Click here for last month's news stories

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El Toro Info Site report, June 30, 2005

New LA Mayor takes over tomorrow

 

This is the final day in office for outgoing Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn. Antonio Villaraigosa will be sworn in tomorrow, hopefully inaugurating a new spirit of accommodation with Orange County over airport issues.

 

Hahn’s administration was marked by two years of heavy handed attempts to take over and run an airport at El Toro. 

 

Hahn’s aggressive deputy on aviation matters, former Airport Commission President Ted Stein, advocated for an El Toro airport at the Southern California Association of Governments, SCAG. 

 

Under Hahn, Los Angeles officials presented an unhelpful view of Orange County travelers, for example, ignoring passengers from O.C. when planning Flyaway bus connections to LAX. 

 

Hahn’s team also withheld or distorted information regarding the number of Orange County passengers using LAX, to increase political pressure for more airport capacity in the neighboring county.

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El Toro Info Site report, June 28, 2005

Quiet diplomacy

 

When the Los Angeles City Council sought to interfere with the Navy’s sale of El Toro, we and others called for the Orange County Board of Supervisors to take off their gloves and stand up to our northern neighbors.

 

The supervisors chose to pursue quiet diplomacy with the incoming Los Angeles mayoral administration. We are aware of only bits of the bipartisan outreach to the Villaraigosa camp and hope someday to tell the entire story. Meanwhile, the efforts can be judged best by their success; there is no lawsuit delaying the close of escrow.

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LA Times, June 27, 2005
“Legal Costs Mounting for LAX Proposal”

”Legal costs are mounting to defend the city against a lawsuit challenging its controversial modernization plan for Los Angeles International Airport, even as Mayor-elect Antonio Villaraigosa has said he supports only part of the proposal.”

”In the last 18 months, bills for outside counsel working on Mayor James K. Hahn's LAX plan reached $4.2 million. On Tuesday morning, just three days before Hahn leaves office, the Airport Commission will consider authorizing an additional $750,000.”

”The city has spent about $11 million for all legal costs connected with the LAX plan since 1996.”

”The growing legal costs at LAX come amid uncertainly about what Villaraigosa, who becomes mayor on Friday, will do with Hahn's airport plan.” Website Editor: Perhaps this factored into the apparent decision not to sue the federal government over the sale of El Toro.

Click for more . . .

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Daily Breeze, June 25, 2005 posted June 26, 2005 - updated
“South Bay Assemblyman Mike Gordon dies at 47”

”South Bay Assemblyman Mike Gordon, a former El Segundo mayor who was considered a rising star in Democratic circles, died at home today due to complications from a brain tumor, his office said. He was 47.”

”Gordon, a Democrat elected in November, spent little time in the Legislature after being diagnosed in February when he went to the doctor feeling ill and exhausted. He was hospitalized Feb. 22 and had been in treatment since.”

”Gordon was frustrated that he couldn't be in the Legislature to vote on several key bills. Other lawmakers carried his measures through the Assembly, passing 15 of the 22 items he introduced on education, health care, public safety, veterans, and consumer protection. They now face votes in the state Senate.”

Click for more . . . 

Website Editor: Unfortunately, the talented young leader is known by viewers of this website principally for his  pro-El Toro airport activities, regional airport authority bill AB1197, and various efforts to constrain LAX including the introduction of AB 556.

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El Toro Info Site report, June 25, 2005

LA Airport Commission to meet. El Toro lawsuit off the agenda

 

James Hahn’s Los Angeles Airport Commission holds its final meeting on June 28 before the new mayor takes over and appoints new commissioners. Unlike prior meetings, the upcoming closed session agenda does not include discussion with counsel regarding “anticipated” El Toro litigation.

 

On May 11, the City Council asked the commission to investigate “any and all means, including litigation” to block the Navy’s sale of El Toro. It now appears that the sale will conclude without legal challenge and on schedule July 12. 

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LA Times, June 24, 2005

“Firm Lands El Toro Runway Job”

”A Colorado recycling company was chosen Thursday to demolish the runways at the former El Toro Marine base, marking yet another step toward redevelopment of the 3,700-acre facility.”

”Recycled Materials Co. . . will demolish the runways and other structures on the base at no cost to Irvine, then sell most of the recycled material for use in the redevelopment project.”

”Homebuilder Lennar Corp., which bought El Toro from the Navy earlier this year for $649.5 million, will use much of the material for private development projects at the site, including 3,400 homes and 3 million square feet of office and commercial space.”

