NEWS - September 2005

El Toro Info Site report, September 30, 2005
Professionals comment on the Great Park design process

Irvine World News, September 29, 2005
"Great Park Corp. board cuts design field to three"

OC Register, September 28, 2005
"Board hopes to winnow concepts for the Great Park"

LA Daily News editorial, September 28, 2005
"A new day for LAX "
"Mayor's pick for new airport head should kill expansion plan quickly"

San Diego Union-Tribune, September 27, 2005
"2nd runway for Lindbergh Field is ruled out"

El Toro Info Site report, September 26, 2005
The Coad and Indian War

OC Register, September 24, 2005
"Great Park expectations"

OC Register, September 23, 2005
"Stark differences in design"

El Toro Info Site report, September 22, 2005
Newport Beach residents push for new Measure F

Irvine World News, September 22, 2005
"Public invited to hear Great Park designers"


Daily Pilot, September 21, 2005
”West Santa Ana Heights continues to wait to be annexed by Costa Mesa or Newport Beach.”

OC Register, September 20, 2005
"Bus service links Disneyland, airports"

El Toro Info Site report, September 19, 2005
Great Park can’t be started without a design

El Toro Info Site report, September 17, 2005
More on Great Park designs

El Toro Info Site report, September 15, 2005
LAX in 4th place for domestic passengers

LA Times, September 14, 2005
"1 Great Park for Irvine, 7 Elaborate Possibilities"

El Toro Info Site report, September 13, 2005
John Wayne Posts Record Statistics

OC Register, September 13, 2005
"Great imaginations; Designers offer very different visions for the Great Park"

El Toro Info Site report, September 12, 2005
Great Park Corp advertises design choices

El Toro Info Site report, September 12, 2005
Regional airport authority bills stall in legislature

El Toro Info Site report, September 11, 2005
911

Los Angeles Business Journal, September 9, 2005 posted September 10
"Crowds Ease at LAX"

El Toro Info Site report, September 9, 2005
Public Has Opportunity to View and Provide Comment on Orange County Great Park Designs

Irvine World News, September 8, 2005
Local comments

El Toro Info Site report, September 7, 2005
Domestic passengers still avoiding LAX

El Toro Info Site report, September 6, 2005
Great Park Corp Board meets Thursday at 9:00 AM.

El Toro Info Site report, September 4, 2005
Four years ago today

Long Beach Press-Telegram, September 3, 2005
"Last 22 [LB] airport slots allotted"

El Toro Info Site report, September 2, 2005

AB 556 on Inactive List


Irvine World News, September 1, 2005
"Applications pour in for Great Park board seat"

Click here for previous news stories

El Toro Info Site report, September 30, 2005
Professionals comment on the Great Park design process

Recent conversations with Dick Sim and Jack Camp shed some light on how professionals view the Great Park design process. Sim is the former Irvine Company President who resigned from the GPC Board. Camp is president of the Urban Design Camp in Laguna Beach, a member of the Great Park Conservancy Advisory Committee and an urban designer for numerous large scale projects over the past 30 years including the Spectrum.

Jack Camp put together a team of 13 design and development professionals who voluntarily submitted comments and questions for the GPC Board to use in evaluating the seven design schemes for the park. (See report below)

Both believed that the competitors should have been confronted with a development budget and technical site constraints and then allowed to be creative.

Camp said that while public input is good, it received a disproportionate amount of attention and that more professional involvement was needed. 

Camp noted that no major park of this size had been funded entirely with public money. More time should have been spent with professionals who identify and market land use opportunities to private groups with funding capabilities. He cited the example of a private organization with interest in financing an Olympic-caliber equestrian center.

GPC staff is not blind to such opportunities and has considered soccer and other sports organizations providing private support in return for use of the playing facilities.

Sim has referred to the output as "pretty pictures" and a "waste of money". Camp said the design firms did a great job with "extremely conceptual ideas" but the next step must be to "get realistic about the project's constraints".

