A Giant El Toro Park, the Will of the People

Voters will have an opportunity to write the final chapter in the epic drama of El Toro when they vote to approve the Orange County Central Park and Nature Preserve Initiative on March 5.

This initiative will repeal Measure A, which requires the now-closed El Toro Marine Corps Air Station to be reused as a commercial airport. But the initiative will do much more. It will authorize the creation of America’s greatest park at El Toro.

The Great Park at El Toro will truly be a central park for Orange County. In the geographic center of Orange County--23 miles from Brea and 21 miles from San Clemente--it could be reached directly by the Santa Ana, San Diego and Laguna freeways and the Foothill Transportation Corridor.

The city of Irvine has undertaken the most extensive public outreach effort in the history of Orange County to give individual residents the power to shape the El Toro reuse plan. More than 120,000 households in Orange County responded to our surveys and questionnaires.

Here’s what they said: Don’t give us an airport at El Toro. Instead, give us a park that is at least twice the size and every bit as beautiful as San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park and San Diego’s Balboa Park.

They said give us the Great Park in Orange County, which will include science museums and art and history museums. Give us soccer fields and baseball fields. Give us botanical gardens and zoological gardens and a forest of at least 50,000 trees on the 7-square-mile site. Give us a veterans’ memorial to properly honor El Toro’s history and those who have served our country. Give us a world-class central library. Give us public and private universities and trade and technical institutes. And give us a 100-acre lake and vast stretches of traditional parkland, picnic areas and wildlife habitat. And connect all of these amenities with a network of hiking, equestrian and biking trails.

Under federal law, the land at El Toro will be given back to the people of Orange County free of charge, as a “public benefit conveyance.” Moreover, responsibility for any toxic cleanup rests with the federal government.

In addition to the land itself, the assets on the now-abandoned military base will be conveyed. This means that the thousands of housing units and the 3 million square feet of industrial and warehouse space left behind by the Marine Corps are available to lease to generate millions of dollars in revenue. In fact, these interim leases, plus the leasing of up to 2,000 acres for agricultural purposes, will generate more than $25 million annually in net revenue in the near term. The funds will permit us to quickly create an endowment, with ample resources to design and build the park in phases, and operate it.

It’s important to note that this endowment does not include other funds that we expect to secure: federal funds for park development; our fair allotment of state park funds; and tens of millions of dollars in grants from foundations that share our passion.

Promoters of an international airport at El Toro claim that it is needed to create jobs and keep our economy strong. But the people who actually create jobs in Orange County--the top executives of major Orange County companies--have a different view. Irvine commissioned a prominent national firm to poll the chief executives of Orange County’s leading companies. We have learned that their top priority is recruiting and retaining high-quality employees in a highly competitive job market.

Two-thirds of those surveyed believed that the Great Park will improve our quality of life and make the county more attractive. Business leaders see more than trees and green grass in the plan. They see an opportunity to make Orange County even more attractive for business.

Environmentalists are equally enthusiastic. The nature preserve and wildlife corridor within the plan would connect our coastal parks--Crystal Cove State Park and the Laguna Coast Wilderness Park--with the inland Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park and the Cleveland National Forest. This would establish the largest interconnected nature preserve in any metropolitan area in the United States. By creating the Great Park in Orange County, we will permanently protect open space and wildlife habitat--and people, too--from development and from the noise and pollution that an international airport would bring.

A lot of work lies ahead. More than 125,000 signatures will have to be gathered by midsummer to qualify the initiative for the March countywide ballot. Then we must organize a grass-roots campaign. Our message is both simple and hopeful: We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create an oasis in the heart of Orange County--a legacy for future generations and one of the greatest public spaces in America. The Great Park, yes!

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THE PROPOSED PARK

A Great Park at El Toro would radiate from a central lake and include sports fields, botanical gardens, a golf course and a university site. Supporters hope to pay for it by creating an endowment to receive public and private funds.