Survey: S. County Primary User of El Toro Facilities

For months, Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Cynthia P. Coad has threatened to vote against new funding for recreational programs--such as RV parking, horse stables and golf--at the closed El Toro Marine base because she believed people using the programs were only from South County.

A new county map, created at Coad’s request, proves she’s right.

Based on ZIP Codes of base patrons, the map shows that the recreational facilities are predominantly used by residents of Irvine, Lake Forest and other South County cities, said Coad, whose supervisorial district lies in the northern part of the county.

“It shows that people in the northern area aren’t availing themselves of the base’s programs,” Coad said. “I have heard a new slogan in my district, ‘North County pays while South County plays.’ ”

Last August, the board approved spending $5 million from the county’s general fund to lease the base from the Navy and keep the programs operating. That delighted those who wanted the base open for such programs as the horse stables, golf, RV parking and child care.

But budget projections for the next fiscal year, which begins July 1, call for the county to spend $7 million on the facilities, a subsidy that Coad and Chuck Smith, two pro-El Toro airport colleagues on the board, said they are not happy with.

“I know that child care is important. I’ll give the South County people that program because I believe it helps families,” Coad said. “But as for the three hobbies out there, I cannot ask people, taxpayers in Orange County--especially in my district--to pay for hobbies for people in other districts.”

Coad said she would like to see how much a Great Park alternative to the airport, pushed by South County cities opposed to an El Toro airport, would cost taxpayers. Park supporters say a park at the sprawling, 4,700-acre former base would be built without taxpayer funds.

Opponents of the planned airport are gathering signatures in support of an initiative that would replace the airport with a large urban park. They hope to qualify the initiative for the March ballot.

When the board approved the master lease with the Navy for the former base, supervisors predicted that fees from the community programs would offset the county’s costs in 1 1/2 to two years.

“We didn’t want to kick the golfers off, the RV users and the people in the horse stables,” Smith said. “We felt that all those programs could break even and now it appears that it’s not going to happen.”

Recreation programs, which generated $3.7 million this year, will generate only $4.2 million in the next fiscal year, according to the county’s proposed budget.

Smith blamed the Navy, in part, for moving more slowly than anticipated in turning over the deed to El Toro and removing asbestos from base warehouses, which then could be rented out to generate income.

The county’s 5-year lease for the base was a peace accord of sorts between the board’s pro-airport majority and two anti-airport supervisors. Supervisors have the authority to change the lease yearly and could do so on the anniversary of the lease this fall, Smith said.

To create the map, the ZIP Codes of golfers were gathered over a recent two-week period. The users of the other base recreation programs were already listed in databases, so their ZIP Codes were obtained from that information.

The ZIP Code map frustrated Stephanie Delano of Irvine, whose family fought to keep open the El Toro stables, where they board two horses.

“We pay for the stables too and they happen to be in our area,” Delano said. “If [Coad] did the same ZIP Code check, say at a county park in northern county, she would find the same kind of information--that it’s used by people who live nearby.”

Supervisor Tom Wilson, an El Toro Airport opponent, was incredulous that Coad targeted users of a public facility for the sake of an argument on El Toro planning.

“I can’t believe we would actually discriminate against the usage of a publicly available facility,” Wilson said, adding that the county would probably use the base more “if the board majority wasn’t so determined to see the base fail.”

Wilson, who with Smith has fought to keep the base open for his constituents in South County, said he is convinced that the three pro-airport supervisors want the recreational programs to fail to bolster their argument that only an airport would provide the revenue needed to keep the base open.

Other airport critics called Coad’s use of the ZIP Codes divisive and “mean spirited.”

“I fail to see if it matters if people from Fullerton or Anaheim or wherever use the base programs,” said Meg Waters, a spokeswoman for the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority, a coalition of nine South County cities opposed to an El Toro airport. “I don’t think people in Newport Beach, Huntington Beach and Laguna Beach feel the beach is a playground only for their own residents.”

Instead of criticizing South County residents, the pro-airport board majority should be congratulating them, said anti-airport Supervisor Todd Spitzer. “They’re the ones paying the fees and providing income that would otherwise come out of the county’s pockets.”

Supervisors are expected to adopt a new, $4.6-billion annual budget on June 26, and requests for additional funding have come from private community-based agencies and county departments.

“We can’t keep up this activity at the base unless we can break even,” Smith said. “Cynthia’s exactly right. She doesn’t feel that her constituents need to pay for golfing, RV storage, horse stables. I don’t want to see those people arbitrarily kicked out of there, but there will come a time when the county can’t subsidize that activity anymore.”