Irvine and Los Angeles secretly agree to joint airport and park use of El Toro.

Irvine and Los Angeles secretly agree to joint airport and park use of El Toro.

LA Times

A secret agreement has been signed by the city of Los Angeles and the City of Irvine calling for a joint use International Airport and Great Park at the former base. Strong South Orange County opposition is expected.

By William Hefeweizen and Tony Barbarella

Times Staff Writers

April 1, 2008

The cities of Los Angeles and Irvine have secretly agreed to jointly operate a commercial airport and a Great Park at the former El Toro Marine air base — a move almost certain to spark intense opposition amongst South Orange County cities who had previously fought alongside with Irvine against an airport.

Even without the Los Angeles Irvine joint use agreement, past proposals to open an airport at El Toro have polarized politics in Orange County, where the ideas have been under debate since 1994.

Back in 2002, many South Orange County voters believed that they had finally ended the debate by approving a ballot measure calling for the El Toro property to be rezoned as parkland. The park initiative was supported by ratios of more than 3 to 1 in southern Orange County cities nearest the old base.

But, “The Southland's urgent need for more airport space along with the recent struggles of the Great Park meant that the El Toro land use decision needed to be revisited.” according to the Los Angeles Airport Commission president, Alan Rothenberg, and Deputy Mayor Brian Williams.

"It would have been a modern tragedy if El Toro — an invaluable aviation asset in Southern California — would have gone to waste. Since 98% of the runways are still intact, the airport is completely salvageable. In addition, the airport revenue stream will provide a reliable funding mechanism for the Great Park so this is a win-win for all parties. We can have an airport for Los Angeles and a park for Irvine," Said Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

In the 37-page agreement that Los Angeles officials secretly signed with Irvine officials, the terms calls for Los Angeles World Airport Authority to pay Lennar Homes, the winning bidder of El Toro, one billion dollars for 3700 acres. Then Los Angeles will also pay another one billion dollars to The Great Park Foundation along with transferring 1600 acres. Los Angeles will retain 2100 acres for airport operations. Previously when the Navy controlled El Toro, they rejected a Los Angeles offer in 2003 which called for financing of all cleanup costs plus 2 billion dollars for a 99 year lease.

“This joint airport-park agreement will give us a badly needed infusion of cash so that the dream of the Great Park will be realized. Plus, an international airport will bring in tourists from around the world to visit our world class park. Some of our former anti-airport allies will disagree with us. However, Lennar was losing billions of dollars and we would not have seen the Great Park within our lifetimes were it not for the generosity of Los Angeles World Airport Authority.”, stated Great Park Chairman and Irvine City Councilman Larry Agran.

On the other hand, Meg Waters, a spokesperson for the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority, an anti-airport coalition of 9 South Orange Cities, which used to include Irvine, blasted the secretive joint use agreement. “We have spent over 10 years and 50 million dollars fighting against an unneeded, unwanted, and unsafe airport only to have Irvine councilman Benedict Agran betray the rest of South Orange County. This is an outrage! We will be challenging this in court. This is not the final word on El Toro!”

If the airport-Great Park joint use agreement survives any lawsuits, Los Angeles officials said, they could have a commercial airport up and running within six years.

The airport could serve 28.8 million passengers and handle 2 million tons of cargo a year within 15 years, the joint use agreement suggests, making it second in size in Southern California only to LAX. That would put it on par with San Francisco International Airport, which served 31 million passengers last year.

Los Angeles operates four airports: LAX, Van Nuys and Palmdale in Los Angeles County and Ontario International Airport in San Bernardino County.

“Ignoring the billions invested over the years in El Toro's airfield in favor of only homes, offices and parkland would have been tragic, given the region's need for additional airport capacity, it is about time that Irvine finally saw the light”, said Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach), a longtime airport supporter. "It was becoming evident that the Great Park was really nothing more than a great promise and what voters thought they were getting wasn't getting built. We owe it to the future of Orange County, the future of the region and the taxpayers of the United States to deliver the park they voted for along with providing air passengers a viable alternative to LAX."

The take over of El Toro by Los Angeles comes during a time of economic recession caused in part by a very depressed real estate market. Lennar Homes, which was the previous owner of El Toro has lost nearly $2 Billion dollars within the past year alone. “We are quite happy to cut our losses with El Toro. In fact, we even sold it to Los Angeles for a little more than what we originally bid on it.” Lennar Homes president Emile Haddad stated.

Without this newfound capacity at El Toro, Southern California would have faced an air transportation crisis in the next 20 years, regional planners say. Air traffic in the region is expected to double to 167 million passengers by 2025, putting pressure on LAX, which already operates at 40% more than capacity.

Most of the region's other airports face limits on their ability to expand. Long Beach and John Wayne have noise restrictions that cap their growth. Burbank residents have fought expansion of the airport there for years.

An anti-airport Web site has alleged that former airport fighter and Irvine City Councilman Larry Agran must have been bribed by the city of Los Angeles to suddenly turn to the dark side.

"Larry Agran completely overestimates the importance of The Great Park. All he cares about is his legacy. We honestly don’t care if we ever get the park we voted for. What we did vote for was to have anything, and I do mean anything at El Toro besides an airport. Now we will likely be stuck with LAX South. The letters LAX must stand for Larry Agran International." wrote Web site editor Len Kranser.

If the U.S. Transportation Department signs off on the Los Angeles-Irvine joint airport-park proposal, it would be a rare reversal from previous reuse decisions where a shuttered air base was originally denied aviation zoning by a local reuse authority.

Officials from Los Angeles and Irvine hope to persuade Transportation Secretary Mary Peters to support approval for the airport. The previous transportation secretary Norm Mineta has pushed in past years for additional airport space, saying the nation's air transportation system is approaching its limits.