Let’s Use El Toro for Homes

Irvine Mayor Larry Agran in a May 6 column and the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority in its many mailers make the case for a “Great Park” at the former Marine air base. Both, however, seem to overlook the potential use of a portion of the property for sorely needed low- and middle-income housing in Orange County.

There are about 1,100 housing units on the base--empty, unfortunately, because of a legal dispute between county supervisors and the authority. If voters approve the Orange County Central Park and Nature Preserve Initiative in March, these modest former homes for Marines will be rented out temporarily to raise funds for the Great Park. But eventually, as it takes shape, the homes would be razed.

The median price of a home in the county is about $265,000-- considerably beyond the means of many who work here and must commute from Corona, Riverside and elsewhere. This has become a major problem for many employers, including Cal State Fullerton.

According to Ephraim Smith, vice president for academic affairs, a fair number of potential faculty members have decided in recent years not to accept offers from the university because of the high cost of housing. Beginning salaries for assistant professors range from $42,000 to $45,000, making a typical mortgage difficult to afford.

To its credit, the university has entered an agreement with the county and Buena Park to build 86 affordable housing units for faculty and staff at the corner of Malvern Avenue and Dale Street with a fall 2002 completion date. Still, many faculty members continue to commute from afar, including a newly hired teacher in my department who will make the drive from Glendale for at least a year.

The problem at Cal State Fullerton is simply indicative of the much larger problem of providing reasonably priced housing for the legions of educators, police and fire personnel, nurses, food service providers, clerical workers, construction workers and others who are priced out of the Orange County market.

Of course, no one expects the ETRPA to offer up a huge chunk of the former Marine base for housing. Yet, until all players in the county start thinking about the acute housing shortage for those of modest means, the Riverside Freeway will remain a nightmare, tired employees will drag themselves through many a workday, and truly poor people will continue to live 20 or 30 to a house with all the problems this brings.

It would have been nice if some of the $80 million the county and the ETRPA have spent on the airport wars had gone instead toward solving the housing problem. Perhaps the Great Park proponents could lead by example, putting into their plan a low-cost housing component. This might inspire the county and the various municipalities to get serious about affordable housing. If not now, when?