Suddenly, a Sale’s on the Horizon

For nearly nine years, officials with the Department of the Navy watched from afar as Orange County grappled with what should happen to the El Toro Marine base, which closed in July 1999.

Washington got a whole lot closer this week when the Navy announced its intention to sell all or part of the base at public auction; it will make a final decision next month.

The news stunned many in Orange County, who envisioned getting the entire base for free to build a large urban park and nature preserve. Voters on Tuesday approved rezoning the base for parkland and open space to allow the construction of a university, museums, sports complex, entertainment facilities and other uses, including student housing and recycling centers.

The main governmental voice promoting the sale of the land was Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach), who suggested eight years ago that selling El Toro would allow the Department of Defense to recoup its cost for relocating troops to San Diego from El Toro and the closed Tustin helicopter base. So far, that price tag exceeds $1 billion, he said.

The Navy’s surprise announcement had its seeds a year ago, Cox said. Though President Clinton’s administration was chilly to discussions about selling El Toro, the tide turned when Donald Rumsfeld became secretary of defense under President Bush.

One of Rumsfeld’s first actions was to review the bases approved for closure in 1993, including El Toro and Tustin, Cox said. The intent for that round of closures was to move land from the military inventory and produce as much as $4 billion in income to help pay consolidation costs. But the resulting base sales generated less than $70 million, Cox said.

As time passed, Congress became more anxious to clear the closed-base inventory; in 1996, changes in federal law allowed bases not set aside for public uses to be turned over for free to local agencies instead of sold. California had the most closed bases: 29.

Closing El Toro cost the Pentagon a lot of money, Cox said.

Then came the terrorist attacks Sept. 11--and “everyone started getting their priorities straight, including the Pentagon,” he said.

The military had a different mission and a renewed need for money to fight terrorism, Cox said.

The Navy’s decision to make a final determination next month on El Toro, including whether to sell the land at a public sale, reflects that new resolve, he said.

But the Navy would have been equally determined to dispose of the base for an airport had Tuesday’s vote gone the other way, he said. With the vote against the airport, he said, the Navy has pledged to follow the wishes of voters and to dispose of the base for non-airport uses.