A Year Later, El Toro Limps Along

At the former El Toro Marine base, cargo planes should have been flying by now. Environmental hearings on the base’s future should have been held. A new lease at the base should have been signed, sealed and delivered.

Instead, there are weeds poking through the tarmac at El Toro and the county’s airport planning process for a commercial airport seems to have reached a point of dysfunction.

A year ago, the Marines had packed up and left the base closed with only minimal police patrols.

But during that time, airport backers have had to endure a succession of bumps and detours along the airport’s planning path, including passage of an anti-airport initiative.

While much focus has been on the political warring at many levels, some have noted that it has been an overall lack of professional planning at the county level that has left the airport’s future in doubt.

“You can expect obstacles like an initiative and also some delays and setbacks,” said Bruce Nestande, a former county supervisor and now pro-airport spokesman. “But the biggest disappointment has been the lack of professionalism in the county process and lack of a real quality operation, which are not acceptable.”

In fact, other than the county’s overwhelming passage of Measure F on March 7, the other significant date that airport supporters point to is May 23, when the Board of Supervisors effectively stripped County Executive Officer Jan Mittermeier of control over the massive project by creating a new office to handle the work.

It was viewed by Nestande and others as the supervisors’ boldest move yet to keep the six-year planning process on track after spending $40 million to convert the former Marine base into a commercial airport.

The supervisors’ strategy led to Mittermeier’s departure last week and has left the controversial land-use issue still unresolved.

Facing a July 1 deadline, the county was forced to ask the Navy for a two-month extension to allow civilian activities such as horse-back riding, RV storage, golfing and child care to continue at the 4,700-acre base.

Negotiations are underway between the county and the Navy for a master lease now that the State Lands Commission has transferred police authority over the former base from the Navy to the county, a switch that had been expected in December.

In taking over control of El Toro, the county estimates it will post a $1.5-million to $1.8-million loss on it this fiscal year. The goal is to lease parts of the base such as its huge inventory of warehouses, offices, swimming pools and horse stables for commercial and recreational uses.

While the county may break even in the second year, profits may not be realized until well into the base’s fourth or fifth years under the county’s stewardship, a county staffer said.

In recent months, county airport planning officials have scrambled from crisis to crisis, meeting one deadline while barely having enough time to focus on the next crisis.

“It’s become whatever the plan-of-the-month club you belong to,” said Supervisor Tom Wilson, an airport critic. “Our CEO has become a casualty along with a lot of planners. I guess it proves that government at whatever level is not in the developer business and that you really need to leave such a project to professionals.”

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Airport critics paint a grim picture of the county’s ability and potential to convert the base to a commercial airport.

While Measure F proponents managed to stir anti-airport sentiments enough to motivate voters to the polls, airport opponent Leonard Kranser said it wouldn’t have worked if the county had developed a successful airport plan.

“From my standpoint,” Kranser said, “it always was a bad plan, and this is the year that the plans unraveled.”

It’s a lesson for county government, said Wilson, a member of the board’s minority on airport matters.

“If you’re government, you really need to find out what the people feel about a particular project such as putting an airport at El Toro,” Wilson said. “Measure F has been successful in bringing some of that fact to our doorstep.”

Still, there are optimists who say an airport will be eventually built.

“I recognize what has gone on,” said Tom Naughton, president of the Orange County Airport Working Group, which has pushed for another airport in the county since 1982.

“It’s not moving as fast as I would have liked,” he said, “but I believe there will be an El Toro commercial airport, though it does tax my patience.”