”Though the terms of the deal must still be negotiated, including the price of the recycled material and the timeline of the project, Great Park and Irvine officials said they expected the demolition of the runways to begin as early as this fall.”  More from the Times . . .

The contractor was selected over one local bidder. The Register reports that “Recycled Materials is breaking up the runways at Denver's old Stapleton Airport, which is about the same size as El Toro.”

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El Toro Info Site report, June 24, 2005
More on AB 556

AB 556 seeks to impose new noise-related regulations upon LAX. If passed, it raises legal obstacles to potential expansion of the airport. Prior to being amended in committee, AB 556 would have imposed similar regulations on other airports including John Wayne.

Support for the bill comes from the LAX area. The following comments were submitted to the legislature in opposition to the bill.

United Airlines wrote: "This bill, in our view, is nothing more than part of an ongoing vendetta by the City of El Segundo, which the author represents, to undermine an airport that provides enormous economic sustenance to that community and many others."

The Port of Oakland called it "a measure that harms LAX and may potentially affect other major airports in California."

The Valley Industry and Commerce Association decried "burdening the [airport] system with hearing demands driven by forces potentially lacking the objectivity of the more orderly system presently serving the entire state."

The Air Transport Association, the nation's largest airline trade association wrote: "The bill is an unwarranted attempt . . .  [to impose] a statutory process at LAX with the threat of increased litigation and criminal sanction."

The FAA, in an eight page letter from its Chief Counsel, citing case law, called AB 556 potentially "unenforceable."

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OC Register, June 23, 2005

“Airport area growing – up – again”
”Developers plan ninth high-rise for John Wayne area and praise its mix of hotels, shops and offices.”

”A construction boom of high-rises and entertainment centers near John Wayne Airport drew two Texas developers here with plans to build a 12-story office tower in what they call a top national market.”

”The project will be the ninth high-rise near the airport, a center for new offices, condominiums and entertainment venues.”

”. . . the airport area is transforming into a sophisticated venue of hotels, retailing and offices.” Click for the entire article.

 

Website Editor: The Airport Land Use Commission for Orange County, which is charged with creating restrictions on development around airports, still bases its Airport Environs Land Use Plan on how John Wayne Airport operated when envisioned in 1985 as an 8.4 million annual passenger airport. The ALUC majority balks at updating its planning data to consider the increased number of commercial flights allowed today or the potential long range use of the airport.  ALUC’s are required by state law to look 20 years into an airport’s future but the commission is waiting for the airport management or the county, its owner, to produce a new master plan or request a new study.

Meanwhile, Orange County’s only airport is being ringed by high rises. At least some of the towers have caused concern on the part of some commissioners.

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Irvine World News, June 23, 2005 - updated
"Big thoughts and the Great Park"
"Groups labor to find the soul and purpose of the planned park."

"Finalists in the Great Park design contest soon will strive to make the park unique, innovative, inclusive, world class, accessible, welcoming to all, popular but uncongested, safe, designed for the post-car era and embraced by people 100 years from now."

"Oh, and naturally landscaped - not artificially lushed to look like it was hauled from a temperate climate."

"That's the direction they will get from a report of the Great Park Stakeholders Conference, which drew about 200 people from around the county on Saturday. Information gleaned from a countywide telephone poll of 600 people to be completed by the end of the month also will be added to the research dispatched to the seven design finalists."

"Submissions from the design finalists are due in September; a design jury then will evaluate the plans. The Great Park board will make the final decision on the designer but the board clearly received some assistance in that decision Saturday." Click for the full IWN article.

Website Editor: The Great Park Corp budget includes $75,000 for the conference. We requested a breakdown of the actual cost but it has yet to be provided. An additional $160,000 is budgeted for mail, Internet and telephone surveys. A Sports Needs Assessment study budgeted for $150,000 days later turned into a $265,000 contract.

Comments by Dick Sim come to mind. Sim resigned from the Great Park Corp Board, in part over what he called "excessive spending".

Click for the OC Weekly's report on the last GPC Board meeting. "Great Park With All the Fixin’s. Agran doling out pork at $441 per hour"

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El Toro Info Site, report, June 22, 2005

John Wayne Airport annual report online

 

The 2004 annual report for John Wayne airport is online at the ocair.com website. Click here for the pdf file.

John Wayne is the second busiest commercial airport, after LAX, in the Southern California Association of Governments' region.

