Irvine Hits Coad’s Park Plan Deadline

Irvine officials met a Friday deadline for telling Orange County Supervisor Cynthia P. Coad how they propose to find money for North County parks from the development of the former El Toro Marine base, but no details of their plan were released.

Coad said she wanted to review the plan before making it public. Irvine officials didn’t return calls seeking comment Friday.

“I have to have some experts review it and make sure we can all come out winners,” Coad said.

Coad cast the swing vote last month for Irvine’s bid before the Board of Supervisors to annex most of the 4,700-acre base. She said her vote was predicated on assurances that North County would get yearly funding from property taxes paid on the development of the base, plus a one-time allotment of about $2 million for parks in her district.

When it became clear that Irvine’s plan to use El Toro property taxes for North County parks wasn’t feasible under state law, Coad asked for an alternative plan by Friday.

Irvine’s new plan proposes “a combination of things,” she said, to yield the money she wants--about $800,000 a year. But if she isn’t satisfied, she said, she’ll put Irvine’s annexation bid on the May 14 Board of Supervisors agenda and change her vote. She joined Supervisors Todd Spitzer and Tom Wilson in voting April 16 for the annexation. Supervisors Jim Silva and Chuck Smith voted against it.

“There seems to be an honest attempt to make North County residents feel that they, too, are being served by [development of] El Toro,” said Coad, who lives in unincorporated West Anaheim, where there is one acre of parkland per 100,000 residents.

Irvine officials intend to create a redevelopment agency at the base to pay for improvements, which under state law means most of El Toro’s property taxes must be spent there.

The base generates no taxes now because it is federal property. The Navy announced last month that it will sell most of the land.

Irvine’s redevelopment plan is based on zoning approved by county voters March 5 when they killed the county’s plans to build an airport at El Toro. If the city annexes the property, it won’t be bound by the zoning; city planners already have proposed 1,500 homes in a southern slice of the base.

Creating guaranteed revenue for North County isn’t the only annexation hurdle Irvine faces. The city must complete an environmental and financial review justifying the annexation and submit plans to the Orange County Local Agency Formation Commission, a state-created agency that oversees incorporations and annexations.

Supervisor-elect Chris Norby, who will replace Coad in January, said he supports her demand for park money.