El Toro Battle Pushes Beyond County Lines

The fight over a proposed airport at El Toro has widened in recent months beyond a turf war in Orange County, with the future of the closed military base now a hot subject of debate in Los Angeles County as well.

Critics of a controversial plan to boost the size of Los Angeles International Airport are increasingly linking their opposition to the idea that Orange County should build a commercial airport at El Toro to help meet the region’s growing demand for air service.

Until recently, the LAX expansion opposition was fairly limited to officials in the South Bay cities that surround the airport. But now, all six candidates vying in Tuesday’s election for mayor of Los Angeles oppose the LAX expansion plan, which would take the airport from 67 million passengers last year to 98 million passengers in 2015.

Moreover, some key elected officials in Los Angeles County are also criticizing the expansion, which they say would unjustly cluster the burdens of air traffic in one area, instead of spreading it across Southern California.

Orange County is beginning to feel the pressure. Foes of the LAX expansion have begun speaking at Orange County Board of Supervisors meetings, urging the body to move forward with plans for an airport at El Toro. Former Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa, a candidate for L.A. mayor, has vowed to use his “bully pulpit” if elected to push for other parts of the region--including Orange County--to do more to boost air capacity.

The shift in attitude could prove a boost to the pro-airport movement, which has long argued that Orange County should do its fair share in terms of handling air traffic.

“LAX can’t, and shouldn’t, do it alone,” Supervisor Chuck Smith said. “We should be looking from a truly Southern California aviation perspective, and that includes San Diego.”

Last month, a regional panel of government leaders recommended only minor growth for LAX in coming years, endorsing some 30 million passengers at a future El Toro airport, as well as the same number at Ontario International. The committee of the Southern California Assn. of Governments (SCAG) argued for an El Toro airfield even larger than that envisioned by Orange County planners.

On the heels of that recommendation, which will be considered Friday by the full SCAG panel, elected officials from four counties revived a joint powers authority with the goal of finding a “regional approach” to airport growth.

The interim chairman of the Southern California Regional Airport Authority is Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe, who also is critical of the size of LAX’s planned expansion.

“A reasonable solution is out there,” Knabe said after the first meeting. “We owe it to the constituents of the region to at least assess the most viable options that generate the least negative impacts on our people.”

In south Orange County, such talk of “regional” responsibility has a simple meaning: Someone who doesn’t live there wants the El Toro airport to be built.

Local airport opponents have watched with dismay--and open scorn--as the political pressure for construction of the new airport builds and particularly comes from those outside the county. Opponents hope to scuttle the airport for good next March in a local ballot measure--the fourth since 1994--that would turn the 4,700-acre base into a large urban park.

Airport opponents believe they, alone, support a true regional approach to airport growth in Southern California. They advocate accommodating more passengers at John Wayne Airport and spreading growth elsewhere to Long Beach International, Ontario International and new passenger airports at former Inland Empire air bases. Airport growth should follow population growth, they said, which is occurring fastest in the Inland Empire.

SCAG forecasters argue that population growth is only one factor in air-travel trends, which are more influenced by wealth, types of business activity and propensity to fly. Under that criteria, they have labeled Orange County a mecca for passengers and cargo, and much of this traffic now is handled by other counties’ airports.

Plans for an El Toro airport have been fostered by a majority of the Orange County Board of Supervisors that has been facing dwindling public support. Last month, the three-vote majority approved a $5-million information campaign through June 2002 to convince more voters why the airport is necessary; several months earlier, the board approved $1.1 million for lobbyists and attorneys.

Opposition to LAX Expansion

The board’s counterpart in Los Angeles County has reacted differently to the LAX project. That board voted to urge Mayor Richard Riordan and the Los Angeles City Council to stop promoting the LAX expansion plan after the council rejected a $12-million request for public-relations and engineering contracts.

The anti-LAX forces, meanwhile, have borrowed strategies from Orange County’s airport foes. Los Angeles Councilwoman Ruth Galanter, for example, proposed buying land around LAX, including about 500 homes, to be rezoned for parkland instead of a cargo terminal.

And in a sign of the times, protesters at an LAX-related meeting last week in Los Angeles wore T-shirts proclaiming: “LAX Expansion No! El Toro Yes!”