s housing. This week, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista.) sent a letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld asking him to open El Toro for use as interim housing by Marines at Camp Pendleton.

Nearly 2,000 military families at Camp Pendleton are on waiting lists--15 months for enlisted personnel and 13 months for officers. Issa, who said he has not received a reply, hopes Marines can be housed at El Toro as part of the county’s plan, said Dale Neugebauer, Issa’s chief of staff.

“In our letter to Rumsfeld, we didn’t specifically put in details because we wanted to remain flexible to work with Supervisor Wilson’s plan and to work with the county on their proposal,” Neugebauer said.

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Base Impasse

Irvine has rejected a county proposal to use more than 1,100 housing units at El Toro as temporary affordable housing.