Aims at Foiling Airline Use of El Toro : Irvine Making Quiet Bid to Annex Marine Station

The City of Irvine has launched a quiet drive to persuade the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station to annex to the city, a move partly designed to head off attempts to convert the base to a civilian airport.

Irvine officials confirmed Monday that they have submitted a proposal to the Marine Corps to consider joining the city, a plan that Mayor David Baker said would be both “the best way of protecting ourselves” against a civilian airport at El Toro and a guarantee of friendly relations with the city’s military neighbors on other issues.

“What we’re looking at is how we can build bridges to demonstrate that we regard the Marine Corps as an essential part of the community,” Baker said. “Rather than making the Marine Corps good neighbors, this would make them family.”

Irvine city officials say the annexation discussions involve a number of issues of interest to military and civic leaders, ranging from development impacts on the Marine base, historically a sore point, to affordable housing and health and child care. But the proposal also comes at a time when Irvine is fending off what city officials perceive as renewed attempts to open El Toro to commercial jet service.

The Marine base lies in unincorporated territory that is under the jurisdiction of the Orange County Board of Supervisors. The board recently rescinded its opposition to civilian use of El Toro as part of a settlement with Newport Beach of prolonged litigation over expansion of John Wayne Airport.

Irvine has filed papers in federal court challenging the settlement, which city officials contend brings renewed focus on El Toro as the only feasible location within the county for an additional civilian airport.

“We filed the litigation on the joint civilian use of El Toro, and if that were ever to come to be, if it (the base) is within our city, that gives us better control than if (it were) in county territory,” Assistant City Manager Paul Brady said.

Though Baker characterized the annexation discussions as “embryonic,” Marine Corps spokesman Col. Jerry Shelton said Monday that base officials received a letter from the city last week that he described as a “request for annexation.”

Because the local base is not permitted to take a position on annexation issues, the proposal has been forwarded to Marine Corps headquarters and the secretary of the Navy in Washington, D.C., for a decision, Shelton, the base’s community relations officer, said.

“We are aware of the proposal for annexation, and we sort of have to take a stand that we’re studying it, giving it a lot of thought, but we have to elevate it to the Washington level, at which time they will make a decision as to whether they will be for the annexation or against it,” Shelton explained.

Better Relations Discussed

“We’ve discussed over the years, and particularly within the past year, improving relations with the City of Irvine, and a great deal of effort has gone into making sure that we are a part of the Irvine community,” he said. “But we haven’t really discussed annexation per se until now.”

County Supervisor Bruce K. Nestande, whose district includes the Marine base and its surrounding communities, had not heard of the annexation discussions but said Monday that he would oppose any move to annex the base in the near future.

“That airport is more surrounded by county territory than it is by Irvine,” Nestande said, citing unincorporated communities--Lake Forest, Cowan Heights, Lemon Heights, El Toro and Laguna Hills, among others--that are equally affected by flight operations at the El Toro base.

“I think it would be unfair to place the jurisdiction of the Marine Corps Air Station in a city that may have a minority affected by the air station,” Nestande said.

City Launching Study

However, Brady said the city is launching a study to determine the feasibility of annexing portions of Lake Forest at the request of homeowners there. That proposal would make more sense geographically if the Marine base, which lies between most of Irvine and Lake Forest, were annexed as well, officials said.

Already, Irvine surrounds the Marine base on two sides. Within the past year, the city completed annexation of 745 acres on the south and east edges of the base to complete the Irvine industrial and technology complexes.

Development in Irvine near the base’s borders has historically been a source of friction between the city and the Marine Corps. City officials have clashed bitterly with the military in recent years over development of a hospital and amphitheater near what base officials said should be protected as crash-hazard zones.

But Baker said that the past year has brought a new, friendlier tone to discussions with the corps.

‘Part of Community’

“We regard the Marine Corps as an essential part of the community,” he said. “What they really are is another employer, and they happen to be the biggest employer in Orange County, certainly in Irvine.”

City officials also have talked with the Marine Corps about establishing development agreements that would provide Irvine landowners with certainty about what can be built near the base without interfering with military operations, Baker said.

“We’d like to set some firm rules; I think that’s all anybody’s asking for,” he said. “As I’ve heard both sides of the conversations, people aren’t asking the Marine Corps to go away, and the Marine Corps isn’t asking the economy to stop growing. What I think both sides want is to know what the rules are.”

It was not clear Monday what impact the annexation discussions would have on Irvine’s settlement negotiations with Newport Beach on the airport issue. Sources close to the negotiations said that Irvine has offered to accept a limit on flights at John Wayne Airport, despite concerns that the resulting pent-up passenger demand could throw renewed attention on El Toro as a relief valve. However, Irvine, in return, is seeking an assurance from the county and the city of Newport Beach that it would have authority to veto any efforts to convert El Toro to civilian use.

Military Commitment

Nestande said he opposed lifting the county’s official opposition to civilian use of El Toro because of his commitment to protect the base’s military operations. But he said he still does not believe that a majority of the board would vote to approve civilian use of the base in any case.

Shelton said that any decision on the part of the Marine Corps about a possible annexation “would have to meet a lot of criteria, and certainly would have to enhance the continued use of El Toro as a military air station.”

Should the Marine Corps react favorably to the annexation proposal, the city still would have to launch a full feasibility study and file an application with the Local Agency Formation Commission, a process that would take about 120 days, Brady said.

A vote of approval from citizens affected by the annexation would also have to take place, he added.