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El Toro Info Site report, June 21, 2005 - updated

Airport bill morphs in State Senate

 

AB 556, one of three bills in the legislature that we have been watching, has morphed in Senate committee as it moves towards passage. The bill is dubbed the “Airport Homeowners Bill of Rights” by its author, Assemblyman Mike Gordon of El Segundo.

 

AB 556 will make it more difficult for LAX to expand by enacting into law restrictions on noise around just this one airport. Click for the analysis of the bill in its amended form. 

 

The Senate Transportation Committee analyst notes “The [bill’s] author is concerned about the problem of aircraft noise on the communities surrounding the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) . . .  As long as large scale diversion of passengers and freight to other Southern California airports is not undertaken, the LAX facility will be most likely accommodating significant additional traffic, further worsening the noise problems and increasing the legal and administrative challenges at this facility.”

AB 556 is opposed by the City of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, the Valley Industry and Commerce Association, Sacramento County, the San Diego Regional Airport Authority, the Port of Oakland and representatives of the airline industry. In our view, Orange County should oppose the bill since it potentially limits utilization of LAX  and adds pressure for expanding aviation capacity at other airports.

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El Toro Info Site report, June 20, 2005

No LA Airport Commission meeting

 

The Los Angeles Airport Commission normally meets every second Monday. At the last meeting on June 4, the commission discussed but took no action on a lawsuit seeking to block the federal government’s sale of El Toro. The commission is not meeting on its normal schedule today.

The new LA mayor takes over on July 1 and is expected to appoint new commissioners.

 

This raises hopes that escrow will close on the El Toro property on July 12 without Los Angeles attempting to enjoin the transaction. We will just have to wait and see if common sense prevails.

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OC Register, June 19, 2005

“Park wish list made”
”Brainstorming session on plans for former El Toro air station sets down guidelines for project bidders.”

”People from around the county gathered Saturday to think big thoughts about the planned Great Park and to reach consensus about broad design principles and themes.”

”The all-day Great Park Stakeholders Conference at Chapman University in Orange drew about 200 people from dozens of conservation, cultural, art, ethnic and sports groups.”

The “practical purpose of the conference - and the focus groups that preceded it and the polling that will follow – is to create guidelines for the seven architectural companies competing for the contract to design the 3,700-acre park.”

 

More . . .

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LA Times, June 17, 2005
“Lawsuit says contract management company aided in overcharging for John Wayne work by $1.5 million in part for kickbacks and bribes.”

”An Orange County company that managed paving and construction contracts for John Wayne Airport is accused in a federal civil lawsuit of steering work to a company that allegedly inflated its bills by $1.5 million and using the money partly for bribes and kickbacks.”

”According to the lawsuit, an employee of project manager JHTM & Associates allegedly received an initial $10,000 bribe in 1996, slipped into an envelope stuffed inches thick with $100 bills at a sushi restaurant near the airport.”

“Also named were Sequel Contractors Inc. of Santa Fe Springs, which did the airport work, and its principals.”

”Sequel won the annual paving contract . . .  to maintain the airport's 11 million square feet of asphalt and concrete, according to county records. The bidding process was overseen by JHTM, which managed construction projects on behalf of the county-owned airfield.”

”Investigation discovered that Sequel, in alleged collusion with JHTM, purportedly conspired to inflate their airport jobs by as much as 66% overall.”

Click for the entire story. JHTM was involved in an earlier investigation regarding use of John Wayne funds for work at El Toro.

 

Website Editor: Imagine the possibilities for bribes and kickbacks if Los Angeles built and operated an airport in Orange County. The Hahn administration was famous for “pay to play” contracting.

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OC Register, June 17, 2005 - revised
"When a meeting isn't"

Columnist Frank Mickadeit writes: "The Great Park planners will have an all-day meeting tomorrow at Chapman U. You are not invited."

"That is, unless you are one of a couple of hundred people who belong to the various community groups and agencies that planners have identified as key 'stakeholders' in the park."
"I'm not critical of this - just the opposite - although I questioned why the meeting didn't appear on the park board agenda and wasn't widely noticed to the general public as public meetings are supposed to be under the state's Ralph M. Brown Act."

"It's because the meeting is not considered a 'meeting' under the Brown Act because less than a quorum of the eight-member park board will be present, spokeswoman Marsha Burgesstold me. In fact, only Larry Agran's name appears on the agenda, and only then as delivering a welcome."

"The public-access question I have been hearing most is, 'Why are the Great Park board meetings held at 1 p.m. on weekdays, rather than in the evenings when more people can attend?'"  There are also questions about the setup of the meeting room.
 
