North Calls for Truce, Urges Regional Airport Authority

Hoping to avoid a north-south political battle over El Toro Marine Corps Air Station’s future, a group of northern cities on Saturday invited all Orange County cities to join a regional airport authority.

Garden Grove City Councilman Mark Leyes proposed the idea to break a “political logjam” he said jeopardizes planning the future of the 4,700-acre air base that’s scheduled for closure under federal cutbacks.

Leyes said the proposed countywide airport authority was included in a packet sent on Saturday to mayors of Orange County’s 31 cities.

“We’re extending an olive branch to the other cities for the sake of unity in the county,” said Leyes, interim chairman of the Orange County Regional Airport Authority that is presently composed of only Garden Grove, Los Alamitos and Stanton.

However, Marcia Rudolph, a Lake Forest council member, said Saturday the proposal “is a good try,” but it comes “too late.”

“The thing about those cities in that authority is that they don’t live adjacent to the base. We do,” Rudolph said. “Besides, they’re late (with this proposal). The South County cities have been working on a better plan, and we’ll be glad to include Garden Grove and the other cities in it.”

Irvine City Councilwoman Christina L. Shea said she didn’t believe the U.S. Department of Defense would be interested in the airport authority with only northern members because those communities are located far from the Marine base.

“They’re not impacted as much as the South County cities are,” Shea said. “And, I really don’t think the Defense Department is going to put too much credence in their regional airport authority.”

Shea and Rudolph said details of South County’s plans for its own airport authority are expected to be completed in another two weeks.

The northern airport authority has proposed converting the base into a commercial airport after the facility is closed. That plan is opposed by both the county and a coalition of cities in south Orange County, including Irvine, Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel, Mission Viejo and Lake Forest.

However, Leyes said the northern group is willing to start over with a new, broader authority that will, in the interest of “county unity,” table the idea for a commercial airport in order to attract membership on the authority from southern cities.

His proposal to broaden the authority is also an effort to influence the county, which also has its own panel to study the El Toro issue.

“We’re willing to get the county’s attention and, well, let’s call it leverage, and come together as cities on this,” Leyes said. “The cities ought to unite. And, to help, we can put our idea of a commercial airport off the table to begin talks.”

County Supervisor Thomas F. Riley said Saturday he had not seen the new proposal, but that the county has made its own overture to South County cities by inviting them last week to form the county’s El Toro Reuse Task Force.

A tentative list of members includes Anaheim, Mission Viejo, Tustin, Irvine, Lake Forest, Leisure World, Newport Beach and Laguna Niguel. Also invited were four business groups and the Irvine Co.

Riley said the county’s task force will have no preconceived ideas about the eventual use of the Marine base, but that “by law,” to qualify for federal recognition and funding, discussions must include “consideration of the base as a future airport.”

Eventually, the regional airport authority must include participation from the county, which operates John Wayne Airport, and those cities affected by the base closure, Leyes said.

“We’ve sent a letter out to all those prospective cities,” Riley said. “But the main thing unmistakably in our favor is that the land is in the county’s unincorporated territory.”

A Newport Beach study has projected $240 million in annual profits for a commercial airport at El Toro by 2010. Creation of a regional airport agency would give local governments the legal authority to develop and operate the facility.

“From my view, El Toro’s conversion should not be a north-versus-south issue, a county-versus-city issue, or a county-versus-north-versus-south issue,” Leyes said. “No part of the community should be excluded since all are impacted in varying ways and extent.”