2 Supervisors Propose a Fifth Ballot Measure on El Toro Planning

The airport may be dead, but two Orange County supervisors are proposing one--and perhaps two--more ballot measures on the fate of the former El Toro Marine base.

Supervisors Chuck Smith and Cynthia P. Coad said their idea is to give the public the final word on how the site is developed.

Voters last year approved Measure W, which rezoned the property from an airport to a massive park. Since then, Irvine, which intends to annex the land, has modified the park plan to include 3,400 homes and 2.9 million square feet of office space.

Smith and Coad believe that Irvine’s plan should go before the county’s voters. So Tuesday they will ask the Board of Supervisors to consider placing Measure B on the November ballot. The item would require a countywide vote on any changes in development plans for El Toro. If approved, it would set the stage for another measure specifically on the Irvine plan.

El Toro “is a countywide resource, and Irvine shouldn’t be in the driver’s seat to change what voters approved,” Smith said.

Both Smith and Coad supported building an airport at El Toro--the subject of a decade-long battle that ended last year with passage of Measure W. Critics of the supervisors said Wednesday that their idea for a fifth and perhaps sixth El Toro ballot measure is a desperate attempt to derail Irvine’s plan and perhaps keep the airport alive.

“This is their last hurrah,” anti-airport Supervisor Todd Spitzer said. “I’ve got news for them: All the king’s horses and all the king’s men aren’t going to put an airport at El Toro back together.”

Irvine’s plan would set aside 4,000 acres--about 85% of the available land at the former base--for sports fields, museums, wildlife corridors and other public uses, in keeping with the city’s vision for a “Great Park.” Development would be in clusters on the remaining 738 acres of the site.

The Navy plans to auction off the land in six parts to the highest bidders. But, under Irvine’s plan, whoever buys the properties would have to turn over the land marked for public use as a condition of purchase. They would also be required to fund the development and maintenance of the park. The plan calls for the Navy to pay for the cleanup of any hazardous waste remaining from military operations.

Coad said voters should be made aware of the changes in the plan and be allowed to voice their views.

But others said there is no public interest in another ballot measure. “Everybody that I hear from is content with the direction Irvine and the Navy are going,” said Len Kranser, an anti-airport activist.