Great Park at El Toro Isn’t Such a Great Idea

Re “Irvine Outlines Plan to Raise $353 Million for Great Park,” Jan. 29:

According to the map, the Central Park is in the center of the El Toro property, directly over the two 10,000-foot-runways and two 8,000-foot-runways, which in some parts are 12 feet thick. The Navy has never made an assessment of the toxicity of the land around and under the runways. Nobody knows how much contamination there is. What is known for sure is that for 57 years the planes were washed down regularly with toxic substances and the ground around the runways was covered with oil to keep the dust down. Also, there are miles of leaky, contaminated sewers under the runways.

Irvine’s promises of Great Park were mainly used to defeat the El Toro commercial airport and were fabrications for propaganda. Cleaning up the contamination to park standards would cost more than $1 billion.

El Toro is best used as an airport. The Marines chose the site wisely. It is protected by the buffer zone, is in a valley with mild wind conditions, and is surrounded by four freeways.

Shirley Conger

Corona del Mar

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Re “Park Will Be a Great Legacy,” Feb. 2:

This seems to me to be an endorsement of local housing developer schemes for turning a silk purse into a sow’s ear. The “silk purse” is the planned El Toro International Airport, which not only exists, but is ready for turning on the lights. The “sow’s ear,” by contrast, is unbridled urban sprawl on unknown toxic waste, unexploded munitions and open space.

Donald Nyre

Newport Beach

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This editorial is in stark contrast with a Times’ editorial one year ago, “Retain the El Toro Option.” That editorial analyzed the pros and cons of an airport at El Toro in great detail. The gist of the matter was summarized by the following statement: “Southern California can’t afford to foreclose its limited options at other airports in the region. One of them should remain El Toro, the former military base in Orange County.” The editorial also argued eloquently against Measure W. Today, you are making the case for a version of a Great Park.

As you point out, the government is extremely reluctant to set aside federal funds for cleaning up closed facilities. Yet Agran and cohorts have come up with another bit of Swiss-cheese planning for producing a park. They are inviting any developer from anywhere to build bits and pieces of El Toro. Once they have paid money for the property they will have a say in how the Great Park will be developed.

A “legacy” is a gift bestowed on another party by someone who owns the gift, i.e. money, land or other tangible property. Agran and cohorts do not own the land or have any claim to a major public work. Agran presented us with legally flawed Measure F, then questionable Measure W that promised a tax-free, world-class Great Park. Now South County wants to scrap a $50-million airport with its promise of many high-paying jobs, benefits from tourism and help for local businesses. Any benefits deriving from Agran’s proposals benefit only developers and Irvine rather than improving the business climate in the Southern California region.

William Kearns

Costa Mesa

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Will someone please tell me where all the water is going to come from to support the residents of 3,460 new homes and all the businesses that are going to be built in Irvine’s Great Park?

Alan Dougherty

Mission Viejo