Navy Rejects Hahn’s Plea for El Toro Site

On the day before a federal auction of the closed El Toro Marine Corps Air Station in Orange County, Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn issued a last-minute appeal to the Navy to let the city use the base as a commercial airport.

But his belated pitch met with immediate rejection from federal officials, who dismissed it out of hand, and sparked outrage from Orange County politicians still stinging from Monday’s announcement that the area’s baseball team would become the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

“Hands off,” said Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach), who first proposed selling El Toro to the highest bidder when it was put on a closure list in 1993. “We are not going to become a colony of Los Angeles,” Cox said. “There will be no ‘LAX of Orange County,’ even if we have to suffer the indignity of the ‘Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.’ ”

Hahn on Tuesday again asked the Navy to transfer up to 3,700 acres of the base to the U.S. Department of Transportation, which could then lease it to the city. Los Angeles World Airports, a city agency, operates Los Angeles International Airport, as well as airports in Ontario, Palmdale and Van Nuys.

“I think the idea that this is going to be a ‘great park’ is a great hoax,” Hahn said at a news conference at City Hall. “Home builders and other developers are really eyeing this property. They want to build more urban sprawl, which will clog our already clogged freeways, and then Orange County people are going to clog our freeways as they come and clog LAX.”

Hahn had sent a letter to the Navy secretary Dec. 20, but received no reply. Navy spokesman Lt. Ohene Gyapong said in a statement Tuesday that the service “has no plan to defer the public sale for the purpose of entering into any negotiations with any party aimed at establishing a civilian airport at El Toro.”

Late Tuesday, Hahn spokeswoman Elizabeth Kaltman said that the mayor was “disappointed with the Navy’s decision” and “feels very strongly that it will be a decision that will be regretted decades from now.”

Also on Tuesday, Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta sent a letter to Fullerton Mayor Shawn Nelson rejecting a similar request by his city to operate El Toro as a commercial airport.

This is the second time federal officials have rebuffed Los Angeles.

In April 2003, they rejected a 37-page memo transmitted in secret by city officials to the Transportation Department, offering to take over El Toro.

That proposal enraged Orange County residents, who have debated what to do with the base since 1994. Voters there believe they settled the issue in March 2002, when they approved a measure to rezone the base for parkland, homes, businesses and other development.

A month later, the Navy announced it would sell the property under a development plan proposed by Irvine, ending eight years and $54 million worth of planning by Orange County for a commercial airport.

On Tuesday, Orange County officials accused Hahn of playing politics and said they would fight any attempts to thwart the auction.

“Mayor Hahn’s proposal is not only unacceptable, it’s laughable,” said Tom Wilson, outgoing chairman of the Orange County Board of Supervisors. He called Hahn’s news conference a “feeble media antic” to earn political points in a competitive mayor’s race.

Irvine City Councilman Larry Agran, who heads the city-formed nonprofit corporation planning the development, said Hahn’s announcement was a “desperate attempt by a failed administration to hold on to power.”

“The timing of Mayor Hahn’s announcement leaves no question as to its motivation,” Agran added.

Los Angeles officials argue that El Toro is needed to help relieve an expected doubling of air traffic in Southern California by 2030. Other facilities, including Long Beach Airport, Bob Hope Airport in Burbank and John Wayne Airport in Orange County, face limits on their ability to expand. LAX, the region’s major airport, is already operating at 52% above the capacity for which it was designed.

Hahn has said repeatedly that Orange County must take its “fair share” of Southern California’s air traffic.

“This airport just doesn’t belong to people in Orange County,” Hahn said. “People think just because they live next to it they ought to be the ones to decide. Under that logic, we should say nobody from Orange County should use our airport.”

Hahn said that although there is “a lot of support in Congress for this idea,” he hadn’t met with any local congressmen to discuss his most recent proposal. He said that he didn’t “have the names” of Congress members who favored an airport at El Toro.

Los Angeles City Councilman Tony Cardenas introduced a resolution Tuesday urging the council to support Hahn’s proposal. At the news conference, Cardenas urged the Navy to postpone the auction. “We’re very serious about this,” he said. “We’re willing to get engaged in specific numbers with the federal government.”