Long-Awaited Great Park Can Take Shape Quickly

Orange County’s continuing effort to transform the former El Toro Marine Corps Air Station into one of America’s great metropolitan parks demonstrates the vitality of our democratic process.

It took nearly 10 years and four elections to finally defeat the proposed airport at El Toro. The city of Irvine took an important leadership role in this battle by drafting Measure W and promising the voters of Orange County a better use for El Toro: the Great Park.

We pledged to deliver a plan that would develop and maintain one of America’s largest and most beautiful metropolitan parks without any additional burden on federal, state or local taxpayers.

Recently, we announced a detailed financial plan for the Orange County Great Park that fulfills this promise. The plan has been made possible through a partnership between Irvine and the Department of the Navy.

Under the Orange County Great Park plan, nearly 4,000 acres (or 6 square miles) will be dedicated permanently as open space, including a vast meadowlands park, more than 1,200 acres of wildlife corridors and nature preserves, a system of streams and ponds, 200 acres of permanent agriculture, a 165-acre sports park, a 156-acre park for museums and cultural activities, public golf courses, equestrian facilities, a veterans memorial and cemetery, an exposition center and a 275-acre educational park. These park and open space uses represent 84% of El Toro’s acreage.

The remaining 16% -- about 800 acres -- will be made available for residential and business development.

The Great Park plan will require landowners, as a condition of development, to dedicate 1,369 acres (an area larger than San Diego’s Balboa Park) to a public trust.

The purpose of this trust is to rapidly create the central meadowlands park, the sports park, the museum park and a wildlife corridor that will connect the Laguna Coast Wilderness Park to the 1,100-acre Great Park nature preserve and the Cleveland National Forest.

Private landowners will also be required to pay up-front fees to the trust to ensure the Great Park’s development, as well as additional annual fees to provide for its maintenance.

The estimated total cost for the roads, utilities, landscaping and park improvements is $353 million. Of that total, an estimated $153 million will be financed with assessment bonds passed through to the ultimate homeowner or business owner; $200 million will be financed with development agreement fees paid by private developers.

This kind of financing structure -- including land dedication, property assessments and development fees -- is common in master-planned communities throughout Southern California. It is the same financing structure that has helped make Irvine the largest, most successful master-planned community in the United States.

Real estate experts who have reviewed the Orange County Great Park plan agree that the sale of the developable property, estimated to be valued at $1 million per acre, will more than support the $200 million in development fees.

The additional assessments, which include the basic 1% property tax, will not exceed the amount charged to the property owner in most master-planned communities.

The truly exciting feature of this plan is the speed with which it allows the Great Park to be developed. Irvine will complete its environmental impact report this spring and apply to the Local Agency Formation Commission for annexation. The commission is expected to consider the application this summer. We expect that the property will be annexed this fall.

The Navy and the General Services Administration will prepare for a fall 2003 public auction, similar to the auction recently held to sell the Tustin Marine Corps base. The auction will conclude when the General Services Administration determines that the highest value is achieved. This process took 70 days in Tustin.

Once the sale and transfer of the El Toro property are complete, we will begin tearing up the runways. Within three years, our children and grandchildren will be playing in the county’s largest sports park, and thousands of people will be able to enjoy the first phase of the meadowlands park.

A Los Angeles Times editorial on Feb. 2 concluded, “Irvine and the Navy deserve the credit for a bold plan to create lasting public benefit.”

In reality, the people of Orange County deserve the credit. They didn’t simply endure 10 years of civic conflict over the future of El Toro. They embraced a dramatic new vision for El Toro: the Orange County Great Park.

With continuing hard work, the Great Park is becoming a reality that will surely be a source of pride for generations to come.