El Toro Reuse Planning Authority/Press Release

EL TORO AIRPORT CRASH LANDS IN CENTRAL PARK

Measure W backers urge immediate implementation of the Central Park and Nature Preserve Initiative
 

MARCH 6, 2002 - After four trips to the ballot box, voters in Orange County, California, Tuesday approved recreational zoning for 4,700 acres of land at the former MCAS El Toro.  Passage of Measure W changes the County’s official zoning for the land use from an airport to multiple recreational, educational, cultural and open-space uses.

The countywide vote for Measure W was approved by 57.8 percent of the voters and effectively ends the controversial plans for a second airport in Orange County.  The campaign focused on a number of issues including the fact that there are currently seven airports within 50 miles of El Toro, that the airport as planned is unsafe and inefficient and that non-aviation uses will provide this highly urbanized county with an opportunity to create educational, recreational and cultural facilities that otherwise would not be possible.

In addition, the airport issue was a major factor in unseating North County pro-airport supervisor Cynthia Coad by challenger Chris Norby, an anti-airport candidate.  Norby won by 53.7 percent although Coad spent nearly $750,000 of her own money on her campaign. This will shift the balance of power on the County Board of Supervisors to anti-airport.

According to Allan Songstad, Chairman of the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority (ETRPA), a coalition of 10 cities opposed to the airport, “The Measure W vote ends a nine-year struggle over an airport plan that is unneeded, unwanted and unsafe.  Now is the time for all of us to focus on a regional solution that sites airports where our future population growth will be.  It’s time for Orange County to move beyond this divisive airport issue and focus on the many more pressing infrastructure needs we face as a county and as a region.”

According to Aaron Knox, spokesperson for Inland Empire Airports First, a coalition of Riverside and San Bernardino County cities, planning and transportation agencies and private business groups that have adopted position statements in favor of the promotion, expansion and development of Inland Empire Airports before the development or expansion of airports in Los Angeles and Orange Counties, “Over the next 20 years the population of Riverside and San Bernardino will be double that of Orange County. We need our airports to be successful so that they will create local jobs. We can no longer be the bedroom community and send our jobs to Orange County.  That will gridlock our roads, poison our air and polarize our regional economy between the haves and the have nots.”

Irvine Mayor and ETRPA Board Member Larry Agran said, “This is the first vote on the airport issue where the voters have had an airport plan on the table and an alternative non-aviation plan.  The voters have rejected the airport plan in favor of a great metropolitan park. Until today we have not had a central location in the county where we could build a centerpiece for our community that brings together education, open space, culture and recreation.  We must begin immediately to implement the will of the people by creating America’s greatest park at El Toro.”

The Committee for Safe & Healthy Communities conducted the campaign for Measure W.  The committee represents more than 800,000 residents in a dozen communities around the former base as well as thousands of volunteers from every city in the county.

The chairman of the committee, Bill Kogerman said, “We are proud of the thousands of volunteers from all over the county and tens of thousands of small financial contributors who made it possible for the people’s voice to be heard over a few wealthy airport proponents.” Citizens for Safe and Healthy communities spearheaded a grass roots campaign effort that collected more than 175,000 signatures to qualify the measure for the ballot, successfully defended an onslaught of nuisance lawsuits attempting to stop the measure from every coming before the voters and raised more $2 million dollars, mostly from small, individual donors.