El Segundo Wants In on El Toro Fight

El Segundo is considering entering the legal fight over the Orange County ballot measure that scuttled plans for an airport at the closed El Toro Marine base.

The city, which had lobbied for an El Toro regional airport to siphon air traffic from Los Angeles International Airport, would spend $50,000 to have the San Francisco law firm of Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger represent its position in the fight over Measure W, which passed overwhelmingly in March. The ballot initiative zoned the base for parks and compatible uses.

Although El Segundo wouldn’t formally join the lawsuit, filed by two pro-airport groups in Orange County, city officials want to ensure that attorneys arguing against Measure W understand their position, Mayor Mike Gordon said.

“This is a regional issue that has tremendous ... implications with regard to aviation and the impacts on communities around [Los Angeles International] and Ontario [airports],” Gordon said.

Meanwhile, an Assembly committee met Friday in Santa Ana to discuss redevelopment of the 4,700-acre El Toro base in the wake of the March vote. A bill signed in 1999 allows the state to monitor plans for closed bases.

Since the mid-1990s, 29 California bases have closed, resulting in a loss of $9 billion to the state’s economy and 100,000 jobs, state officials said.

Much of the hearing, organized by Assemblyman Lou Correa (D-Anaheim), touched on plans for about 800 houses on the northern portion of El Toro.

Irvine, which wants to annex the land, proposes turning over the homes to UC Irvine for faculty housing.

University spokeswoman Liz Toomey said the houses would be sold at affordable prices to faculty and staff at UC Irvine and Cal State Fullerton, which wants to build a satellite campus at El Toro. UCI is applying to buy the property at “favorable terms” through the federal Department of Education, she said.

Toomey acknowledged on questioning from Assemblywoman Gloria Negrete-McLeod that restricting the sale of the housing to faculty and university workers wouldn’t address Orange County’s overall lack of affordable housing.

“I understand the university’s need, but if you use your affordable housing with only one [group], what’s left for anyone else?” asked Negrete-McLeod, a Democrat from Chino.

Orange County Supervisor Chuck Smith said he wants the houses available to anyone whose income qualifies.

Art Montez, a longtime activist with the League of United Latin American Citizens, echoed Smith’s request, adding that oil, mineral and water rights on the property should be conveyed to a public trust to develop housing and a 250-acre site for educational training for working families.

Irvine Mayor Larry Agran outlined the city’s hopes for the base, acknowledging that the Navy has announced it will sell the property to the highest bidder.

Irvine wants to develop sports fields, golf courses and riparian waterways through the center of the base and hopes to reach a deal for the property.

One speaker asked state officials to urge the Marines to relocate the San Diego Recruit Depot to El Toro, a proposal still under consideration.

The county’s retired and active military members also support reopening a commissary at the base, which closed in 1999, and creating a national cemetery.

“I would love to see the Marines back in Orange County,” Correa said.

El Toro’s fate has been tussled over for nine years, ever since the base was targeted for closure.

The local groups suing over Measure W contend that the fate of surplus federal property is an issue beyond the control of local voters.

The lawsuit claims that Measure W usurped the sole authority of the Board of Supervisors to plan base reuse under federal and state law.

The suit was filed in Orange County Superior Court by the Airport Working Group, Citizens for Jobs and the Economy, the city of Garden Grove and the Orange County Regional Airport Authority, a coalition of 15 North County cities.

The suit will be defended by the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority, a 10-city coalition opposed to a new airport.

The law firm that El Segundo is considering hiring has worked for decades with Newport Beach on noise and size restrictions at John Wayne Airport.

Newport Beach City Atty. Bob Burnham said he has no immediate concerns about the firm doing work for El Segundo, though he is unhappy with comments made by Gordon indicating that John Wayne Airport should be expanded if El Toro isn’t built.

Should the expansion of John Wayne Airport become El Segundo’s official position, one of the two cities would have to find another law firm, Burnham said Friday.