Pro-airport forces blast Irvine, Navy agreement

Paul Clinton

NEWPORT BEACH -- A local airport group battling to keep the dream

alive for the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station is criticizing the

efforts by Irvine and the Navy to turn the property into a “Great

Park.”

Members of the Airport Working Group, based in Newport Beach, said

a plan unveiled by the South County city and Navy during a Tuesday

press conference “is no picnic” because it substitutes retail shops

and housing for true open space.

“The Great Park bait-and-switch that began with Measure W

continues with this version of the plan,” group member Richard Taylor

said in a statement. “Irvine’s land grab lacks a key component ...

who will pay for the toxic cleanup of the site?”

The group is suing to overturn Measure W, which passed March 5.

The Central Park and Nature Preserve Initiative, as it was known,

rezoned the base, essentially freezing all efforts to build an

airport.

That case has been assigned to a Los Angeles Superior Court judge,

who has set a hearing for September. Attorneys for both sides filed

their arguments with the judge on Tuesday. The Airport Working Group

has also filed suit against the Navy, saying the federal

environmental report on the Great Park misrepresented the project.

If those lawsuits are successful, the deal by the Navy and Irvine

could effectively be scuttled.

Still, as the result of several months of planning, Irvine

officials now say they would allow as much as 3,400 homes and 2.9

million square feet of commercial space to be built at the former

base.

Under the newest plan, the base’s 4,700 acres will be broken up

and sold off to the highest bidder. The base’s 1,000-acre section of

protected wildlife preserve will stay as is, but the remainder of the

base will be sold at auction. The General Services Agency will

oversee the sale over the Internet.

The land can be broken up into as many of six pieces and sold to

either one or multiple buyers.

Irvine Mayor Larry Agran, one of the chief architects of Measure

W, unveiled the plan, saying it “meets all the goals of the city of

Irvine.”

“There will be no airport at El Toro,” Agran said, in a statement.

“And, yes, just as we promised, we will create one of America’s

greatest metropolitan parks right here in the center of Orange

County.”

In a statement responding to the new plan, Airport Working Group

members said they applied “the picnic test” to each proposed section

of the park plan.

“Can your family hold a picnic at the site?” the release asked

rhetorically.

Not at the 194 acres set aside as “drainage/wildlife corridor,”

the release said jokingly, unless “you are an NRA member and want to

hunt the wildlife in violation of Irvine’s gun ordinance.”

* PAUL CLINTON covers the environment and politics. He may be

reached at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail at [email protected].