Airport Foes Must Start Over on Ballot Measure

For the third time, supporters of a plan for a large urban park at the closed El Toro Marine base must start from scratch collecting voter signatures to put an initiative on the March 2002 ballot.

As many as 30,000 signatures collected on petitions at shopping centers and public events in the past three weeks will be scrapped because a crucial map was missing from documents sent to county officials, park proponents said Thursday.

“Basically, the choice was either spend the time fighting the thing with an indeterminate amount of time involved and an uncertain outcome, or just do it again,” anti-airport group spokesman Len Kranser said. “It’s not fun.”

The petitions were challenged last week by airport supporters for failing to include a map of the zoning proposed for the 4,700-acre base. State law requires all relevant documents to be included when initiatives are submitted to county officials, said Frederick C. Woocher, an attorney for the pro-airport Citizens for Jobs and the Economy.

Volunteers with Citizens for Safe and Healthy Communities already had to regroup earlier because of paperwork problems.

The first set of documents, submitted to Orange County registrar’s officials in May, contained typographical and other errors. For example, titles were not in bold type, as required, and dots designating new paragraph were printed as Japanese yen symbols.

When a second set of paperwork was submitted, the map was not included, registrar’s officials said.

Kranser and anti-airport activist Bill Kogerman insisted that the map was sent but was misplaced when registrar’s officials forwarded the paperwork to county attorneys for review.

County attorneys have 15 days to review the third set of documents and draft a new title and summary, Registrar Rosalyn Lever said. The initiative also must be published again before signatures can be collected.

“We’re starting the whole process over,” Lever said. “This is how they decided to handle it.”

Organizers must collect 71,206 valid signatures for the measure to go on the ballot. The initiative would replace airport zoning, approved by voters in 1994, with a designation for park land and a nature preserve. A specific plan for the base, called the Great Park, was developed by Irvine and is supported by a coalition of Orange County cities.

Airport backer Bruce Nestande, who filed the complaint against the initiative last week, said airport foes must be held accountable for following the law. He said airport opponents have accused him of harassment but made the decision themselves to start the process from scratch.

Kranser said the group decided to start over so the final submission of signatures cannot be challenged later.

“As somebody said, it’s not as bad as living next to an airport,” he said.