Council hears views on Great Park measure
As the March 5 election nears, a trio of activists took to the
Huntington Beach City Council podium to urge residents here to turn back
the so-called “Great Park” initiative that would force county officials
to abandon plans to convert the closed El Toro Marine base into an
airport.
But far from getting a sympathetic ear, the pro-airport activists were
countered by Mayor Debbie Cook, herself a proponent of Measure W, the
Orange County Central Park and Nature Preserve Initiative.
“El Toro is not the answer to the transportation problems in Orange
County,” Cook said. “Orange County is far behind Northern California in
setting aside open space. This is a regional issue that we have to look
at into the future and revert back to why we came to Orange County in the
first place.”
Measure W is a proposal to turn the 4,738-acre former El Toro Marine
Corps Air Station into a site featuring a museum, park and other
recreational amenities.
Three county residents, one from Huntington Beach, voiced their
opposition to the park initiative saying it would increase taxes.
Independent contractor Rex Ricks from Huntington Beach was one of
those residents.
He lives below the flight path of Long Beach Airport and said more
South County residents will be traveling to airports like John Wayne and
Long Beach if the park initiative passes.
“The park will just create loopholes for more development,” Ricks
said. “Irvine is not taking care of its transportation needs and some of
that could spill over into Huntington Beach.”
A central park at the base would cost $2.1 billion to develop and as
much as $60 million a year to operate according to a study completed in
September by BBC Research and Consulting, a firm based in Denver, and
hired by the El Toro Educational Alliance, a pro-airport group.
The potential tax increase with the Great Park is what concerns Dave
Ellis and other members of the El Toro Educational Alliance that believes
an airport at El Toro is the best reuse of the base.
“Our belief is this will be the largest tax increase ever to the
residents of Orange County,” Ellis said. “They put out $8 million worth
of promotional materials about building an observatory, and a
hundred-acre lake and they didn’t tell anyone how they were going to pay
for it.”
Supporters of the park argue that the Newport Beach Airport Working
Group, part of the Educational Alliance, is presenting inaccurate
information to curtail the use of John Wayne Airport.
“Under Proposition 13 and Proposition 218 there can be no tax increase
unless two-thirds of the county vote in favor of it,” said Leonard
Kranser, a member of Yes on W and the community director for Safe and
Healthy Communities. “These are scare tactics used against Measure W.”
Potential sources of revenue to build the park include an RV storage
lot, another golf course in addition to the existing course, renting out
facilities left behind by Marines, acquisition of state park funds and
admission to a museum on the site, Kranser said.
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