El Toro Decision Was Only the Beginning

As executive director of the El Toro Local Redevelopment Authority, I would like to respond to your editorial of March 24 headlined “New Leadership for El Toro.”

This is a pivotal time for the El Toro reuse process. In just 30 days we have seen three significant events.

First, passage of Measure W by a 57% margin. Second, the Navy proposal to sell the base to the highest bidder. Third, the possibility that the Marines may come back.

The concept of allowing the Marine Corps to return and use base assets for training purposes may have some merit. Our nation is at war. And if there is one thing we all can probably agree upon it is that enhancing the military readiness of our nation is a priority.

After years of divisive debate, all parties are starting to come together. Immediately after the passage of Measure W, Supervisor Chuck Smith (pro-airport) and Supervisor Tom Wilson (anti-airport) jointly toured a number of closed military bases in Northern California. And they will be traveling to Washington next week for talks at the Pentagon. Last week, the LRA and the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority met to discuss common goals. Planners from the city of Irvine and the county met to discuss the impacts of Measure W. The point is, pro-airport and anti-airport leaders and staff are communicating and working together. These are remarkable and encouraging steps forward. The necessary bridges are beginning to be built. I hope this trend continues.

Make no mistake, there is a long road ahead, and there are important policy decisions to be made by the Board of Supervisors in the weeks to come. These decisions include moving ahead with the planning process as defined by Measure W in a manner that includes all stakeholders; continuing current base operations given the operating losses; considering the possible annexation of the base by Irvine; and holding the federal government responsible for the environmental cleanup of the site.

The current LRA team of staff and consultants has an extraordinary bank of knowledge to draw upon. We have been working on this project for eight years, and the intellectual investment is immeasurable.

The LRA team has performed extraordinarily well under what everyone agrees have been very difficult and challenging circumstances. Yes, we embraced and pushed forward the former aviation reuse plan because we were directed to do so by the board. It is important to keep in mind that the Board of Supervisors make policy--and county staff and consultants then implement that policy. The lines often get blurred, especially when it comes to El Toro.

With the passage of Measure W, the voters have spoken. The demand for air travel in our county and region will not go away, and other aviation capacity solutions must be found, but Measure W is now the law of the land. It has always been our goal to develop a reuse plan for El Toro that meets the needs of all Orange County citizens--and that remains our mission today.

Gary Simon

Executive director

El Toro Local

Redevelopment Authority

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Re “Lawsuit Targets El Toro Use Vote,” March 19:

So the pro-El Toro airport crowd is filing a lawsuit against the public’s will again. No surprise. Since they haven’t won an election on the issue since 1996, they really have no other recourse. They claim that since no North County cities had a majority of voters support Measure W, those voters were obviously supporting the county’s unneeded, unwanted airport plan. A stretch at best.

Douglas K. Blaul

Trabuco Canyon

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In explaining his decision to spend the taxpayers’ money in a lawsuit to invalidate Measure W, Garden Grove City Councilman Mark Rosen said “my city voted over 60% against Measure W, so I think residents perceive the importance of an airport.” On March 5, only 28% of Garden Grove voters voted. Less than 17% of registered voters voted against Measure W, while 11% voted in favor. Similar results can be found in other cities joining this lawsuit. Rosen is obligating his city to spend perhaps several hundred thousand dollars of its money to upend the will of the county as a whole and in support of just 17% of its own voters. That hardly seems like the sort of mandate required for such a financial commitment.

If the citizens of Garden Grove had felt as passionate about an airport at El Toro as Rosen seems to, they would have turned out at the polls.

William Detoy

Irvine

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Re “Like ‘Jaws,’ El Toro Kept O.C.’s Other Issues Out of the Water,” March 11:

Your “news analysis” of El Toro’s impact on county politics would have had much more credibility if you had chosen to highlight the views of individuals who had some expertise in regional affairs.

But to build your story around the suspect opinions of Costa Mesa’s ex-city councilman Peter Buffa and Costa Mesa’s ex-mayor Sandra Genis undermines the seriousness of your subject.

Next time you want to analyze the politics of Orange County, assign the task to someone with more than a passing knowledge of local affairs and recent history, someone who won’t be sucked into the orbit of egregious and embarrassing grandstanders.

John Billings

Costa Mesa