City, Irvine Co. Propose New Houses for Land Near El Toro Flight Path

For the second time this year, the city of Irvine and the Irvine Co. have shifted plans for new homes onto undeveloped land near flight paths for a proposed El Toro airport, according to interviews with city planners and an environmental impact report unveiled Thursday.

The plans call for 12,350 homes on land the city wants to annex as part of vast 8,150-acre area called the Northern Sphere, which spreads north of the former El Toro base past the Foothill toll road. Doing so would increase the city’s size by about a third and add an additional 35,000 residents to the city of 150,000.

The city has advocated circling the base with homes, schools and child-care centers, a strategy aimed at enlisting more allies in its fight to keep the airport from being built. The company has never commented on its reasons for adding homes around El Toro. Company officials involved with the new development did not respond to calls seeking comment Thursday.

Irvine Mayor Larry Agran said the city won’t be restricted by an airport it doesn’t support and believes will never be built. The Irvine Co., likewise, has been willing to add residential areas near the base, moving homes that were approved, but ultimately not built, in other areas of the city.

“There has been a happy coincidence” between the city’s vision and the Irvine Co.’s, Agran said.

But supporters of the proposed airport assailed the city for moving prematurely to put homes near El Toro. Building an airport was approved by voters in 1994 and that hasn’t changed, said David Ellis of the Airport Working Group in Newport Beach.

“Why would they put potentially 35,000 residents in the path of an airport?” Ellis asked. “It’s another part of Irvine’s scorched-earth policy on El Toro. For a planned community, they don’t plan very well.”

The area has been zoned for agriculture use for 58 years. Its development has been restricted because of overflights and noise from military jets. The El Toro base closed in July 1999.

The city of Irvine contends that homes are compatible near the former base because it will never be developed into the second-largest commercial airport in Southern California. Orange County wants to build a facility that would handle an estimated 18.8 million passengers by 2020.