Irvine Supports Anti-Airport Effort

The Irvine City Council has unanimously endorsed the efforts of a south Orange County citizens group to overturn Measure A, an initiative approved last November that calls for a commercial airport at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

“We think this is just a bad referendum that was approved by the voters because they were misled and given false information,” Irvine Mayor Michael Ward said. “A majority of the voters in north Orange County saw this as a jobs bill, an economic stimulus bill.”

Taxpayers for Responsible Planning, a South County-based anti-airport group, is attempting to gather about 76,000 signatures required to place the initiative on the state presidential primary ballot next March.

The proposed ballot measure, called the El Toro Responsible Economic Development Initiative, would require studies of alternative uses of the Marine base, which is scheduled to close by 1999. Voter approval would be required for any plan to build an airport at the Marine base.

Irvine and seven South County cities filed a lawsuit last month against the county to overturn plans to convert El Toro into a commercial airport. The cities complain that the airport would bring unwanted noise and traffic and would lower property values.

David Ellis, a spokesman for proponents of Measure A, could not be reached for comment. But in previous comments, Ellis called legal challenges to Measure A “a giant exercise in frustration” that will prove costly to county taxpayers.

The South County cities have continued to fund the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority, the original group established to study a range of uses for the Marine base.

The County Board of Supervisors pulled out of the planning authority in January and formed the El Toro Airport Citizens Advisory Commission. Irvine has refused to take part in the commission, which is now recognized by the federal government as the official planning group for closure of the base.