Park Will Be a Great Legacy

The Great Park group is back, this time with a plan that doesn’t involve reaching into taxpayers’ pockets, except for the standard fees for those who buy at El Toro. The $353-million plan is a slightly more detailed version of what Irvine and Navy officials unveiled last summer. It has the same benefits -- a clever scheme to auction land complete with building entitlements, but with the proviso that the purchaser provide a big block of land and money for the park and toxic waste cleanup. Also present, though, is much of the same fuzziness: Exactly what kind of park will the money buy? And what happens if the site proves more laden with toxic waste than anyone thought?

Irvine Mayor Larry Agran and cohorts last week presented an ambitious timeline that calls for annexing the land by this summer and for the Navy to sell all the land to developers by spring of 2004. Crews would start jack-hammering the vast runways immediately afterward. Parts of the park would open within five years.

It would be nice if everything moved along that quickly. The transfer of land to private hands would end the continued carping about placing an airport at El Toro. It also would open vast swaths of land around the closed military airport to development.

Though the Navy anticipates a stiff price for the land -- $1 million an acre -- the auction plans seem realistic. Land on the Tustin base fetched similar amounts, and this acreage will come with time- and money-saving entitlements to develop 3,400 homes and 2.9 million square feet of business space.

The Tustin sale, though, occurred in a stronger economy. And many plans for old military bases have faced long delays after the first bulldozers discovered pockets of toxic waste. The Navy says it’s committed to whatever cleanup is needed, but if the price tag goes higher than expected, where and when will it find the extra money? And how long might that delay development? Might developers be leery of buying with the full story on contamination still unknown?

These potential barriers could delay the Great Park or eat into funding for its development. But they are unlikely to derail it. These days, few agencies think in terms of major public works that leave a legacy.

Irvine and the Navy deserve credit for a bold plan to create lasting public benefit.