El Toro Airport Fight Begins Anew

Outraged opponents of a rejected plan to build a commercial airport at the former El Toro Marine base vowed Friday to fight a last-ditch proposal by Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn that would revive the idea.

“I think this thing is a real ‘Hail Mary’ pass -- and we’re going to intercept it,” said Orange County Supervisor Bill Campbell, a former state assemblyman who called the White House on Friday to promise that the county would fight the plan.

In a memo to federal officials made public Friday, Los Angeles officials propose leasing the former Marine base from the federal government for a commercial airport to be operated by the city. If adopted, the plan would override a vote in 2002 by Orange County residents rejecting an airport and halt an auction later this year to divide the base among developers for parkland, homes and businesses. Despite the angry reaction, some activists and political figures outside Orange County began lining up behind the proposal Friday.

“I support any effort that would potentially rekindle hopes for use of El Toro as a commercial airport,” said Rep. John Mica, the Florida Republican who heads the House aviation subcommittee. “It was a mistake to prevent that the first time around.... At some point there’s a federal interest in seeing these kind of projects completed.”

After a series of decisions last year, the Navy is preparing to auction 3,700 acres of the base this fall under Irvine’s plan for a park and mixed-use development. But Mica’s office said there is precedent for late transfers of closed military bases to other federal agencies.

In 2000, the U.S. Department of the Interior -- citing environmental concerns in the Everglades -- trumped local plans for a commercial airport at Homestead Air Force Base in Miami-Dade County, replacing it with a mixed-used development.

Many in Orange County were furious Friday not only at the airport idea, but also at what they called arrogant and underhanded behavior by the Hahn administration.

“It irritated me,” said Gail Brunell, a Laguna Niguel resident who lives beneath what had been a proposed flight path. “I find that to be very insulting. They have their community. They shouldn’t have any say in what we do down in Orange County. It’s really intrusive.”

Orange County Board of Supervisors Chairman Tom Wilson agreed. “Since when can a city practically invoke eminent domain on an adjoining county? It’s almost like these folks have been hiding in the bushes to ambush us.”

Pastor John Steward, who heads the 60-member, anti-airport Clergy for Wholesome Communities, predicted that an airport there would face years of legal challenges if the Los Angeles proposal moved forward.

“When is enough enough?” said Steward, pastor of Mount of Olives Lutheran Church in Mission Viejo. “It’s just morally wrong for one community to tell another how to live. We took a vote and we said we didn’t want to do this.”

An Internet message board maintained by anti-airport activists buzzed Friday as activists awoke from political hibernation.

“How dare you!” read a posting by Hank Arkin of Rancho Santa Margarita, who said it was part of a letter he sent to Hahn. “As someone who grew up in the San Fernando Valley and attend Loyola, I am actually ashamed for my one-time city for the first time in my life. It is clear the Valley and Hollywood should have seceded, as you clearly cannot be trusted.”

Irvine Mayor Larry Agran, the region’s main proponent for converting El Toro into a park, dismissed the proposal.

“This kind of back-door lease proposal is totally unacceptable to everybody,” Agran said. “The likelihood of this getting anywhere is pretty slim. No way a federal agency would get involved to try to upend all the hard and productive work that has been done.”

There was some Orange County support. Newport Beach City Councilman Tod W. Ridgeway said the issue is regional, not local, and that the Hahn proposal highlights Southern California’s shortage of airport capacity. He speculated that Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta might be receptive.

“Regional growth issues are not adequately addressed in ballot initiatives and referendums,” Ridgeway said. “Only elected and government officials can make courageous decisions to solve these problems.”

Anaheim City Councilwoman Shirley McCracken, a longtime supporter of an airport at El Toro, said Hahn’s proposal would solve an important regional problem.

“The county’s reaction has been to sweep this under the rug and act like it has gone away,” McCracken said.

“Twenty years down the line, we will regret that we did not use that space.”

Some industry experts said the federal government will at some point have to defy local voters if it hopes to solve regional air travel problems.

“Because aviation is a national ... phenomenon, the federal government needs to step to the plate,” said Steven Erie, a UC San Diego political science professor. “The problem is that NIMBYism [Not In My Backyard] reigns supreme. No one wants to bear any costs for the public or the regional good.”

