Rohrabacher Fails to Delay $700,000 Grant for El Toro Base Conversion : Development: Officials bristle at his suggestion that the funds be withheld until after the election and used solely to plan an airport if voters favor such a project.

HUNTINGTON BEACH —  U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher said Thursday that he unsuccessfully tried to stop a federal planning grant for the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station until voters decide in November whether they want a commercial airport built there.

The Huntington Beach congressman, a strong advocate for a public airport at the 4,700-acre base once the military pulls out, said the recently approved $700,000 Defense Department grant should be used to plan a commercial airport if residents favor a ballot measure for such a project.

“I don’t think it would be proper to use tax dollars to push El Toro planning away from a commercial airport if a solid voting majority said they wanted another airport there,” Rohrabacher said. “It would amount to officials thumbing their nose at the local electorate.”

The congressman’s comments came a day after the Defense Department’s Office of Economic Adjustment announced it would deliver the grant to Orange County’s El Toro Reuse Planning Authority, an intergovernmental agency that will chart redevelopment of the base.

The funding had already been delayed by nearly a year because of local squabbling over which political entity would control conversion planning for the base, scheduled to close by 1999. The grant is expected to pay for most of the conversion planning.

Bristling at Rohrabacher’s actions and recommendations, county officials said that to tie the money exclusively to airport planning would be “irresponsible” even if local residents voted to place a commercial airport at the El Toro base.

“If the initiative passes and an airport is designated for that property and the election passes the certain legal challenges, that would amount to setting aside 2,000 acres,” said Kenneth H. Bruner, an aide to Board of Supervisors Chairman Thomas F. Riley. “How do you plan to account for the other 2,700 acres? While we all appreciate Mr. Rohrabacher’s position, I think his focus misses the point.”

Had Rohrabacher been successful in further delaying the federal funding, Bruner said, the local planning schedule would have damaged.

“We are already paying bills with that money,” Bruner said.

Rohrabacher “ought to be glad he’s not running for reelection in South County,” Riley said.

Riley, whose South County supervisorial district includes El Toro, is chairman of the local base conversion agency and has been generally opposed to placing a commercial airport on El Toro property.

For more than a year, the Marine base has been at the center of a raging debate over how the facility should be converted when it is closed. The controversy has pitted airport proponents in South County who think an airport would upset residential communities with increased traffic and noise against North County leaders who believe such a development would be a boon to local commerce.

The airport initiative has been largely supported by business interests, including some of the county’s most powerful developers.

Independent of Rohrabacher’s suggestions, Bruner said the county is required to study the possibility of using El Toro as a commercial airport site. He said the intergovernmental planning agency is already engaged in a review that is being funded by a Federal Aviation Administration grant.

“We always intended to study an airport,” Bruner said. “The voters are getting their dollars’ worth. But there still are a number of other issues to be studied. We have assembled a team of very responsible planners and they will do a good job.”

Rohrabacher said he communicated with Defense Department officials about the November airport initiative and suggested that it would be better to hold back the funding until after the election so that the money could be directed according to the voters’ wishes.

Anthony J. Carstens, the county’s director of policy research and planning, said Thursday that he was not aware of any restrictions on the grant funds, such as tying use of the money to the outcome of the election.