Website Editor: I'm a numbers person. When I received the media advisory for Saturday's meeting I wrote back asking "Is this the Stakeholder Conference listed as the second item in the GPC design budget at $75,000?  If so, how does the cost break down?" No answer as of this posting time. Perhaps Mickadeit or one of the stakeholders can get one on Saturday.

Click for the entire column

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El Toro Info Site report, June 17, 2005

Candidates to replace Cox - Where do they stand?

 

Political consultant Adam Probolsky released his public opinion poll that asks respondents who they would vote for if a special election to replace Congressman Christopher Cox were held today. Probolsky found that State Assemblyman John Campbell is the front runner with a large undecided population at this point.

 

John Campbell, Republican	31%
Marilyn Brewer, Republican	8%
John Graham, Democrat	22%
Unsure	38%

 

Campbell is openly opposed to an airport at El Toro. 

 

Brewer never responded to this website’s inquiry as to her position on El Toro.  She is considered to have been pro-airport, though we can't find her ever quoted in the media on the issue. The OC Weekly called "Marilyn Brewer . . .  famous for letting Newport Beach guide her policies." 

 

Graham is anti-El Toro and has promoted use of part of Camp Pendleton for a commercial airport serving Orange and San Diego Counties.

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OC Register editorial, June 16, 2005

“Whose park is it anyway?”
”The Great Park board says it doesn't have time to follow its own rules on contract bidding.”

”When former Irvine Co. executive Dick Sim resigned from the Great Park Corp. Board of Directors, he lamented the board's lack of proper management procedures. Click for Sim’s letter.

”Great Park leaders have rebutted criticism that they skirt proper procedures in awarding bids . . . The Great Park Corp. procurement policy requires all contracts to be put out to bid . . . Yet the board's excuse for violating its own rules made little sense. CEO Wally Kreutzen ‘said the board doesn't have time to do that,’ . . . Doesn't have time? On a multibillion-dollar project?”                         

”No wonder there are calls for more outside oversight.” More . . .

Website Editor: Not everything Register editorial writers say about El Toro or Irvine should be dismissed as anti-Agran ideological bias. The Register’s Steve Greenhut recently emailed this website's editor: “I may have opposed the creation of the park, but now that it is a done deal, I want to see it developed well.”

 

Anti-airport activists are not disloyal to their cause if they demand good management of the huge non-aviation reuse project. Excessive spending, lack of independent oversight, and unjustified haste can sap support from the non-aviation effort just as it crippled the county’s airport-at-all-costs campaign.

 

We should be troubled by the size of the Great Park Corp budget and the speed with which money is being committed to a project that should last for decades to serve users who are yet to be born.

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El Toro Info Site report, June 15, 2005

Bits and pieces

 

Several small print stories, posted on the Message Board by "Media Watcher" this morning, deserve note.

 

“Thousands of houses and a medical and science complex will be built on a 4,253-acre swath north of the old El Toro air base under plans approved late Tuesday by the Irvine City Council.” The Airport Land Use Commission ruled that the project was inconsistent with its Airport Environs Land Use Plan. ALUC has yet to rescind its outdated restrictions that try to preserve the aviation option. The City Council overrode the commission.

 

The Newport Beach City Manager has released his list of top goals for the coming year and “His highest priority has been in the works for about three years -- forging an agreement with Orange County to give the city more control over John Wayne Airport.” The Board of Supervisors has not formally tackled the issue and the city seems encouraged to keep trying in the absence of an official “no” from the supervisors.  Orange County must not foreclose its future options at John Wayne until a plan is in place to handle the county's long range aviation demand at other regional airports reached by suitable ground transportation connections.

 

“Touting its service from smaller, less crowded airports, JetBlue and guests poked fun at the rest of the airline industry . . .  [as] part of the city's declaration of May 24 -- the day JetBlue started flying out of Bob Hope Airport [nonstop to New York] -- as official JetBlue day in the city of Burbank.”

 

Lastly, ever-hopeful Shirley Conger of Corona del Mar writes in the Daily Pilot “Chris Cox has been no friend to Newport Beach. Yet, with his departure from Congress, we may yet be able to rescue the needed El Toro airport and open it soon.”

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Fullerton News-Tribune, June 9, 2004 web posted June 14 but better late than never

City Council news

 

“The panel will discuss in July if membership in the Orange County Regional Airport Authority – costing $10,000 annually – will be necessary if the association continues to support other projects after the anticipated failure of an airport at El Toro.”
 
