Park Bid Becomes Measure W

Orange County supervisors agreed Tuesday to put a measure on the March ballot that could end the county’s seven-year-old plan to build a commercial airport at El Toro.

The board voted unanimously to place the anti-airport initiative before voters--a symbolic gesture, given that the board’s only other option was to adopt the measure outright.

The initiative, now known as Measure W, qualified for the ballot last month after supporters gathered more than enough signatures. The Orange County Central Park and Nature Preserve Initiative would replace airport zoning at the 4,700-acre former Marine base with zoning that could allow a large urban park, university complex and sports fields.

Supporters of the measure cheered the supervisors’ vote.

“Next March 5th, the voters will say ‘Yes on W’ to save El Toro for the enjoyment of future generations,” said Bill Kogerman, chairman of Citizens for Safe and Healthy Communities, whose volunteers circulated petitions.

Much of Tuesday’s discussion focused on a 111-page report released last week that analyzed the impact of the measure on Orange County’s finances. Park supporters touted a report finding that the initiative wouldn’t raise taxes, which can be done only by a two-thirds countywide vote.

But the report also said there is no guarantee a park or anything else would be built on the land. Consultants predicted that only about 200 acres of the base would be developed by 2020, mostly for lack of funds.

“So all these grandiose things, the museums, gardens . . ,” Supervisor Chuck Smith began.

“They’re not assumed to occur,” said consultant Craig Hoshijima of Public Financial Management Inc., which prepared the report for county Auditor-Controller David E. Sundstrom.

Supervisors also authorized Sundstrom to write a 500-word statement on the initiative’s effects, to be used in ballot materials.

Measure W will be the fourth airport-related vote since 1994. The airport zoning was narrowly approved that year, while an attempt two years later to rescind the approval failed.

Last year, 67% of voters passed Measure F, which would have required another county vote before an airport could be built. A Los Angeles County judge later declared that measure unconstitutional. Judge S. James Otero said in his ruling that those who wanted to kill the airport should rescind airport zoning on the base--something the park initiative would accomplish.

About 15 speakers--all park supporters--urged the board Tuesday to let voters decide.

Several described the park plan as a long-term vision that would blossom over decades into a public showcase as prestigious as Balboa Park in San Diego or San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. The so-called Great Park wouldn’t be built quickly, but would be financed over time by federal and state grants and private funding, they said.

The analysis estimated that the county would spend about $37 million for 19 years to maintain and operate a limited number of services on the base, including the golf course and agricultural fields.

“Two million a year is pretty small,” said Dave Kirkey of Coto de Caza. He pointed out that supervisors earlier in the meeting hadn’t blinked at spending $1 million a month out of dwindling John Wayne Airport funds to support planning for the airport at El Toro.

“This allows base assets to pay for park development,” Charles Dickerson of Irvine said. “There will be no new taxes.”

County Planning Director Tom Mathews said his staff also reviewed the initiative. The only inconsistency it found was the listing of an extension of Alton Parkway through a 1,050-acre wildlife habitat area that will be preserved by the Department of the Interior under either the park or airport plans.

Supervisor Smith, who supports the new airport, at one point asked Mathews what would happen if the park measure passed and the county allowed Irvine to annex the base. Irvine wouldn’t be bound by the initiative because it would apply only to the county, Mathews said.

Kogerman disputed the idea that Irvine could “do anything it wanted” with the land. He said the city would apply for the property under a public-benefit conveyance and would be bound by restrictions imposed by the Navy on its use.