AWG may sue to stop annexation

June Casagrande

Airport Working Group leaders are considering suing the Local Agency

Formation Commission to force it to overturn its decision on

Wednesday allowing Irvine’s annexation of the closed El Toro Marine

Air Base.

“We’ve got our legal people looking into it, and we’ll be deciding

over the next few days what our next move is,” said Tom Naughton,

president of the Newport Beach-based group that has long supported

building a commercial airport at El Toro.

Airport Working Group leaders said there are several bases for

legal action. Most notable, Naughton said, is that a pending lawsuit

over environmental documents for the annexation challenge the basis

of the annexation.

“We’ve argued that they should postpone the decision until after

the suit over the [environmental review] is complete,” Naughton said.

Commissioners of the county agency disagreed and granted the

request annexing the 4,693-acre site to Irvine for development as

open space, residential and commercial areas.

A portion of that site could also be the basis of an Airport

Working Group suit. An 897-acre area at the northeast corner of the

site, known as the “habitat area,” had been basically ceded to the

Federal Aviation Administration in December 2001, working group member Rick Taylor said. The group could argue that the Navy did not

have the power to include that land in its annexation application

without written approval from federal aviation authorities.

“The LAFCO commission approved it, and that could be the basis for

appeal or a lawsuit,” Taylor said.

Dana Smith, executive officer for the commission, said she

believes that the process was fair and thorough and that the decision

was legally solid.

“We really spent a lot of time doing an objective analysis,” Smith

said. “We went, I think, beyond what most LAFCOs would have done in

analyzing the proposal. “We feel pretty confident that both

procedurally and substantively made the right decision.”

* JUNE CASAGRANDE covers Newport Beach and John Wayne Airport. She

may be reached at (949) 574-4232 or by e-mail at

june.casagrande@latimes.com.