Sim and Camp expressed that the design competition had a large political purpose. Both described the process as being "rushed" for that reason.

Irvine World News, September 29, 2005
"Great Park Corp. board cuts design field to three"

"The Great Park Corp. selected the top three finalists in the race for a master designer of the Orange County Great Park Wednesday."

"Designers Ken Smith of New York, EMBT Arquitectes of Barcelona, Spain, and Royston Hanamoto, Mill Valley, Calif. made the cut, despite a design jury's report that deemed EMBT's entry confusing, and Royston's - cluttered and not cohesive."  (See report below)

"A poll of 3,380 online participants mirrored the board's choice of finalists but the overall scoring system placed Richard Haag, Hargreaves & Associates and Ken Smith as the top designers."

"On Oct. 10, the Great Park Corp. board will whittle the trio of finalists down to two firms. The winner will get the contract to design the public portions of the Great Park."

"How much the board will be influenced by the [design] jury report remains to be seen. Although the jury gave high marks to the Ken Smith and Olin Partnership plans, board members didn't like Olin's great circle that defined the park."

"Members of the jury provided a window into the jury's thinking - and the weight the board gave to the jury report and their own impressions of the plans. . . Smith and Olin had finished high in the jury's evaluation because the two firms' plans were judged to be both functional and responsive to the needs of Orange County."

"In making its final decision, the board not only will have the design jury report to consider but also a separate evaluation by a team led by Jack Camp, president of the Urban Design Camp in Laguna Beach."

"That report said all seven designs were 'extremely conceptual' and 'offer little in the way of specifics as to how they see it (Orange County) evolving over the coming 30 years or so.'"

"Moreover, the Camp report noted that none of the designs addressed existing trees, 'which are much more worth preserving than the runways.'"

"Still to be resolved is how the final plan will mesh with Lennar Corp.'s vision for the developed areas of the Great Park."
 
"Many questions remain. Among them: How much will the park cost to create? How long will it take to finish? And perhaps most significantly, will people embrace the park in the manner of a Central Park in New York?"

Click for the IWN report.

The Register similarly reports "Two firms that underwhelmed a design jury fare better with the Great Park Board. . .  Inclusion of EMBT and Royston in the top tier went against the design jury's recommendation."

Website Editor: The Ken Smith design selected by the directors apparently was the only one receiving top marks in the public poll, from the design jury and from the Urban Design Camp team.

OC Register, September 28, 2005
"Board hopes to winnow concepts for the Great Park"

"A jury of design architects from across the country gave top marks to plans submitted by Ken Smith of New York and Olin Partnership of Philadelphia."

"Smith's plan features a canyon as a centerpiece; Olin's features a vast, open meadow in the middle of the park, accented by a marsh. Smith's plan envisions a more active park; Olin's emphasizes restoration of the land to something close to what it was before humans arrived."

"Board members will review the jury report and a separate evaluation by a team led by Jack Camp, president of the Urban Design Camp in Laguna Beach. The board may decide on another plan or may choose a master designer but direct that elements from other plans be included."

"The Great Park Corp. board meets at 12:30 p.m. today to discuss the reports and the public response."

LA Daily News editorial, September 28, 2005
"A new day for LAX "
"Mayor's pick for new airport head should kill expansion plan quickly"

"With the departure of Kim Day as head of Los Angeles World Airports, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has the perfect opportunity to stop his predecessor's cockamamie airport plan once and for all."

"Day, who will step down from the top airport job early next month, was put in place by Mayor James Hahn in a desperate effort to salvage his $11 billion expansion plan for Los Angeles International Airport in the face of widespread opposition."

"With Day gone, Villaraigosa can fill the job with someone who will be committed to killing off Hahn's plan and coming up with a more reasonable and cost-efficient one for upgrading the airport. This someone should also support regionalization, which is the only sensible way to accommodate additional air traffic in the greater Los Angeles area."

