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Alicia Robinson

Federal officials vowed to go ahead with an online auction of the

closed El Toro Marine Corps Air Station today, despite an

eleventh-hour proposal from Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn to lease the

property for a commercial airport.

Hahn’s plan, which drew quick support from local airport

activists, was the latest resurrection of the zombie-like proposal

for an El Toro airport, which has been raised again and again despite

a lack of vital federal support and a 2002 vote by Orange County

residents to zone the 4,700-acre property for parks and homes.

On Tuesday, Hahn urged federal officials not to sell the base

property in an online auction, which was set to begin today, and

instead to lease it to Los Angeles World Airports, a system that

includes airports in Los Angeles, Ontario, Palmdale and Van Nuys.

Under Hahn’s plan, Los Angeles World Airports would operate a

commercial airport at El Toro that could handle 30 million passengers

a year.

That suggestion was applauded by local El Toro airport proponents

in the Airport Working Group, which has lobbied to prevent any future

expansions at John Wayne Airport.

“Finally some people in some very high places are starting to

realize that this is a tremendous asset that we just can’t walk away

from,” Airport Working Group Vice President Rick Taylor said.

But federal authorities showed no sign of budging Tuesday and said

they’d defer to the will of local voters to use the property for a

“Great Park.”

For Hahn’s proposal to work, the Department of the Navy would have

to transfer the property to the Department of Transportation, which

could then offer a lease to Los Angeles.

The Transportation Department already has said civilian airport

decisions should be handled by local authorities, and the Navy

agrees, Navy spokesman Lt. Ohene Gyapong said.

Newport Beach Rep. Chris Cox sent out a statement scorning Hahn’s

plan as a “hostile takeover” attempt by Los Angeles and likening it

to the still-smarting wound suffered by Orange County baseball fans

Monday, when their team’s name was changed.

“Orange County voters and their elected representatives on the

board of supervisors have already decided against locating an airport

at El Toro,” Cox wrote. “The federal government is rightly honoring

that judgment. There will be no ‘LAX of Orange County,’ even if we

have to suffer the indignity of the ‘Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.’”

After seeing several last-minute attempts to push an El Toro

airport, including one from the city of Fullerton in December,

Newport Beach Mayor Steve Bromberg reacted with amused skepticism to

Hahn’s proposal.

But no matter how firm opposition to a commercial airport has

been, he pointed out, the old runways at El Toro are still intact.

“So far, there’s not one piece of concrete that’s been broken out

there,” he said.

* ALICIA ROBINSON covers business, politics and the environment.

She may be reached at (714) 966-4626.