Opponents to Airport Hail Letter to Navy

A letter written by U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer and Rep. Christopher Cox asking the Navy to consider alternatives to developing an airport at the retiring El Toro Marine Corps Air Station was touted Saturday as a tactical triumph by airport opponents.

“We’re delighted,” said Norm Grossman, a consultant for Taxpayers for Responsible Planning, a group formed to fight plans to build a commercial airport at El Toro. “We’re convinced that once all options are explored in an objective way, it will become obvious that a non-aviation alternative is superior.”

The letter is addressed to Navy Secretary John H. Dalton. While it does not oppose an airport at El Toro, the letter signed by the lawmakers states that it is “absolutely imperative” that the U.S. Navy’s study of future uses for the base be “complete, fair and accurate.”

Airport opponents are hoping that the Navy’s study, essentially a report examining the impact of the base’s closure on the area, will challenge the findings of a similar report commissioned by the Board of Supervisors.

That environmental impact report outraged airport opponents by portraying an airport as the best way to reuse the base when it is retired by the military in mid-1999.

Airport advocates said Saturday that they do not believe opponents are looking for objectivity.

“They just want a different answer,” said Newport Beach city attorney Bob Burnham, whose city supports an airport.

The letter was the result of a meeting that took place about two months ago. At that time, representatives from Taxpayers for Responsible Planning and another anti-airport group, Project ‘99, met with the senator, a California Democrat, to complain that the concerns of South County residents were being ignored in the base reuse planning process, Grossman said.

Boxer and Cox (R-Newport Beach) could not be reached for comment Saturday.

“The tide has turned,” said Grossman, who said the letter also marks the increasingly close working relationship between Taxpayers for Responsible Planning and Project ’99.

“I think things are going well for us,” Grossman said. “It’s a situation in which both groups realized that we have a common objective.”