Settlement draws El Toro fight to an end

Alicia Robinson

A Newport Beach group that has fought for years for an airport at El

Toro has given up the battle and reached a settlement with Irvine

that will allow the city to proceed with plans for the Great Park

development.

The agreement on the remaining road blocks to Irvine’s annexation

of the closed Marine air base effectively ends the chance of an

airport being built there.

Irvine officials approved the settlement late Tuesday, ending a

lawsuit filed in 2003 by the Newport Beach-based Airport Working

Group and Orange County Regional Airport Authority that claimed an

environmental report on El Toro rezoning plans was inadequate. Also

settled Tuesday was a suit filed by the airport groups against the

Local Agency Formation Commission over its Jan. 14 approval of

Irvine’s annexation of El Toro.

In the settlement, the airport groups agreed not to participate in

any other court or administrative challenge of the redevelopment of

El Toro. The city will conduct an independent study of environmental

cleanup issues regarding the Marine base, a statement from the city

said.

Representatives for both sides say they’re happy with the deal.

“It means that both of these lawsuits will be dismissed, which

we’re very pleased about, and I think what it represents is that we

can move forward with the planning and, hopefully very soon, the

implementation of the Great Park plan,” said Dan Jung, Irvine’s

director of strategic programs.

The airport groups also are pleased with the settlement because it

achieves for them the same goals that winning the lawsuit would have,

said Barbara Lichman, legal counsel for the Airport Working Group and

Orange County Regional Airport Authority.

“This, I believe, is mutually beneficial from two perspectives,”

she said. “One, the Airport Working Group gets an additional study of

the hazardous waste impacts of the project, which were not completely

revealed in the [environmental impact report] for the project and

which will affect everyone in Orange County. Two, [the Airport

Working Group] gets to move on, as does the city of Irvine, with its

own agenda, which litigation always interferes with.”

The airport groups maintained that Irvine’s environmental report

was incomplete because it was based on a federal government study

that left out some contaminated areas, Lichman said. That view was

buttressed by newer federal documents released last month that

included nearly 900 more acres of the base under runways and in

aircraft areas that may pose environmental cleanup problems, she

said.

The Department of the Navy, which owns the 4,700-acre El Toro

property, will auction it off later this year. Plans for the land

could include nearly 3 million square feet of commercial development

and as many as 3,400 homes. Irvine officials also have talked up the

Great Park, which could include a central park, a habitat preserve, a

sports park, a museum and educational uses. 70th District Assemblyman

John Campbell has suggested moving the Orange County Fair there.

The settlement comes about two months after members of the Airport

Working Group held an annual meeting where they had vowed to continue

the fight because the runways were still at the base.

If the Great Park ever gets finished, that no longer will be true.

* ALICIA ROBINSON covers business, politics and the environment.

She may be reached at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail at

[email protected].