Measure W will be challenged forever

Bill Turner

As long as any people can still think and desire the truth in Orange

County, Measure W will be challenged. As noted in an El Toro Reuse

Planning Authority press release Feb. 27, a series of lawsuits

between the authority, the city of Irvine, the Airport Working Group,

the Orange County Regional Airport Authority and a number of private

parties were settled. But the controversy still lingers.

As long as the lies concerning Measure W live, the controversy

will go on. You can settle all of the lawsuits and declare the battle

over all you want, but until the truth is told about Measure W, there

will be no basis to end the controversy.

First of all, the people of Orange County only heard one side of

the discussion for Measure W. The reuse authority successfully sued

the regional airport authority in a San Diego County Court and got a

restraining order to keep that authority from funding the “Just the

Facts” public relations campaign. The airport authority was not about

to let the real facts on the “Great Park” be told.

It is very easy to win an election where you have millions of

dollars to spend and the other side has been limited in spending

their money. The county was not allowed to spend public funds to

educate the public on how an airport at El Toro could benefit them.

The people were never told that “open space” had been redefined in

Measure W to include buildings up to 100 feet high. If you told

people that they were voting for a park that was going to have vast

amounts of “open space,” the people would normally be thinking hills,

grasslands and trees. With Measure W, in “open space,” you get

buildings up to 100 feet high. In addition, the provisions of Measure

W were specific for unincorporated county land. If El Toro were to be

annexed by Irvine, which I think was the plan all along, then the

provisions of Measure W would be void for the El Toro land.

The city of Irvine’s zoning laws would be the guidelines for

developing the El Toro land and not Measure W. The city of Irvine

could do whatever it wanted with the El Toro land regardless of what

Measure W said. Why, the city of Irvine could even build a “Great

Real Estate Development” there and Measure W would be irrelevant. The

people of Orange County were never told there was a plan for the city

of Irvine to annex El Toro. Who gets most of those tax dollars? Why,

of course and rightly so, the city of Irvine; they were key in making

all of this deception work.

Sorry cities of south Orange County, you get left out. When Irvine

does not need you any longer you will be dropped like a hot potato.

If this all happens like it is supposed to, all the cities of south

Orange County will get are massive amounts of more traffic.

I truly feel sorry for the average citizens in the cities of south

Orange County; they were just used. These courageous South County

citizens who fought for the “Great Park” and sent all of that money

to the reuse authority truly thought that they were fighting for

something noble and valid, when in reality they were just pawns. They

were just tools in the design to develop thousands and thousands of

acres of land for the most advantageous financial return and the city

of Irvine’s big land grab. Any kind of airport at El Toro would have

precluded this; especially a military airport.

There was an airport design that would have been unobtrusive to

everyone and especially those people living in the south Orange

County cities. The controversy of Measure W lives on in spite of the

lawsuit settlements. The controversy of Measure W will only die when

the truth is brought to life.

* BILL TURNER is a Costa Mesa resident.