”Fullerton Mayor Pro Tem Leland Wilson, who heads the county group, said the [OCRAA] authority might turn its attention toward a tunnel or another airport, possibly at Los Alamitos.”

Website viewers will remember that Wilson wrote to Washington proposing that Fullerton Airport take over and operate an airport at El Toro. He also appeared before a committee of the Los Angeles City Council supporting that city’s grab for El Toro.

 

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Great Park Corp Media Release, June 13, 2005 - revised

“Seven Top Architectural Firms Picked as Finalists in Orange County Great Park Competition”

 

“A jury of leading architects, designers and academics selected seven of the world’s top landscape architecture firms as finalists to compete for the job of Master Designer of the Orange County Great Park.”

 

Each finalist will receive a $50,000 stipend to continue work from the $1 million budget for design selection and preliminaries.

  

“We have moved one step closer to finding the Frederick Law Olmstead of the 21^st century - a Master Designer with the talent and vision to give Orange County a park that will serve the needs of our local residents and become a destination for travelers from around the globe,” said Larry Agran, Chair of the Orange County Great Park Corporation.

 

Olmstead, considered “the founder of American landscape architecture”, designed and went on to become superintendent of New York’s Central Park.  According to a history of Central Park,“It took twenty years after the approval of the Greensward Plan for Central Park to be completed. Olmsted and [his collaborator] Vaux officially resigned many times mostly because of political battles."   However, Olmstead's design revolutionized thinking about city parks and created an "urban oasis" where "people of all social and ethnic backgrounds could have fun and do their activities."

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El Toro Info Site report, June 13, 2005

Irvine reports city/park budget

 

The Irvine City Council votes Tuesday on the city’s 2005-6 budget. The largest single item is funding relative to the Great Park.

 

$66,666,666 will be received from Lennar when the Great Park Development Agreement is signed. Of this, $645,091 will be paid to ETRPA for Irvine’s back dues to the anti-airport authority. The balance of just over $66 million will be transferred to the Great Park Corporation.

 

The GPC has budgeted spending close to $9 million of this in the coming year for administration, management, legal, consultants, public relations, various surveys, relocation of RV storage, and to begin the park design.

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El Toro Info Site report, June 12, 2005

"You are cordially invited”

 

“. . . to a reception honoring Jim Silva.” $1,000 per person. June 22 at Shady Canyon Golf Club, Irvine. (Yes, Irvine.)

The fancy invitation says checks are to be payable to Silva for Assembly.

The host committee includes several prominent South County elected officials. At least none were members of the Irvine City Council, Democrats or Republicans.

 

I'm not going, and am sure that I won't be missed though they might accept a check from me if I wrote one. No chance. This is Jim Silva who voted repeatedly for an El Toro Airport, supported LA's takeover of El Toro and opposed Irvine's annexation of the former base.  Can't help wondering how he will vote on El Toro related issues in the Assembly.  Or did his recent vote for the county to join ETRPA mean he has seen the light and is a new man?

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OC Metro, Viewpoint, June 9, 2005 posted June 11
“Bad business practices decimate Great Park board.”

Chris Mears, who chaired the Great Park Corp until he left the Irvine City Council, writes a blistering opinion pieces about his successor’s leadership of the GPC.

”The recent resignation of Dick Sim from the Great Park Board of Directors is only the latest departure to rock the park’s management structure. Sim joins former Executive Director Allison Hart, former General Counsel Joel Kuperberg, financial genius Brian Myers and former senior staffer Dan Jung on the casualty list of those who refused to rubberstamp Board Chairman and Irvine Council member Larry Agran’s use of the billion-dollar Great Park coffers to secure his political hold on the park and the city.”

”When I served on the Irvine council and as founding chair of the Great Park board, I advocated a structure that would have placed only two council members on the board, with five or seven independent members chosen from throughout the county.”  Click for background on the controversy that lead to the present composition of the board.

Click for the entire article.

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Los Angeles Daily News, June 10, 2005

“Antonio unveils plan$”

”Mayor-elect Antonio Villaraigosa, eager to jump-start a city widely perceived as slow to change, laid out an ambitious economic development plan Thursday, calling for what he described as a new focus on the assets of the city.”

"’We can become the Venice of the 21st Century,’ he said. ‘Right now, we handle about 40 percent of the goods coming into the United States. I think we can get to 70 percent with improvements to our infrastructure.’"

”To accomplish that, he said, the city will need to rethink its plans for air traffic and at the port.”

”On air travel, Villaraigosa repeated that he supports the first $3 billion of the Los Angeles International Airport modernization program but wants to see more expansion at the city-owned airports in Ontario and Palmdale.”

