Round 3 for El Toro: the Battle of the Bucks

Certification of an anti-airport ballot measure rings the bell on Round 3 of the bitter battle over what will become of the closed El Toro Marine base.

Supporters of the so-called Safe and Healthy Communities Act submitted more than twice the number of signatures required to put the measure on the March ballot. Orange County Registrar Rosalyn Lever said she will certify the signatures today.

The initiative, if passed, would require a two-thirds vote of the public before the county could build or expand airports, large jails within a half-mile of homes, or hazardous-waste landfills.

That would force a third public vote on the county’s plans for a commercial airport at the 4,700-acre base, which closed in July. But El Toro opponents see the issue differently.

South County activist Leonard Kranser, who runs an anti-airport Web site, said Wednesday, “We don’t view this as a third vote on the airport, it’s a first vote” for bringing power back to local residents.

The measure’s placement on the ballot is not assured, though. A majority of the county Board of Supervisors favors building the airport and is likely to order a 30-day economic analysis of the impact of the measure, as allowed by state law.

Meanwhile, the supervisors are expected to vote next week to join a panel of pro-airport cities and to bring $400,000 to its efforts. Board Chairman Charles V. Smith told members of the Orange County Regional Airport Authority that the board will vote Tuesday on joining the group, formed in 1983 to promote a second Orange County airport after John Wayne Airport in Newport Beach.

If approved, the additional $400,000 from the county would more than double what the group’s 15 cities have budgeted for a countywide pro-airport effort this year.

Anti-airport cities also have budgeted funds to promote a non-aviation alternative for El Toro. The eight South County cities on the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority set aside nearly $4 million for a public relations push.

Both sides in the initiative fight began collecting money for their campaigns once the measure was submitted to the registrar’s office in August. Spending by the campaigns could top $6 million by March, political consultants said this week.

Laguna Hills attorney Jeffrey Metzger said it should be even easier to raise money to promote the measure now. Metzger heads the South County cities group backing the measure.

“We’re already engaged in raising money to defeat the initiative,” said David Ellis, a consultant with the Airport Working Group, a pro-El Toro group based in Newport Beach.

History favors the pro-airport forces. Voters in 1994 designated the Marine base for an airport by a thin margin. An attempt two years later by South County airport opponents to overturn that vote failed.

This time, however, airport foes are more organized, have more money and carry a plan for homes, offices and a large park to offer as an alternative. More voters and potential campaign donors have moved into South County since the 1994 vote, though North County still dominates in elections, having about 70% of the county’s registered voters.

North County cities generally favor a new airport because it would produce jobs and economic activity for the county, as well as provide much-needed cargo flights. John Wayne handles only a fraction--4%--of the county’s cargo, which is now trucked in from other airports such as Ontario.

El Toro foes could benefit from an electorate that remains at an impasse over plans for the new airport. Support for a commercial facility at El Toro still runs slightly behind opposition, despite millions of dollars spent on both sides to sway public opinion.

Airport supporters, meanwhile, are hoping that the measure will be struck from the ballot after a Nov. 19 hearing. A lawsuit filed by the city of Newport Beach and Citizens for Jobs and the Economy, a pro-airport group formed in 1994, argues that the measure is unconstitutional.

* AIRPORT ANGST: You want them nearby, but not that nearby. B4