Letter writer was foggy in her facts...

Letter writer was foggy in her facts

Shirley Conger’s letter to the editor, “El Toro land deal is a

steal,” overlooks several key facts involved with the selling of the

El Toro land.

First, it is by no means a “steal” in terms of price. Most of the

land will be deeded back to Irvine and will not be developable. Also,

the Lennar Corp.must pay an additional $400 million in development

fees to Irvine. Thus, the actual price per acre paid by Lennar is

above the $1 million cited by her as a “market price.”

The land was auctioned in an open, ascending-price auction. This

market mechanism finds the true market value of the land by allowing

each firm to model the land’s value based on the firm’s particular

set of assumptions. The bidding was open to any interested parties.

As a result, it is without question that the land’s sale price

represents the maximum the Navy can expect to obtain given the

conditions associated with the sale.

She also comments that Irvine taxpayers will have to use

redevelopment bonds to “clean up the base.” Nothing could be farther

from the truth. The Navy is responsible -- as with any base closure

-- for all cleanup.

It will be hard for El Toro advocates to realize that there will

never be an airport at El Toro; however, they shoot themselves in the

foot by beating the drum of more airport capacity. Clearly, the

easiest and most economical way to obtain more capacity is a simple

removal of all restrictions on the use of John Wayne.

A more sensible approach, which has been supported by Great Park

advocates all along, is to locate a new airport where all of the new

growth is occurring -- the Inland Empire.

JAYSEN GILLESPIE

Irvine

El Toro sale was a boon to taxpayers

A recent Community Commentary in the Daily Pilot erroneously

stated that Lennar Corp. purchased the former El Toro base property

“for $175,000 an acre.”

In fact, the property was sold for over $1 million per developable

acre -- was sold at market price at a very public auction -- and

contributed more to the federal Base Closure Fund than all of the

land sales in four previous base closure rounds, combined.

The 4,700 acres of base property would have garnered even more for

taxpayers if most of it had not been locked up by government, instead

of being sold for a profit.

Fully 900 acres was donated as an environmental preserve in 2001.

Of the remaining 3,800 acres that were recently auctioned, the lion’s

share must be immediately reconveyed by Lennar to the city of Irvine,

to create the Great Park. Most of the rest must be dedicated in

conformity with the city’s zoning plan to nonresidential,

noncommercial uses. Only 14% of the property can be developed for

profit by the purchaser.

As it is, for that 14% of the base, the purchaser will pay more

than $1billion after the sale closes later this spring -- two-thirds

of a billion to the Navy, and 400 million to Irvine.

Taxpayers recouped more from this base closure than any in U.S.

history, by far.

CHRISTOPHER COX

U.S. Representative

Newport Beach