"’We know we are going to grow, but where is that growth going? It is in Palmdale. It is in Ontario. Growing Ontario, growing Palmdale makes good sense.’"

 

For more on the mayor-elect's plans . . . 

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OC Register, June 9, 2005 - updated June 10

“Panel OKs contracts despite policy”

”The Great Park Corp. board voted today to renew five contracts - originally awarded by the city - going against its policy of requiring competitive bidding.”

”The board's CEO, Wally Kreutzen, told board members that a tight timeline would make it difficult to open these contracts to bid because escrow is set to close on the old base in July with Lennar Corp., and a Great Park designer is to be chosen by fall.”

”Board members Christina Shea and Steven Choi disagreed with the board majority. Both said that taking more time and following policy procedure was more important than quickly renewing the contracts.”

Click for more of the Register news article . . .

Click for Frank Mickadeit's column "Great Park board needs PR help; oh wait, it has it.."

Click here for another spin on the meeting from OC Blog.

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El Toro Info Site report, June 8, 2005 - updated June 9

Great Park Board meets Thursday

 

The Great Park Corp Board of Directors meets at Irvine City Hall at 1:00 PM tomorrow, Thursday, with an agenda that includes discussion of procurement policies, takeover of contracts initiated by the city, a start on the search for a replacement of former Director Dick Sim, and approval of a contract for assessing countywide sports facilities needs to be met at the park.  The public is welcome.

 

At the last GPC meeting, an $8.8 million 2005-6 budget was approved starting with $150,000 for the item "Design Needs Assessment - Sports Facilities Needs." Budget estimates are educated guesses until bids are received. It is unclear as to whether bids were received on this item before the budget was presented to the Board.

 

Three firms submitted their qualifications and bids for this task. The bids ranged from $250,000 to $435,000. The firm scored best qualified based on their proposal and interview was Griffin Structures of Laguna Beach, a local design and consulting firm whose price fell midway in that range.

 

Staff concluded that "this [$150,000] estimate proved to be inadequate . . . after evaluating the proposals . . . staff believes that scaling back the project to meet the estimated budget would not provide an adequate analysis on which to base the development of the Sports Park.” The Griffin proposal was renegotiated to $265,000 and is being recommended to the Board.

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El Toro Info Site report, June 8, 2005
San Diego Airport updates

This website’s Message Board contains several news reports today on airport activity in San Diego.

The Union-Tribune reports that the San Diego Association of Governments, the county’s equivalent of SCAG, is looking at innovative transportation ideas including a maglev “line on an elevated corridor along Interstate 5, linking Lindbergh Field to Los Angeles International Airport with stops in Oceanside, at John Wayne Airport in Orange County and at Long Beach Airport.” It is unclear as to whether the intent is to export SD residents to flights at other airports - where they will bump into passenger caps in place or proposed for LAX, SNA and LGB – or whether San Diego expects to import passengers.

San Diego’s Lindbergh Field will restart non-stop flights to Mexico City. The airport has service to several western Canadian and Mexican destinations. Orange County’s John Wayne Airport has two Canadian carriers on its waiting list for slots that the airport management is not allocating.

In a unanimous vote Monday, the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority agreed to initiate environmental review of a $536 million project to add 10 gates, expand parking for airport visitors, provide extra space for aircraft to stay overnight and expand service for general aviation. Lindbergh Field sits on a very intensively utilized site a little larger than JWA’s.  Part of the Orange County airport site is used for a golf course.

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OC Register, June 7, 2005
"Great Park"

"The Great Park board is holding a special meeting Thursday to discuss the corporation's policies on awarding contracts. Some say the policies are too strict while others say the policies were designed to safeguard against cronyism."

"The meeting begins at 1 p.m. at One Civic Center Plaza, Irvine."

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El Toro Info Site report, June 6, 2005 - 5:20 PM

LA takes “no action” on El Toro litigation

 

The Board of Airport Commissioners met this afternoon. According to the board clerk, they sat in closed session for a briefing from counsel but “took no action” on El Toro litigation.

 

This raises hopes that a destructive war between Los Angeles and Orange County may be averted. Under normal bi-weekly scheduling, the Airport Commission is due to meet next on June 20 for what could be these commissioners’ final session before the new mayor takes over on July 1.

 

Title to the El Toro property is scheduled to transfer to Lennar on July 12. The clocking is running out on threatened efforts to block the sale.

