Navy can’t sink El Toro hopes

Paul Clinton

Local officials remain guardedly optimistic about an L.A. bid to

resurrect an airport plan for the closed El Toro Marine Corps Air

Base, although officials with the U.S. Navy say they still plan to

sell the land off.

“It’s wait and see at this point,” Costa Mesa Mayor Gary Monahan

said Friday. “L.A.’s got more clout [in Washington, D.C.] than Orange

County. ... I’m sure [Irvine Mayor] Larry Agran isn’t too happy about

it.”

Earlier this month, a letter surfaced in which L.A. Mayor James K.

Hahn secretly asked the federal government if Los Angeles World

Airports, the agency that runs Los Angeles International Airport,

could run an airport at El Toro.

Despite Los Angeles’ potential influence, the Navy is proceeding

with plans to unload the bulk of the base’s 4,700 acres during an

online auction in the fall.

When contacted Friday, Lt. Cmdr. Pauline Storum, a Navy

spokeswoman in Washington, D.C., said the agency isn’t planning to

call off that auction.

“The Navy plans to continue with its plans to dispose of the

property at El Toro by public sale,” Storum wrote in an e-mail.

The Navy, via the Department of Defense, has hired real estate

marketer Colliers Seeley to publicize the sale and oversee the

bidding. The company launched a Web site at www.heritagefields.com

that contains information about the auction process.

South County leaders dismissed the possibility of an El Toro

airport that they helped defeat in 2002 when countywide voters

overwhelmingly approved Measure W. That initiative rezoned the base

to pave the way for a central county park that includes commercial

elements.

Members of the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority, a coalition of

South County cities that opposed the airport, said the L.A. proposal

has a slim chance.

“There’s no momentum for this other than people on the sidelines

who are trying to blow life into a dead fire,” group spokeswoman Meg

Waters said.

Newport-Mesa’s congressional delegation is divided on the issue.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher still supports an airport for the base, while

Rep. Chris Cox supports the sale.

In Newport Beach, a town traditionally at the front of the line to

support an El Toro airport, officials haven’t made up their minds

about whether to support the bid by Los Angeles.

Mayor Steve Bromberg said he has not been contacted by L.A.

leaders.

“It’s a very new issue that was just put in front of Los Angeles

and Orange County,” Bromberg said. “Whether this has the makings to

go forward, I don’t know.”

Councilman Gary Proctor took a less optimistic view. He said the

decision rests in the hands of the Navy.

“In terms of the L.A. proposal, I don’t have any problems with

it,” Proctor said. “At this point in time, it’s not an issue for us.

... I’m operating under the view that when [the Navy says] ‘read my

lips,’ they mean it.”

* PAUL CLINTON covers the environment, business and politics. He

may be reached at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail at

paul.clinton@latimes.com.