El Toro Airport Backers See Bush as an Ally

With the federal government expected to make critical decisions this year on the fate of the closed El Toro Marine base, proponents of an airport on the vast acreage believe they now have an ally in President Bush.

Several prominent airport advocates were in Washington this past week during inaugural celebrations, including developer George Argyros of Newport Beach, a generous patron of the airport plan and a Bush family friend. Argyros helped raise $30 million for the Republican cause during the presidential election and was invited to attend Saturday’s inaugural.

Argyros’ chief assistant, former state Assemblyman and county Supervisor Bruce Nestande, was named to Bush’s transportation transition team. And an entourage of Orange County leaders and planners huddled in Washington last week with airport lobbyists preparing for the new administration.

While Bush has not taken a position on the seven-year El Toro war, airport boosters said they are optimistic that his pro-business bent will provide a significant boost as Orange County tries to get control of the base.

“We’ve got a strong argument that we’ve got crowded skies and a lack of airport capacity,” Nestande said. “That helps in Washington.”

Ahead is a critical year for those debating the future of the base. County supervisors who favor an airport need the federal government to approve environmental documents for the operation, then hand over the land. It’s a race against time, in a sense. Airport opponents intend to put a measure blocking the airport on the March 2002 ballot. If supporters can get their hands on the land before then, the ballot measure could be a much harder sell.

No one is suggesting that Bush will simply hand over El Toro to Argyros as a political payback. But there is rekindled hope among pro-airport forces that a new administration with such an influential backer will be more sympathetic to appeals to turn over the base property quickly.

Nestande said the administration will “remain very neutral” in the controversial process, allowing the county to make its own decision about what should be built on the 4,700-acre base. Still, the Navy’s goal should be to “move the property as fast as they can and get it off the books,” he said. The base was marked for closure in 1993 and finally did so in July 1999.

“This is a critical year for El Toro,” said David Ellis, consultant for the Airport Working Group, which favors a new airport. “We think we have our ducks in line.”

But opponents of an airport have a much different take on what the newly inaugurated president means to the fight, which has fractured the county and colored local politics for years.

“The voters in Orange County have spoken loud and clear,” said Laguna Hills Councilman L. Allan Songstad Jr. of the 67% approval of an anti-airport ballot measure in March. That measure was overturned last month by a judge, leaving airport foes stung but resolved to draw up yet another measure.

“There’s a lot more to this issue than Argyros against the world,” Songstad said. “You’ve got to hope people look at this on the merits.”

While wary, opponents of an airport said they are not overly worried about Argyros’ connections with Washington heavyweights. The raging public controversy over an airport, they said, is enough to test the strongest of political ties.

Meg Waters, a spokeswoman for the anti-airport effort, said there are plenty of well-heeled Republicans in South County who supported Bush and won’t be shy about communicating their feelings on the airport. South County, where many GOP voters are concentrated, is overwhelmingly opposed to an airport.

“Why on Earth would the Bush administration do anything to completely alienate Orange County?” Waters said.

County airport planners have been frustrated by perceived inactivity at the federal level for two years, struggling to keep the project on track in the face of growing opposition at home. In turn, federal officials have pointed to the county’s inability to complete its own approvals on time--actions now more than two years behind schedule.

In recent months, a request by county officials for an early transfer of the 4,700-acre base was rejected when Navy officials insisted that the county first finish it own environmental studies. Those studies are expected to be approved in September by a majority of pro-airport county supervisors.

County officials wasted no time scrambling back to Washington. Two supervisors, nine staffers and two attorneys went there last week to meet with five lobbyists hired to help champion the swift conveyance of the base to the county. The meeting coincided with Bush’s swearing in.

The most critical of decisions on the base property are already in the hands of the federal government. For airport plans to move forward, the Navy must approve environmental documents for it, then hand over the base. So motivated are supervisors that they have promised lobbyists nearly $500,000 in bonuses if they can get the land into the county’s hands before March 2002--the month the new initiative would be on the ballot.

The county has spent about $40 million planning an airport. Argyros has contributed nearly $4 million to the effort since 1994. South County cities, meanwhile, have spent $30 million, by some estimates, to scuttle it, including hiring their own lobbyists with influential connections.

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Bush isn’t the only new player in Washington whom pro-airport forces hope to draw to their side.

Villa Park Councilman Robert E. McGowan, for example, a former airline pilot and proponent of a different design for an El Toro airport, has been e-mailing congratulatory messages to former California Rep. Norman Y. Mineta, Bush’s designee for secretary of Transportation. McGowan worked with Mineta’s office on Southern California airspace issues.

Pro-airport forces say they’re further buoyed by the probable return to Orange County of Art Bloomer, the former commanding general at El Toro, who served on the Irvine City Council. Bloomer is being considered to take over the Orange County Regional Airport Authority, a group of cities lined up behind the proposed airport.

Bloomer’s Washington connections run deep and include James L. Jones, who worked under Bloomer in 1981 and now is the commandant of the Marine Corps. Bloomer said he would relish jumping into the El Toro issue. He could be hired as soon as next week.

“I suspect I’ll be involved with [lobbying],” he said.

Pro-airport forces hope to counter the often intense lobbying by airport foes, which proponents say has created a chill among federal officials who find themselves reluctant to turn over the base for a use so hotly contested.

Airport proponents go even further in their concerns about lobbying, citing the example of William Cassidy, deputy assistant undersecretary of the Navy in charge of base disposal. Cassidy has blocked an early hand-over of the base, insisting that federal environmental studies be completed first.

Cassidy once worked for Hogan & Hartson, the Washington law firm that was paid $535,000 last year by Irvine to lobby against the airport. He has declined to discuss the specifics of the El Toro conveyance.

Though Navy officials insist they aren’t involved in the local decision over what will become of the base, their actions are pivotal. The conveyance of the property comes with a cleanup plan that is based on the new use.

Airport foes want the property turned into a park or residential community--uses that would require a much more intense and costly cleanup. They have asked for the property to be cleaned up in a way that allows for any potential use. But Navy officials so far have said that such “neutral” conveyances aren’t possible and that the land will be turned over for the purpose chosen by county supervisors.

An airport would occupy about 2,000 of the property’s 4,700 acres. About 1,000 of the remaining acres are slated to be given to the Department of the Interior for wildlife habitat; the rest of the remaining land is slated in the county’s plan to become a regional park.