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El Toro Info Site editorial, June 6, 2005
The War between the North and the South

In 2000, artist Sandow Birk assembled a farcical collection of his works into an exhibit -later a mockumentary film and CD - entitled In Smog & Thunder: Historical Works from the Great War of the Californias. Birk, with humor and wit, depicted a fictional regional war between the forces of Northern and Southern California. . . Fogtown versus Smogtown.

In 2005, Los Angeles is weighing whether to launch a real regional war by attacking the sovereignty of its neighbor Orange County over the reuse of the former El Toro base.
The Los Angeles Airport Commission meets this afternoon at LAX to consider litigating to block the Navy's sale of El Toro. LA seeks to take over the former base for an airport.
 
There will be no humor in this conflict if it begins. It will escalate from a political farce to a costly war that Los Angeles can not win.

Los Angeles residents are apt to sleep through the opening phase of this battle, which has received no attention in the city's papers. Other than politicians, bureaucrats and lawyers, we expect that few in LA care about the outcome.
 
However, Orange County leaders - and residents defending their communities - will fight to the bitter end. There is no way that the big city to the north will be allowed to assert imperial ambitions over its neighboring county. Events of the past ten years have shown that there will be no El Toro airport.

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El Toro Info Site report, June 5, 2005

On this day in El Toro history

 

Our resident historian, Media Watcher, reminds us that six years ago this weekend, pro-airport officials in county government launched a million dollar PR blooper that helped turn the tide in the El Toro battle. On June 4-5 1999, we were treated to the noisy El Toro flight demonstrations. Immediately thereafter, the pace of signature gathering for Measure F doubled. The airport effort lost, and never regained, its momentum.

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OC Register Reader's Rebuttal, June 5, 2005
Agran - "Talk of secretive 'insiders' is nonsense"

The Register publishes Larry Agran's response to Steve Greenhut's editorial of last weekend.

"Greenhut treated Orange County residents to a column titled 'Hijacking the Great Park, episode III.' He was no doubt inspired by 'Star Wars, Episode III,' now appearing in our local theaters. Greenhut's column is also a work of fiction that describes a world that does not exist."

"All meetings of the Orange County Great Park Corp. Board of Directors are open to the public. All financial information and records and documents are part of the public record. The state's anti-secrecy law, the Brown Act, applies to all corporation business. I have consistently supported these high standards of honest and open government."

Click for the entire Agran column. 

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El Toro Info Site report, June 4, 2005

LA pondering a war it can not win

 

Monday afternoon, the Los Angeles Airport Commission will revisit whether to sue the federal government to block the sale of El Toro. If they sue, it will be with wishful thinking that Los Angeles can build a satellite of LAX in Orange County.

 

The commissioners are pondering launching a war that Los Angeles is unlikely to win.

 

A Los Angeles lawsuit will cost that city, the federal government and Orange County taxpayers millions of wasted dollars. It might mess up plans for the Great Park and create delay in the reuse of El Toro. But, regardless of the legal outcome, the citizens of Orange County will fight against LA operating an airport in the heart of their county.

 

For Los Angeles, El Toro is deep in enemy territory. The former base has been annexed to the city of Irvine which provides police and public services. Current state law bars LA from operating an El Toro airport without Irvine’s approval.

 

El Toro is surrounded by cities that overwhelmingly oppose an airport - even one run by their own county. If Los Angeles somehow were to win the litigation, and end up leasing El Toro from the federal government, it could sit fallow for decades.

 

It will drain LA coffers but see no aviation use. Many Orange County residents will be okay with that since their goal, expressed in Measure W, was to minimize development, traffic and pollution.

 

There are numerous local options for blocking an airport. Surrounding cities can permit buildings in the intended flight paths. Avigation easements were removed and can not be unilaterally restored. Local authorities can restrict the delivery of utilities and fuel to the property. They control road access for airport construction. There will be major public demonstrations against the project. Those who stopped the airport before will do so again, with more weapons at their disposal since county government is on their side.

 

LA’s long war over El Toro will be an economic, political and public relations disaster for the city. Let’s hope that cool heads prevail on Monday.

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Daily Pilot, June 4, 2005

[Cox] “Appointment draws praise and criticism”

”While local political observers seem to agree that Rep. Chris Cox will make an excellent financial policy wonk, they're far more divided about what his legacy as Newport Beach's congressman will be.”

”Cox's most noticeable legacy will likely be in the skies. He fought vigorously to extend the settlement agreement that restricts flights out of John Wayne Airport, but some critics say he abandoned Newport when it came to a proposed d El Toro airport.”

