El Toro Park Plan Stands, Officials Insist

Officials across Orange County scrambled this week to quell fears that the Navy’s announcement that it intends to sell all or part the former El Toro Marine base scuttles the park plan voters approved Tuesday.

The question isn’t whether the park will be built, officials said, but whether the land will be sold to a private developer, turned over for free to a government entity--or a combination of both.

Whatever happens, Measure W, which voters approved, restricts what can be built on the base, limiting development to such things as a university and student housing, museums, a sports complex, recycling centers and entertainment facilities--as long as the land stays under county control. If it is annexed by a city, Measure W’s zoning laws no longer apply.

The Navy probably will sell some of the land and give other portions away, said Paul Eckles, executive director of the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority, a coalition of south Orange County cities that has fought the airport for eight years.

The Board of Supervisors, which has sole local authority over the fate of El Toro, and South County cities, led by Irvine as the city most affected, should agree quickly on a new reuse plan for the base, Eckles said. Without agreement, however, “the Navy is going to say, the best way to deal with this is to go to public sale.”

County planners are working on several scenarios to present on April 16, when supervisors are scheduled to meet to decide what to do next.

The planners, however, don’t know if a new proposal can be prepared in time to meet the Navy’s April 23 deadline for making a final decision on whether to sell.

“We’re breaking new ground in many respects now that the Navy wants to put the land up for sale,” said Gary Simon, the county’s El Toro project manager. “There are just a whole series of questions.”

Meanwhile, the Navy released its environmental review of El Toro, written before Tuesday’s vote. Not unexpectedly, it still regards a commercial airport serving 28.8 million passengers a year by 2020 as the “preferred alternative.”

The study recommends that the Navy dispose of 3,763 acres of the 4,738-acre base; 905 acres were set aside for wildlife habitat through the Federal Aviation Administration and will stay in federal hands. Another 70 acres will be turned over to the FBI.

In a one-page acknowledgment of Measure W’s passage, added to the document, the three-volume study concludes that either aviation or nonaviation uses for El Toro are possible, but indicated that the Navy would sell the base. The study was completed by the Navy and the FAA.

“If the decision [of the Navy] is to dispose of this property for nonaviation uses, the most efficient way of achieving the laudable goal of placing this property on the local tax rolls is for the Navy to dispose of the property by public sale,” the study said.

In a blow to a second airport plan that had once competed with the county’s proposal, the study concluded that the V-plan--which supporters have resurrected and now hope to put on the November ballot--is “not a reasonable alternative.” The study quoted from the county’s environmental analysis that planes departing to the south over the coast near Newport Beach would create too much noise for 4,100 future homes the Irvine Co. plans for west of the San Diego Freeway.

Villa Park Councilman Robert E. McGowan, who submitted the V-plan Thursday for review by county election officials, said he’ll argue to the Navy that the homes aren’t built yet and the land could be used in other ways. The Irvine Co. has previously said it opposes the V-plan.

Simon said he’ll recommend that supervisors consider a new development plan for El Toro that contemplates not only what happens to the base but also to a 14,000-acre zone around it where homes have been prohibited because of noise from military jets, a restriction continued since the base closed in July 1999.

The Board of Supervisors also could decide to withdraw the county’s application for the land, airport or not. And there is no guarantee the Navy will sell the land or give all or part of it to a local government entity.

For example, it could be handed over to another federal agency, including the FAA for a future airport--a move supported by pro-airport Supervisor Chuck Smith.

Supervisors have indicated they are not willing to accept responsibility for cleaning up toxins at the base, listed as one of the most polluted federal sites in the country. The federal government has pledged to clean the site, but offers no timetable for doing so and no funding guarantee.