"Even as he mounts his search for a successor, Villaraigosa needs to renew his commitment to a sensible airport policy for all of Southern California."

More . . .

San Diego Union-Tribune, September 27, 2005
"2nd runway for Lindbergh Field is ruled out"

"Airport planners ruled out further consideration of a second, parallel runway for Lindbergh Field yesterday, ending a long-shot option that drew increasing ire from Point Loma and Loma Portal residents."

"In a related development, analysts said 'significant issues' involving restricted [military] airspace had arisen with another location on a list of possible future regional airport sites - the Imperial County desert."

"The 4-0 vote by a San Diego County Regional Airport Authority committee effectively ends an academic exercise that began in June, when a consulting team came up with an idea for developing a runway through the Midway District without using Marine Corps property."

"A report prepared for yesterday's meeting concluded that [it] would require the relocation of 18,800 residents."

"The airport agency is attempting to find a way to meet a steady growth in demand from the 16.3 million passengers handled at San Diego International Airport last year to an expected 35 million sometime between 2021 and 2030. The airport's practical capacity, with added gates, is placed at about 24 million."

"Lindbergh Field remains on the list of future airport options . . . If no alternative site is found suitable, the airport would make do with its existing single-runway property, perhaps adding more gates to meet as much demand as possible."

"Five other locations involving military installations, including the Marines' Miramar Air Station, Camp Pendleton and North Island Naval Air Station, remain off the table pending congressional action on this year's base closure and realignment process." Click for more . . .

El Toro Info Site report, September 26, 2005
The Coad and Indian War

Two hundred and fifty years ago, the French allied with American Indians in an attempt to block English-speaking people from developing the Appalachian regions of this continent. Recently, Tom and Cynthia Coad allied with a small Native American group in a move to disrupt development of the Great Park in Irvine.

The former Supervisor and her husband made the rounds in Washington with a leader of the Juanero Band of Mission Indians which has yet to receive federal recognition. The Indians apparently seek to lay claim to almost 1,000 acres of habitat preserve in the northeast corner of the former base.

While there has been long standing discussion of a Native American cultural center at El Toro, the group has resisted suggestions that it be built in the Great Park's Museum District.
They may contemplate a gambling casino on land that the federal government has retained for a natural wild life corridor connecting the mountains with parks near the ocean.

Construction on the nature preserve will disrupt more than wild life. Native American groups are not required to abide by California environmental regulations. A gambling casino could generate enough auto traffic to require reworking of the environmental impact report for non-Indian development on the remainder of the former base.
 
The Irvine City Council will take up the subject of gambling establishments within the city at its meeting tomorrow.  A proposed resolution commits the city to use all legal means to keep out casinos.

OC Register, September 24, 2005 - updated
"Great Park expectations"

"Four architectural designers completed a marathon of presentations Friday on the Great Park, offering visions as varied as all outdoors."

"Ken Smith of New York would create a canyon in the middle of the park, Hargreaves Associates suggested a canal walk, EMBT Arquitectes presented an imaginative terrain and Ábalos & Herreros would like to fill a long runway excavation with water for a rowing site."

"But many questions remain. Among them: How much will the park cost to create? How long will it take to finish? . . . Only one firm included cost estimates on building the public portions of the park."

"Three designers - Olin Partnerships, Richard Haag Associates and Royston Hanamoto made their presentations Thursday."  See report below.

Click for more including GPC directors' comments . . .

Then scroll down the Message Board thread for GPC Chairman Larry Agran's rebutal to an earlier OC Register editorial. "Ultimately, cost and financial considerations will determine what features the Great Park will have and how long it will take to build. The city of Irvine and the Great Park Corp. remain committed to building the park without placing any additional burden on taxpayers."

OC Register, September 23, 2005
"Stark differences in design"

"The first three designers detailed their visions for the Great Park Board on Thursday. Highlights and concerns raised on various aspects are detailed. The remaining four will present their designs today."

