Supervisor Does New Turnabout on El Toro Plan

In the face of heavy pressure, Orange County Supervisor Jim Silva on Tuesday retreated from his support for another public referendum on whether an international airport should be built at the former El Toro Marine base.

Silva, long a supporter of an El Toro airport, stunned colleagues Monday by agreeing with airport foes that another vote was needed. His action led to a monthlong postponement of the board’s final vote for El Toro, which would become the second-largest commercial airfield in Southern California.

Silva’s surprise shift temporarily derailed a carefully crafted plan by Orange County officials to move forward with an international airport at the 4,700-acre shuttered base. The contentious plan has come under increasing criticism, with recent polls showing that fewer than half the county’s voters now want an airport at El Toro. In 1994, a slim majority of county voters approved zoning the base for an airport.

Monday’s vote delays until Oct. 16 any final county approval of the new airport. It also will hold up release of a federal review of the airport plan, and dims hopes by county officials that the Navy would turn over the base property by March.

In a statement Tuesday, Silva said he agreed that the airport should go on a future ballot as a way of sparking discussion among his colleagues. But, he said, he never intended to stop the airport.

“After discussing this issue with my constituents and community leaders over the past day and a half, the input I have received is that they believe that placing an additional measure on the ballot is neither constructive nor necessary,” Silva’s statement said. “I agree and feel that we need to move forward with our plans for the reuse of El Toro.”

Airport foes who had lauded Silva a day earlier said they were disappointed that he’d reversed himself.

“If he was a man of honor and was really voting his conscience on letting the people decide, I would be appalled to think that any amount of Newport Beach strong-arming would change his view,” anti-airport activist Len Kranser said. “It shows his true colors.”

Among those who called Silva to complain Monday were Newport Beach officials, who strongly support a new airport at El Toro as a way of relieving pressure to expand John Wayne Airport. Newport Beach became part of Silva’s supervisorial district earlier this month.

About-Face May Hurt Public’s View of Board

Some observers suggested that Silva’s apparent confusion in casting his vote Monday--followed by his about-face Tuesday--would further erode public confidence in the board’s performance on the airport issue.

“Most people think the board has handled this thing incompetently, and this just further drives a nail into their confidence,” said political science professor Fred Smoller of Chapman University in Orange.

“Congratulations, you get the government you deserve,” agreed UC Irvine political science professor Mark Petracca, an airport foe.

One thing that did emerge from the ensuing turmoil: The tenuousness of airport support by a bare board majority can shift with a single defection.

The delay assures county officials of missing at least one key deadline they had hoped to achieve with Monday’s action. They had hoped to have the six-month process for the Navy to turn over the base to the county done by March; now it won’t happen before April.

The March date has been key for airport supporters, who wanted to have the property in county hands and the airport planning well underway by the primary election, when voters may be asked to replace airport zoning on the base with that of a large urban park. Indeed, several airport consultants were promised lucrative bonuses if the property was turned over by March.

FAA Report on El Toro Eagerly Anticipated

Other events in the next month could further affect the county’s timetable: A long-awaited report by the Federal Aviation Administration on El Toro is expected to be released after a delay prompted by last week’s terrorist attacks. Anti-airport supervisors initially asked for a postponement of Monday’s vote until the report is released.

Appellate judges in San Diego also are likely in the next month to decide whether to allow the park initiative, for which supporters have gathered more than twice the needed signatures, to be placed on the March ballot. In addition, the same judges could rule on whether to restore last year’s approval of Measure F, which calls for two-thirds voter approval before building airports, large jails and hazardous-waste landfills.

Airport backer Bruce Nestande said a March vote on the park initiative, if allowed by the courts, would be an “up-or-down vote” on the airport because it would rescind the airport zoning. He suggested that park backers leaped on Silva’s suggestion for yet another vote because they aren’t convinced that the public will support the probable tax or fee increases needed to build the park.

“It indicates to me that they’re losing confidence in the ‘great park’ initiative,” said Nestande, president of Citizens for Jobs and the Economy, which formed to push approval of the airport in 1994.

Silva’s vote prompted a flurry of messages posted late Monday and Tuesday to Web sites devoted to El Toro. Most praised his call for a public vote on the airport plan; others questioned his motive, even suggesting that his decision came at the behest of the Irvine Co., the county’s largest landowner.

The company hasn’t taken a position on the airport, but it strongly opposes takeoffs or landings over its housing developments in Irvine and Newport Coast.

The anticipated report from the FAA is expected to address whether the county’s takeoff and landing patterns are acceptable or need to be changed.

Regardless of his reasons, Silva is sure to face some political fallout in the March election. In 1998, airport foes gave Silva challenger Dave Sullivan, a former Huntington Beach councilman, about $400,000.