Navy Plans to Sell El Toro Land

Re “In Jolt to Orange County, Navy to Sell El Toro Land,” March 7: What a hoot! One day after the election the Navy decides to sell El Toro Marine base. Thanks to all of you who voted for the “Quality of Life Initiative” and turned what should have been a countywide asset into a developer--and the city of Irvine--boondoggle. Be sure to let us all know how your quality of life is after El Toro and the surrounding 14,000 acres are developed. You will have plenty of time to think about this while sitting in all the additional traffic the new developments will bring.

George Robertson

Santa Ana Heights

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Since when is El Toro the “property” of the U.S. Navy, to sell to the highest bidder? I thought the people of the U.S. owned that and all federal property; more specifically, the conservative Bushies should be appalled at the idea of a federal entity selling land that rightly belongs to the state of California when the feds relinquish it. But wait a minute: California elected Al Gore in ‘00! Now I get it. They want to sell it to a coal power plant or maybe a steel mill--whatever is the most obnoxious.

Robert W. Lovell

Huntington Beach

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Well, the people have spoken. Orange County lacks significant noncommercial open space, the U.S. government has a large parcel of land that taxpayers have strongly indicated (again and again) they do not want used as an airport. Days ago, the people indicated that they want this public land to be used as a public park. Now we find that the U.S. Navy wants to subvert the will of the citizenry to benefit a handful of local private developers. This is democratic? Nice job, U.S. military!

Jeff Estes

Long Beach

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The NIMBY Orange County voters decided to congest our airports and surrounding infrastructure rather than building their own at El Toro, which they wanted to convert to a park. That’s fine, but no free lunch. The L.A. Airport Commission should assess a $50 user fee on every LAX or Ontario outbound flight ticket purchased for any person residing in an Orange County ZIP code. We’ll use the money to buy the excess property at Ballona and build our own park. If they don’t want to pay, they can always take the Amtrak.

David W. Kay

Culver City