"One plan traced the old runways with gardens and walkways, another centered on a marsh, and the third put a 'Great Knoll' at the park's center."

Website Editor: Former Great Park Corp director and Irvine Company President Dick Sim said last night that in his view, the design selection process was "a waste of money". Sim said the designers should have been provided with much more technical information - about matters such as traffic circulation, where the concrete debris would be stored, the asbestos contamination in old buildings that designers might be considering for reuse, and flood water control - before they set to work making "pretty pictures." That data is months away.

The alternate view expressed by GPC CEO Wally Kreutzen was that this was a process for selecting a designer with whom the Board could work rather than for settling on a winning  design. It was intended to give the designers freedom to create innovative concepts.

Sim identified some excellent California designers who might meet that criteria but were eliminated from the publicity-grabbing international competition.


El Toro Info Site report, September 22, 2005
Newport Beach residents push for new Measure F

Measure F volunteerIn 2000, Newport Beach and Costa Mesa were the only cities in the County to not come out in favor of anti-airport Measure F. It passed with an overwhelming 67.3 percent of the countywide vote. Measure F required that two-thirds of voters would have to approve any construction of El Toro Airport or expansion of John Wayne Airport.

While Measure F was eventually overturned in court as a result of a lawsuit brought by the Airport Working Group of Newport Beach, it remained law long enough to seriously derail the County’s El Toro airport planning.

Had the group not sued, the current expansion of John Wayne would have been subject to Measure F’s voter approval process.

We are struck by this ironic photo in today’s Daily Pilot. NPB residents are campaigning for passage of a city Measure F to increase school funding.


Irvine World News, September 22, 2005
"Public invited to hear Great Park designers"

"The seven landscape architecture firms competing for the coveted job of designing the Great Park will present their designs to the Great Park board of directors today and tomorrow."

"Beginning at 8:30 this morning, each team will have one hour to describe its plan before responding to board members' questions for an hour."

Click for the presentation schedule and the GPC ad that appeared in the Register and IWN.

Website Editor: The Board will not be selecting a design but will be choosing a design firm with whom they can work as the project unfolds. The development of the park will be planned and built in phases to conform to the availability of funds and the freeing of land for use following environmental cleanup. The FAA retains a piece of property for a navigation tower which will be planned around until it is eventually removed.

Daily Pilot, September 21, 2005
”West Santa Ana Heights continues to wait to be annexed by Costa Mesa or Newport Beach.”

”Newport annexed East Santa Ana Heights in 2003 and is on the verge of applying to annex the western half of the neighborhood. Residents plan to meet tonight to ask Newport-Mesa officials why it’s taking so long.”

”West Santa Ana Heights and two adjacent unincorporated areas - the Santa Ana Country Club and an area south of Mesa Drive between Irvine and Santa Ana avenues - have been the subject of a tug-of-war for more than two years.” The area is close to the John Wayne airport takeoff corridor.

”Those areas have for years been part of Costa Mesa’s ‘sphere of influence,’ which means officials expected them eventually to become part of the city.”

Both cities [Costa Mesa and Newport Beach] early this year agreed to form a ‘borders committee’ to discuss the annexation, but so far it hasn’t met.”

”For Newport officials, the annexation is tied up with a bundle of other issues they’re negotiating with the county, including more control over John Wayne Airport, Newport Beach Assistant City Manager Dave Kiff said.”

Newport Beach “is in talks with the county about taking over management of the [Santa Ana Heights Redevelopment] fund.”

Click for the complete Pilot article.


OC Register, September 20, 2005
"Bus service links Disneyland, airports"

"Coach USA/Gray Line of Anaheim launched The Disneyland Resort Express, a bus service that provides transportation between Los Angeles International Airport or John Wayne Airport and the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim."

"The one-way fee for LAX is $19 for adults and $16 children. For John Wayne Airport, the fee is $14 for adults and $12 for children."

