Irvine Requests County Backing to Buy El Toro

Irvine officials will ask Orange County supervisors Tuesday to urge the Navy to sell the closed El Toro Marine base to Irvine and allow the city to take control of the property by Jan. 1.

Details about how the city would buy the base were scant Friday. In briefings with two supervisors, city officials said they want to develop a 440-acre section that lies within city boundaries and use the proceeds to pay for the rest of the property. County planners at one time estimated the base’s overall worth at a minimum of $3.5 billion.

The 440-acre area, known as the panhandle, spikes southward from the lower edge of the base to the San Diego Freeway. Unlike the rest of the property, it lies in Irvine and is not subject to Measure W, the initiative Orange County voters approved March 5, which rezoned the base for a park, nature preserve and limited development. The initiative was in opposition to county leaders’ longtime plans for a commercial airport.

Supervisors Tom Wilson and Chuck Smith had different reactions to the briefings on Irvine’s proposal. Wilson said the plan had merit; Smith called it “smoke and mirrors.” Irvine officials will brief Supervisors Cynthia P. Coad and Jim Silva on Monday.

Supervisor Todd Spitzer, who backs Irvine’s plan, asked county executives to prepare a draft agreement for board approval Tuesday that would allow Irvine to annex the base, now within county jurisdiction. The Navy will dispose of 3,600 acres of the 4,700-acre base; the remainder is set aside as a wildlife sanctuary.

At least two drafts of the agreement were circulating Friday. One called for Irvine to give up its fight against the county’s plans to expand the James A. Musick Branch Jail near Lake Forest in exchange for annexation. Another provision was an agreement to share tax revenue from development of the land between the county and Irvine--a requirement before any area can be annexed.

Irvine officials also need approval from the county for a more immediate reason: They want to mount a united front when they present their plan to Navy officials in Washington on Thursday. The county Board of Supervisors is the only local entity that can recommend a redevelopment plan to the Navy.

Timing is critical because the Navy announced last month that it intended to sell the base, and would make a formal decision April 23. Four of the five county supervisors have met with Navy officials in Washington in recent weeks to urge a delay.

Smith said two Irvine officials--El Toro park planner Dan Yung and City Manager Allison Hart--presented the El Toro plan to him and Wilson but offered little more than an artist’s rendering. Notably lacking were details on how the city would pay for the base and finance a park with museums, sports fields and other amenities.

He said the Irvine officials want the Navy to enter into a partnership in which the Navy would get paid as the property is developed. Smith predicted that suggestion would be rejected by Navy officials, who have said they want to use proceeds from the base sale for the defense budget.

“Given what I’ve seen, [the Irvine plan] is just pie in the sky,” Smith said.

Wilson said the city’s redevelopment concept is “in the spirit of Measure W” but differs in some ways, including discarding a limit of 96,000 vehicle trips a day for future base development.

If the city annexes the base, the county initiative won’t apply to the city, though Irvine officials have pledged to follow the measure’s intent. A map of the panhandle area included in Measure W showed it for “city of Irvine park-compatible” development.

“The mission is to let the Navy know that [the Irvine plan] has legs,” Wilson said. “The objective is to get three or four [supervisor] votes [for the plan]. I’d rather have four or five to show there’s no dissension. If the Navy sees fragmentation and infighting, they may say ... let’s just put it up for sale.”

Irvine Mayor Larry Agran said he is pleased by cooperation he’s seen since the March 5 vote in efforts to forge a new plan for the base. More detail about how a sale would be financed and how development would be funded will emerge Monday and at Tuesday’s supervisors’ meeting, he said.

“I think everything is falling into place,” Agran said. “Everyone seems to be taking seriously the Measure W vote and our shared responsibility to follow the will of the people. Everyone acknowledges that Irvine is central to that. It gets down to the details: How do you make this happen?”

Among those who will urge supervisors to back Irvine’s efforts is the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority, a nine-city coalition of South County cities that opposed the county’s airport plan.

“We’re fully supportive of Irvine’s direction and planning” on annexation and its desire to negotiate a sale with the Navy, ETRPA Executive Director Paul Eckles said.

A continued wild card in the redevelopment plan is a proposal by Marine Commandant Gen. James Jones to move the Marines’ West Coast boot camp in San Diego to El Toro.

The boot camp, called the San Diego Recruit Depot, is wedged on 388 acres next to Lindbergh Field, San Diego’s international airport. Jones has proposed taking 1,300 acres of El Toro for a new boot camp, with a commissary, post exchange store and medical facilities--a popular notion among Orange County naval retirees.

Coad put a proposed resolution on Tuesday’s agenda in favor of moving the boot camp to El Toro, which Smith said he’d support.

“I think it would be great if they bring the Marines back,” Smith said.