”Many Newport residents believe an airport at the closed El Toro Marine Air Corps Station would have eased swelling transportation traffic at John Wayne Airport. In 2001, Cox said a county plan for an El Toro airport was unworkable, and he supported the sale of the Marine base for public parkland and private development.”

”Although Cox is a knowledgeable congressman, he's not a realist when it comes to the airport issue, said Tom Naughton, a spokesman for the Airport Working Group.”

"’As far as I'm concerned, Chris Cox does not have an answer that is actually viable as far as handling the air-transportation needs’ of the region, Naughton said.”

”South County residents are causing much of the increasing traffic at John Wayne Airport, [Newport Beach City Councilman Tod] Ridgeway said, but they didn't want an El Toro airport in their backyards.”

"’The citizens of this community were clearly betrayed by Chris Cox’ on the El Toro issue, Ridgeway said. ‘I think had Chris supported it, there would be an airport there today.’"

 

Click for the entire article and more on Newport Beach opinions of the congressman.

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OC Register, June 3, 2005 - updated
"Great Park visions at hand"
"24 firms worldwide offer designs, some of which seem to escape definition."

"Two dozen design firms from across the globe have submitted their credentials to the Great Park Corp. board, hoping to be selected to submit their designs for the mix of open space and development planned for the old air base."

"A jury of architects will convene June 10 to review the submissions and choose six that will be invited to submit proposals to design the mix of wilderness areas, athletic fields, farms, museums, shops and houses planned for the 3,714-acre expanse. Each of those chosen to create plans will receive a $50,000 stipend" under the Great Park Corp budget for design preliminaries.

"Proposals from the chosen six will be due in September."

Click for more on the design submissions. A sample: "Our design will celebrate the genius loci of the place."

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OC Business Journal, June 2, 2005 - updated June 3

“Bush Taps Cox for SEC”

 

“Newport Beach Republican Congressman Christopher Cox was tapped by President Bush Thursday to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission.”

 

“Cox, Orange County's most influential lawmaker in Washington, easily won a ninth term in the House of Representatives last fall.”

 

“Cox worked closely with the Navy on the sale of land for the Great Park at El Toro.”

 

For more . . . 

 

Website Editor: Cox weighed in for anti-airport constituents at several crucial points in the El Toro battle. Consequently, he was frequently attacked in Newport Beach.

In 1996, Cox introduced federal legislation to bar joint military-commercial aviation use of El Toro.

 

In October 2001 he forced the FAA to release data revealing that an airport at El Toro would create a “dysfunctional” air traffic situation. 

 

In October 2002, Cox played a major role in conditioning a $1.5 million planning grant to SCAG so that the funds could not be used for regional plans that include El Toro.

The June 3 OC Register summarizes the steps for a special election for Cox's replacement.

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El Toro Info Site report, June 2, 2005

Los Angeles revisits El Toro lawsuit

 

The Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners has reagendized, for closed session on June 6, a “Conference with Legal Counsel re: Anticipated Litigation.” This is the El Toro lawsuit considered on May 16 but apparently not initiated. 

 

It remains to be seen whether the commissioners, appointed by the Hahn administration and acting under directions from the City Council, will launch the litigation as their final off-key swan song before the new mayor takes over on July 1 and appoints his own people.

 

While Orange County officials have worked quietly to avert a war with Los Angeles, Board Chairman Bill Campbell says, "Please be assured that . . . Orange County will fight LA's attempts to place an airport at El Toro."

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El Toro Info Site Report, June 2, 2005
Squeeze play on LAX?

Mike Gordon's AB 556 that enacts noise control measures around LAX into state law looks like one jaw of a squeeze play. It has passed in the Assembly and is now in the Senate for approval.

The second jaw is AB522, the "Public Health and Environmental Enforcement Law of 2005", which Gordon co-authored.

While we leave it to the lawyers to interpret, AB 522 appears to allow every resident living near LAX, and every group that wants to bring a lawsuit against Los Angeles World Airports to block the airport from operating if it fails to meet the requirements of AB 556.

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OC Register, June 1, 2005
“Design firms bid for Great Park”

”A design jury will convene June 10 to choose six finalists from among the applicants” seeking to become the master designer of the Great Park. “Eight firms had submitted applications by the close of business Tuesday.”

”The San Francisco design firm EDAW and at least five others were expected to submit proposals by today’s 5 p.m. deadline.”

”EDAW already has been hired by Lennar Corp. to design the community plan for the developed portions of the former base.”

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