Yet Another Big Vote for El Toro

For the third time in four years, Orange County supervisors Tuesday approved environmental documents for a mammoth international airport at El Toro that they insist will never be built to that size.

Separately, in a surprise move, the Irvine City Council on Tuesday declared its support for turning over the bulk of the 4,700-acre base to the state to manage as an urban park.

The former Marine base is owned by the federal government, which has given authority over its redevelopment to the Board of Supervisors. Irvine, however, and other South County cities are hoping the county will acknowledge dwindling public support for the airport and relinquish planning control.

Tuesday’s vote by supervisors cleared a second round of court-ordered changes to a 1996 county study that looked at airport foes’ worst nightmare: closing John Wayne Airport and building an airport at El Toro that could handle 38 million passengers a year--nearly half the size of Los Angeles International Airport.

Supervisors ditched the idea of such a large facility nearly four years ago, opting to move forward with a smaller airport. The current environmental review examines an airport serving 28.8 million passengers a year, with John Wayne remaining open. That scenario will be brought to supervisors for a vote next year.

But a handful of speakers at the county meeting Tuesday questioned whether supervisors really have abandoned the larger airport plan.

“Why are you continuing to keep this option on the table?” asked Laguna Niguel Mayor Mimi Walters.

“I’m beginning to believe this has been the plan all along,” said airport foe Len Kranser, a Dana Point resident.

The county’s chief airport planner said the original plan has lingered because it is part of the county’s two-stage planning process for the airport. State law requires that the original environmental document be complete before supervisors can vote on the smaller airport, said Bryan Speegle, the county’s planner for El Toro.

In contrast to the original 1996 plan, the revisions approved Tuesday acknowledge that air pollution from a airport handling 38 million passengers a year would be significant. The earlier review claimed pollution would drop because fewer airline passengers would have to drive from Orange County to out-of-county airports. That claim ultimately was rejected by a San Diego Superior Court judge.

In current planning documents, the county suggests a number of ways to limit pollution, such as using alternative-fuel airport vehicles and hooking up planes to air-conditioning units at the gate so aircraft engines can be turned off.

Irvine, meanwhile, has been exploring alternatives to an airport--of any size--that can win voters’ support in a future election. The vote Tuesday to pursue the state park was 3-to-0, with Mayor Christina L. Shea and Councilman Larry Agran absent.

City polling across the county has indicated that most residents would rather see the land at El Toro turned into a park, Councilman Mike Ward said. At the same time, Irvine residents don’t want to be saddled with the cost of building or maintaining it, he said.

Development and upkeep of the park could run as high as $60 million a year, he said.

“The state has more experience managing parks of this size,” Ward said. “We do a great job of managing 20-acre parks, but we have no experience with anything this large.”

Resident Sam Castelo accused the council of abandoning support for the park by suggesting the land be turned over to the state. He said the idea was a “cheap political shot” against Agran, who has been warring with the council over his concept of a city-run urban park that would include athletic fields, a college campus and a museum.

Councilman Dave Christensen said the city doesn’t have the money to keep up with its existing recreational needs, including refurbishing its aquatic complex and maintaining its parks.

“This is a way to get a park and fund a park without costing the taxpayers of Irvine,” he said. “I’d rather have a state park in Irvine than one in San Francisco or Sacramento or Concord.”

The motion by Ward to pursue the park calls for the city to cooperate with the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority, a nine-city anti-airport coalition that includes Irvine. The coalition supports a mix of a large park plus some homes and commercial development at the base.