READERS RESPOND -- Would Great Park make viable alternative?

I confess, I am one of columnist Joseph Bell’s neighbors who indicated

on the survey card an interest in the Great Park (“When Fish Fry and

Angels fly, it must be spring,” April 26).

I did this for two reasons:

1. The Great “Pork” as in great pork barrel project, is the easiest

plan to defeat at the ballot box;

2. I encourage the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority, the city of

Irvine and the Irvine Co. to continue spending millions and millions of

dollars on these slick brochures until they:

A. run out of money;

B. get back to good planning because that goes a long way, as the

saying goes.

The Great Park has merit, however. All citizens of Orange County would

benefit by keeping and preserving open space for future generations to

enjoy. This open space surrounds the proposed airport. No airport in the

country has this exceptionally well-designed feature. By using an

approach pattern over Irvine Lake and southwesterly departures over the

three-mile wilderness area southwest of El Toro, not one home or school

would be in the flight path. See https://www.cegriffin.homestead.com and

http’://www.ocxeltoro.com for further information and ways to become

involved.

The Great El Toro Airport surrounded by a Great Park: now that’s a

plan that fits.

ANN WATT

Santa Ana Heights

When the city of Irvine’s fearless leader, Larry Agran, and the El

Toro Reuse Planning Authority meet behind closed doors to poke holes in

the airport plan for El Toro, they forget that every mirror gives off a

reflection, and Irvine’s Great Park, or Millennium Plan III, has actually

more holes in it than the airport plan.

I believe that the Great Park, as Agran envisions it, has merit and

deserves to be built, only not at the former El Toro Marine Corps Air

Station site. The Irvine Ranch, nearly one-third the overall land mass of

Orange County, contains the county’s greatest parks -- 30,000 acres alone

dedicated to open space to be used for recreational use and wildlife.

Directly north of the El Toro air station site is 3,500 unincorporated

acres that the city of Irvine and the Irvine Co. have recently announced

plans to develop. This site would be ideal for Irvine’s Great Park. This

location would connect to the 100,000-acre Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park

and Cleveland National Forest Park for unlimited recreation uses.

The proximity to this Great Park, relocated north of the proposed

Orange County international airport, would be identical to San Diego’s

international airport being near their Balboa Park, about 1.25 miles from

the runway. As Irvine has repeatedly pointed out, Balboa Park is a “Great

Park,” and it is 1.25 miles from their international airport. If the two

can coexist there, they can coexist here.

Just an aside, but the new Upper Newport Bay Ecological Preserve

Interpretive Center is actually farther away from John Wayne than Balboa

Park is to San Diego International Airport.

Building the Great Park north of the El Toro site would be cheaper and

safer also, seeing how there would be no cleanup costs to deal with. This

would mean that the people of Orange County would get to enjoy the Great

Park sooner also.

In conclusion, The Great Park initiative is a waste of time. The

federal government has concluded that the Local Reuse Authority is the

sole authority responsible for the reuse planning. The FAA has concluded

that we need more runways, and the local Southern California Assn. of

Governments has concluded that El Toro is needed.

If Irvine deems that the Great Park is needed, they do not need to

waste time with an initiative. They only need to raise their taxes and

build the Great Park in the soon-to-be-annexed 3,500 acres north of El

Toro. We can have both a great airport and a great park.

In fact, this is what The New Millennium Group has been advocating for

more than two years with it Wildlands Ranch Plan aviation alternative

plan, an alternative within the county’s Environmental Impact Report No.

573.

RUSSELL NIEWIAROWSKI

Santa Ana Heights

It has long been the plan of the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority,

otherwise known as the city of Irvine, to create something other than an

airport at El Toro. They have tried all sorts of measures, and they have

failed. Yet they come back again and again with grand plans such as the

Great Park. We already have at least two large parks in Orange County:

the Mile Square Park in Fountain Valley and the Caspers Park east of San

Juan Capistrano.

The real issues have not been addressed. Due to the uncontrolled

development in Southern California, we need two major services, more

airport capacity and more power to support the overgrown communities,

more than we need an oversized park for the city of Irvine. Besides, who

will pay for this grand folly?

Maybe we could sell off a portion of the property for more development

to pay for the initial cost, but then what would be left to foot the bill

for the maintenance? In Irvine’s scheme, that would be the taxpayers of

Orange County.

How rational is it to turn an existing airport into a park for the use

of the residents of Irvine? Maybe the citizens of Newport Beach and Costa

Mesa should launch an initiative to turn John Wayne Airport into a park

also, as it is less than 10% the size of the El Toro site and we are

entitled to the same amenities that the fair citizens of Irvine are.

Let’s face it, nobody wants an airport in their backyard, but to put

one in their neighbor’s backyard so they can benefit from its proximity

is not right either.

The city of Irvine is approximately 30 years old, and the El Toro

airport was there prior to that as a Marine Corps base. It is a little

late to say, “Oh, it’s too stinky and noisy. Remove it.” And if it’s not

too late, then we should follow their lead and do the same with John

Wayne Airport. My recollection is that commercial jet traffic has been

allowed for only the last 30 years or so, so why shouldn’t residents of

Newport Beach and Costa Mesa unite and tell the citizens of Southern

California that “airports are stinky and noisy; remove them now.”

Would you please do one of your public opinion polls on the

feasibility of launching an initiative to remove John Wayne Airport?

The vote has been taken, and the plan to convert this El Toro airport

to civilian use has been in place for years. Why should we be revisiting

this with fears of this new initiative winning? Write a competing

initiative that is fair to all citizens to remove all the airports and

relocate them to the desert and be done with it.

After all, this is a democracy. We should be able to get the same

benefits that our neighbors in Irvine want. The city of Irvine is happy

to welcome development and even advertises the proximity to John Wayne

Airport. If this is such an important item to the businesses of Irvine,

then the city should welcome a bigger airport closer to those companies.

The good and the bad usually go hand in hand, but Irvine wants only the

good and gives the bad to its neighbors.

One final thought: If Irvine succeeds in developing the park in a

portion of the El Toro airport, where is the electricity going to come

from for the technology park and housing? Maybe an alternative can be

worked out. Build a complex of power plants at the base to serve the

needs of all of Southern California. That at least is something useful

for the entire state.

KARL KEMP

Newport Beach

My mailbox is being bombarded with surveys and brochures regarding the

proposed Great Park at the closed El Toro Marine base. There are also

full-page ads in the newspapers proposing this Great Park idea. I must

admit that the renderings look beautiful, but tell me, do we need another

park in an area that already has so many parks?

Some of the material compares it to the Balboa Park in San Diego.

Certainly, the people in South County will enjoy this park, but what

about the rest of us in the county? To be honest with you, I can think of

only one time in the past 40 years that I have been to Balboa Park, and I

don’t think that I would ever go to this proposed Great Park any more

frequently.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t the federal government offer to

give, yes give, the closed Marine base to the county if it remained an

airport? This is a piece of property almost 10 times the size of John

Wayne Airport with a buffer zone. It would be a crime if we passed up

this opportunity.

MARGARET A. SODEN

Corona del Mar