Countywide : Irvine Officials Will Make Case for Spot on Base Panel

Irvine Mayor Michael Ward and City Councilman Barry J. Hammond will leave for Washington on Sunday to try to persuade federal officials to include Irvine and other South County cities in planning for the conversion of the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

They will lead a delegation of South County’s city officials who will plead their case at the Defense Department, the Federal Aviation Administration and the Office of Economic Adjustment.

Representatives from Irvine and Lake Forest were part of the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority, formed to plan for the closure of the base.

But after county voters in November narrowly approved Measure A, which calls for a commercial airport at the site, the Board of Supervisors disbanded the planning authority. Supervisors said they were responding to the voters. But Irvine city officials point out that Measure A was soundly defeated among voters in Irvine and other cities near the base.

“The cities believe that ETRPA (El Toro Reuse Planning Authority) should remain in service and that the matter not be assumed by the County Board of Supervisors,” said Irvine City Manager Paul O. Brady Jr.

Irvine and Lake Forest city officials will not be content to “take the crumbs and be dependent upon the county staff or the Board of Supervisors to determine the land use for El Toro,” Brady said.

The cities’ officials will urge the federal agencies to force the county to re-establish the planning authority.

“The Department of Defense can refuse to continue to fund the process,” Hammond. “We all need to be a part of the planning process.”