Protesters want military housing at El Toro

Alicia Robinson

Protesters chanted “Vote Cox out” in front of Rep. Chris Cox’s office

on Dove Street on Friday, to show their support for reopening

military housing at the former El Toro Marine Air Base, and a disdain

for what they said is Cox’s disregard for the welfare of military

families.

About 20 people gathered on the sidewalk at midday held signs that

read “Cox is turning his back on our troops.” That prompted a few

hearty horn honks from passing cars, and protest organizers had done

a good job mobilizing the media for the event, but otherwise they

drew little attention from the surrounding business district.

The object of their protest, Cox, was traveling Friday and could

not be reached for comment. A Cox spokesman also declined to comment

on the issue.

The Marine air base was closed in 1999. Protesters maintain that

the base’s 933 housing units are now going to waste and should be

opened to area military families, some of whom struggle to pay the

sky-high cost of living in Orange County.

In November, the nearly 4,700-acre base was annexed to the city of

Irvine, and the U.S. Navy plans to auction it off later this year.

Voters in 2002 approved rezoning the land for use as a park, but some

residents have pushed for an airport with an eye to limiting

expansion at John Wayne Airport.

On Friday, however, protesters weren’t thinking about the airport

issue.

“We’re really not involved with that,” said Ken Lee, a spokesman

for ocmil.com, a group of advocates for Orange County military

families that organized the protest. “What we’re trying to do is keep

our military families here in Orange County from teetering on the

brink of bankruptcy.”

Protester Ann Watt of Newport Beach said Camp Pendleton has a

waiting list for housing while El Toro’s housing sits empty.

“I’m hoping that the base housing will be returned because the

federal taxpayers paid for it and the troops need it,” she said.

The congressman has tried to pacify El Toro housing supporters by

telling them he supports the military, Ron Gross of Westminster said

he hasn’t backed it up with action. Gross served in the Navy for 32

1/2 years and is now a California reservist.

“Cox does nothing,” Gross said. “Every once in a while to keep his

name in the news he signs a letter that says, ‘Yeah, I support you.’”

Gross wants the military to reopen the commissary on the base so

military families will have access to discounted goods without having

to go to Camp Pendleton or the Air Force base in Los Angeles.

Another retired Navy man, Kendall Neisess of Fullerton, came to

observe the protest as a supporter of the oft-proposed El Toro

commercial airport.

“What we really should do is get El Toro back into service as a

mixed-usage plan so the military could use it, and we could use it

too,” he said.

The sprawling base would allow for a buffer zone larger than most

airports have, so the military housing could coexist with an airport

that wouldn’t offend surrounding residents, he said.

But Neisess made a grim assessment of the likely outcome of the

efforts of military housing and an airport.

“Nothing will change, I’m afraid, unless the Navy department’s

official mind is changed, and I don’t know whether Congressman Cox

can do that,” he said.