Mixed reviews for mixed use at El Toro

Paul Clinton

NEWPORT-MESA -- Supervisor Jim Silva’s idea to share an El Toro

airport with the military is being criticized as unworkable by some

officials, including those opposing plans for an airport at the closed

base.

Costa Mesa Mayor Libby Cowan dismissed the idea, saying the military

has shown no interest in using the closed El Toro Marine Corps Air

Station.

The base is still owned by the Navy via the Department of Defense.

“It’s silly,” Cowan said about the idea of bringing the military back

to the base. “It’s a moot point. The military will commandeer any

airspace” it needs.

Silva, who represents Newport-Mesa, promoted the idea at Tuesday’s

Orange County Board of Supervisors’ meeting as a way to bring a military

presence back to Orange County during the country’s war against

terrorism.

Silva joined two of his four colleagues at that meeting in approving

the environmental review for an airport at the base on the now-familiar

3-2, North-versus-South County vote. The board majority picked an airport

that could handle as many as 18.8 million passengers a year by 2010. It

wouldn’t be built until 2006 at the earliest.

On Wednesday, Silva reiterated the benefits of the idea, if the

military shows interest.

“The first thing we have to do is see if there’s any interest,” Silva

said. “If they say no, it would be a dead deal.”

The supervisor said he would work to set up meetings with high-ranking

military officials to gauge their level of interest in the proposal. Gary

Simon, the head of the county’s airport planning division, has scheduled

some of those meetings for early November, a county spokeswoman said.

Airport supporters endorsed Silva’s idea. Bruce Nestande, the

president of Citizens for Jobs and the Economy, said the Sept. 11 events

have created a new need for a military presence in Orange County.

“I think it’s very realistic,” Nestande said of Silva’s idea. “The

focus of military needs has been enhanced by the recent events.”

The Marines left El Toro in 1998, five years after the base was tabbed

for closure by the Department of Defense.

Questions arose Wednesday about how a “joint use” airport would

operate, including which types of planes would use it and how the flights

would be regulated.

Allan Songstad, the chairman of the South County anti-airport El Toro

Reuse Planning Authority, said Silva’s idea couldn’t be implemented.

“That was more of a political grandstand than anything of substance,”

Songstad said. “The Navy and Marines seem to be very interested in

getting rid of the base, not reactivating it.”

-- Paul Clinton covers the environment and John Wayne Airport. He may

be reached at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail ato7

[email protected] .