Newport reacts coolly to El Toro ruling

Paul Clinton

NEWPORT BEACH -- A Wednesday ruling allowing an anti-El Toro

initiative on the March 5 ballot got the expected frigid response in the

county’s most staunchly pro-airport stronghold.

“It’s a serious problem for those of us who feel the regional airport

at El Toro is an appropriate use for that land,” Councilman Dennis O’Neil

said of the Great Park initiative. “If that election were held today, the

Great Park would win, but I’m not going to give up at this stage.”

After just a few days of deliberation, a three-judge panel in the 4th

District Court of Appeal in San Diego overturned an Orange County judge’s

negation of the measure’s signatures.

Early polls have indicated strong countywide support for South

County’s Great Park plan, which was initiated in 1998 by Irvine Mayor

Larry Agran and others.

The ruling came after South County backers of the Orange County

Central Park and Nature Preserve Initiative appealed a July 31 ruling

from Judge James Gray calling the measure’s ballot title and summary

“affirmatively misleading.”

That appeal, by the Committee for Safe and Healthy Communities, came

Aug. 7.

While the appeal was pending, the Orange County Board of Supervisors

approved an airport for the closed El Toro Marine Corps Air Station on

Oct. 23.

Airport supporters, led by former Supervisor Bruce Nestande, brought

the initial suit against the park initiative. The county registrar has

validated the necessary number of names to get the measure to the ballot.