Airport Foes Rally Behind ‘Great Park’ Initiative

Hundreds of people turned out Sunday in Laguna Niguel to rally behind a pending March ballot initiative that aims to create a massive urban park instead of an international airport at the former El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

“We are opposed to the airport. We want something better--something that reflects the will of the people,” said Irvine Mayor Larry Agran during an afternoon speech to anti-airport forces at Crown Valley Community Park.

Between 200 and 300 Orange County residents participated in the event, which was designed to generate support for a pending ballot measure that would prohibit aviation-related uses at the closed Marine base.

Proponents of the new airport have sued to stop the initiative, which was backed by petitions containing 175,000 signatures. An appeals court in San Diego is considering whether to overturn a Superior Court ruling that halted the measure on the grounds that its ballot title and summary were misleading.

Supporters say the measure would create an enormous metropolitan park that would be four times the size of Central Park in New York City.

Taxes would not have to be raised to pay for the “Great Park,” they say, because money from state park bonds is available, and base assets, such as housing and warehouse space, can be leased.

Supporters of the airport say that converting the base for commercial aviation would keep Orange County economically vital and create far more jobs than a park. They estimate that a new airfield handling 18.8 million passengers a year would generate $7 billion in economic benefits by 2010.

But Arnie Burke of Lake Forest, who attended the rally, said he is not convinced by the pro-airport position. He and his family live less than a mile from the end of one of El Toro’s runways.

“I’m not interested in having planes fly over my house 24 hours a day,” Burke said as he waited with his wife and two daughters for the speeches to begin. “There has not been one honest analysis showing why we need this.”

At the rally were a host of community leaders and elected officials, including state Sen. Bill Morrow (R-Oceanside), Laguna Niguel Mayor Cathryn DeYoung, Fullerton Councilman Chris Norby, and Alan Songstad, chairman of the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority, an anti-airport group.

In their speeches, they capitalized on public opinion surveys that have repeatedly indicated since 1995 that more people oppose a new airport at El Toro than support it.

“We’ve been told that the county is going to make the decision,” Morrow told the crowd, “not the public, not the cities, not those affected most by the airport.”

The senator then chided the county Board of Supervisors for its action last week to reverse an unexpected vote by pro-airport Supervisor Jim Silva to let the voters decide the fate of the air station. In the confusion over Silva’s flip-flop, the board decided to table the matter until Oct. 16 so pro-airport forces could regroup.

“What do the pro-airport people on the board do?” Morrow said. “They stop. They regroup. They try to thwart the will of the people. Their plan is not to let the voters decide.”