Live From Irvine: El Toro Airport vs. Great Park

Opponents in the feud over the fate of the former El Toro Marine base faced off Tuesday in a debate over whether to build an international airport or an urban park.

The themes emerged during a live radio debate at UC Irvine’s Barclay Theatre sponsored by KCRW-FM (89.9). It was the first time the public-radio station has broadcast its public-affairs show, “Which Way L.A.?” from Orange County. The station has 450,000 listeners across Southern California.

Park proponents called their plan a superior legacy for Orange County. With an airport, they said, south Orange County would no longer be a refuge from urban ills.

Airport backers called the facility essential for Orange County’s economic growth and warned that the park measure contains a bait-and-switch clause allowing the land to be developed for other uses.

The often raucous audience appeared to be against the airport at the start of the 90-minute program, when Irvine Mayor Larry Agran was the only panelist greeted by applause. Not to be outdone, airport backers chimed in with guffaws and chatter.

Though much of the debate restated familiar themes in the 7-year-old fight over the base, which closed in 1999, some new arguments emerged. Airport supporters targeted the popular park measure, which has yet to qualify for the March ballot. It would replace airport zoning approved in 1994 with park and nature preserve zoning.

Panelist Barbara Lichman, an attorney and executive director of the Airport Working Group of Newport Beach, said the measure includes language that would allow Irvine--or whoever ultimately would develop the land--to build on much of the property.

“Areas identified [as] open space are not necessarily committed to permanent open space uses,” Lichman read from the text of the proposed initiative. “Certain property within the open space category is committed, through public or private ownership, to remain as open space, but other property, due to market pressures to serve a growing county population, may ultimately be developed in other ways.”

The city is committed to developing the park, Agran retorted, with the specifics to be approved by a board of directors representing every community in Orange County.

“Why wouldn’t the people of Orange County want a great metropolitan park rather than a polluted airport?” he asked. “We have learned over time that good information triumphs over bad information.”

Agran and anti-airport panelist Leonard Kranser of Dana Point said there are enough airports across Southern California--including John Wayne Airport--to handle future airline passengers.

“The real question in this county is, once people are heard in March 2002, will the popular will be heard or will it be subverted by hypertechnical lawyers from Newport Beach?” Agran asked, drawing wild applause in response.

Among audience members challenging airport opponents was Mike Stevens of LAX Expansion No!, a familiar voice in the debate against expanding Los Angeles International Airport. A growing number of elected officials oppose a plan to expand LAX from 67 million passengers a year to 89 million. Building El Toro is seen as a way to relieve pressure on LAX.

Pro-El Toro airport panelist and Orange County Supervisor Chuck Smith said Orange County should build the airport to take care of its share of Southern California’s air-travel demand.

KCRW host Warren Olney said at the beginning of the program that he was besieged by advance “unsolicited advice” about the issue--far more than with any other program the station has planned. Tickets for the auditorium’s 700 seats went quickly.

“I thought we got more issues discussed in greater detail than I anticipated,” he said after the debate. Even the crowd noise was a plus, he said. “It’s part of the democratic process.”