The idea was in a 37-page memo that Deputy Mayor Troy Edwards and Ted Stein, president of the Los Angeles Airport Commission, sent to Jeffrey Shane, undersecretary of transportation for policy, to launch discussions. But Lenny Alcivar, spokesman for Mineta, said “there is no proposal to use El Toro” before the department, and hence no federal action is imminent.

Hahn hopes the proposal will force lawmakers to take a position.

“This will make people become engaged one way or another, and maybe give us an answer in terms of what our possibilities are,” said Deputy Mayor Matt Middlebrook.

Some Los Angeles County residents and lawmakers applauded the move to try to use El Toro to relieve pressure on Los Angeles International Airport, where local residents have fought expansion on grounds that the 75-year-old facility generates too much noise and traffic.

Hahn previously killed a 2001 Richard Riordan administration plan to expand LAX to 89 million annual passengers that faced heavy local opposition. Hahn has promised to cap LAX at 78 million annual passengers, in part to build political capital for a controversial $9.6-billion plan to modernize the aging facility.

But to make the plan work he must find airports willing to handle the projected doubling of air traffic in Southern California by 2025.

Though emphasizing that “local decision-making is key” when it comes to how El Toro is used, Rep. Jane Harman (D-Venice) argued that Southern California residents must share the “burdens and benefits of increased air travel.”

“Orange County is responsible for the largest increase in air traffic, and they have most of the new passengers,” Harman said, “while Los Angeles County has most of the airports.”

The fate of El Toro first emerged as a political issue in 1993 when the federal government announced it would close the Marine Corps Air Station. Under base-closure procedures, the fate of closed bases is left up to local authorities.

The Orange County Board of Supervisors initially backed plans for a voter-approved commercial airport, seeing it as both the linchpin to broad-based economic development and a shouldering of the county’s fair burden of regional transportation needs. They were supported by north county residents and a large number of politically connected Newport Beach residents -- including George Argyros, now U.S. ambassador to Spain -- who sought to shift air traffic from John Wayne Airport, whose flight path lies above the oceanside community.

South Orange County residents, though, came together in a broad coalition that culminated last year in the passage of a referendum to convert the base into a park -- which many people thought killed the possibility of a commercial airport.

The Hahn proposal, some said, is proof that the issue won’t be over until El Toro’s next incarnation comes to life.

“Until the runways are removed and trees planted, there will be a threat from some source,” said Lake Forest Mayor Richard T. Dixon, whose city has fought the airport for years. “Hahn and LAWA are very serious -- deadly serious. Consequently, we are going to have to be very vigilant.”

At the Laguna Hills Mall, a few miles from El Toro, some shoppers viewed the Los Angeles proposal as sneaky and unwelcome.

“There shouldn’t be any reason why Los Angeles should have any direct control over what happens in Orange County,” said Amelia Hawkins, a 30-year resident of Lake Forest. “I just don’t want them telling me what we have to have here.... It is just not right.”

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

ounty cities file suit to block airport.

1999

June 4 Flight demonstrations test noise near El Toro.

July 2 Closing ceremonies

at base.

Dec. 23 Preliminary environmental report doubles predicted construction cost and concedes ‘significant’ jet noise.

2000

March 8 Anti-airport Measure F passes by 2-1 majority.

Dec. 1 Judge voids Measure F as ‘fundamentally flawed.’

2001

July 31 Initiative petitions seeking to substitute park for airport voided by judge as misleading.

Aug. 24 Appeals court allows petitions to be processed pending its ruling.

Oct. 18 Initiative approved for the March ballot.

2002

March 5 Orange County Central Park and Nature Preserve Initiative passes 58% to 42%. It rezones the base for parks, museums, golf courses and other public uses.

April 16 Board of Supervisors votes to allow Irvine to annex the base and take over land-use planning. Doing so takes the land outside voter-approved Measure W.

April 23 Navy announces it will sell 3,700 acres of the base at public auction.

2003

April 9 Date of memo written by Los Angeles officials asking the federal Department of Transportation to take over control of El Toro.

Source: Times reports

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Times staff writers Dan Weikel and Daniel Yi in Orange County and Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar in Washington contributed to this report.