Feds should intervene to salvage El Toro option

Bonnie O’Neil’s letter in the Daily Pilot Tuesday, “Problem with

‘Great Park’ up in the air,” is right on point. Orange County

taxpayers are the victims of this “Great Park” fraud.

While voters were persuaded by the promises of Measure W to have a

“Great Park” with no cost to the taxpayers, the park has receded from

view while, instead, developers will build thousands of homes on the

former El Toro Marine Corps Air Station and surrounding buffer zone

of 14,000 acres.

Since traffic on the freeways is at stall level now, there will be

no immediate relief. Future road and freeway building and other

infrastructure projects would have to be paid for by all Orange

County taxpayers, not the South County developers who will profit

from this build-out.

One obstacle to this calamity is the fact that much of the El Toro

land is contaminated and cannot be developed safely. At present, the

city of Irvine and the Navy must comply with a court order to clean

up the air station before development can proceed.

Another byproduct of the loss of El Toro is the impending traffic

jam at John Wayne Airport. Next year, both John Wayne Airport and

Long Beach Airport will have reached capacity. While air traffic

demand has been increasing, the public seems unaware of the coming

transportation crisis in freeway and airport traffic.

What is clearly needed is federal intervention to prevent the loss

of this valuable public asset, El Toro. The federal government has

the authority to regulate interstate commerce and has the

responsibility to protect the Southern California area from an

economic and transportation deadlock. The El Toro airport is needed

now more than ever. El Toro is there, ready to be used. It will cost

taxpayers nothing but will add to the economy of Orange County and

the whole area.

SHIRLEY A. CONGER

Corona del Mar