Website Editor: There is no bus service from Disneyland to Ontario Airport. Super Shuttle rates are $30 to LAX, $20 to John Wayne and $50 to Ontario. Future use of Inland Empire airports - to take the passenger load from Los Angeles and Orange County - will depend on the development of reasonable ground transportation.

El Toro Info Site report, September 19, 2005
Great Park can’t be started without a design

The OC Register’s Steven Greenhut editorialized yesterday that the Great Park vision is all vision, little reality.” Greenhut writes that in “an interview earlier in the year, following his resignation from the [Great Park Corp] board, Mr. Sim . . .  couldn’t understand the rush to create designs before the board dealt with contamination and other issues that ultimately will determine what can be built where.”

In our view, the “rush” is justified because without an overall design, the project can’t be started. A design concept needs to be selected to guide the shaping of the terrain.

Where does one start without a plan? Where does the first construction road enter the property? What existing infrastructure should be bulldozed and what left standing? Where does the rubble of the runways get deposited? The general plan provides the answers.

The need to deal with contamination should not stop the design process. The Navy is committed to cleaning the contamination. While some construction may be delayed for this to occur, designing does not need to wait.

Greenhut raises a second and more convincing criticism of the much publicized design competition: “When architects design houses . . . They need to consider the homeowner’s budget. They need to consider traffic patterns in the neighborhood.”  Presumably, Lennar has taken these factors into consideration with the largely unpublicized selection of the designer for its part of the Heritage Fields development. Reportedly, this realistic approach was not taken with the park designers.

The Great Park Corp has begun work as though the Great Park needs to be marketed to the public with what Sim called "pretty pictures". Anyone who has followed the El Toro debate, and observed the County’s extravagant spending on its pro-airport PR campaign, knows that spending money does not necessarily equate to winning either public participation or support.


El Toro Info Site report, September 17, 2005
More on Great Park designs

The presentations of the seven design competitors can be viewed online at the Great Park Corp website. Click on http://www.ocgp.org/maps_docs/designer_presentations.asp

A colorful new 12-page Fall 2005 issue of the GPC's Benchmark report provides a summary of the designs and commentary about the project.

We heard recently that demolition of the runway possibly may be delayed pending selection of a design since some of the suggested plans incorporate sections of the huge concrete strips.

El Toro Info Site report, September 15, 2005
LAX in 4th place for domestic passengers

Department of Transportation data released today, for the first 6 months of 2005, puts Los Angeles airport in 4th place in the number of domestic passengers enplaned, behind the Atlanta, Chicago, and Dallas-Fort Worth airports. 

Las VegasMcCarran Airport climbed to 5th place in 2005.

Domestic travel accounts for 72 percent of LAX traffic this year. Including international passengers makes LAX the nation’s third busiest airport.

Enplanements are the number of passengers boarding flights. Airport statistics – and airport passenger caps such as those at John Wayne Airport - are usually stated for Total Passengers, the sum of Enplanements and Deplanements. Total passenger counts are about twice the enplaned number.


LA Times, September 14, 2005
"1 Great Park for Irvine, 7 Elaborate Possibilities"

"The city of Irvine has embarked on a massive planning effort for the Orange County Great Park, a roughly 1,000-acre regional preserve with museums and sports fields to be built in the center of the former El Toro Marine base."

"The proposals, from seven internationally known design firms, are as grand as the city's planners hope the park will be."

"The public can see the designs at Irvine City Hall through Sept. 21, then attend public presentations Sept. 22 and 23. People will also be able to vote for their favorite park features on the Internet."

"The Great Park planning board gave the designers $50,000 each - and a blank slate - to develop their proposals. They were given free rein to think creatively, without worrying about cost, traffic, water or lingering contamination from 50 years of military use, said Glen Worthington, Irvine's former principal planner, who now works for the Great Park Corp."

"'I don't know that we told them they should be limited,' Worthington said of the designers. "'We didn't want them to worry about 'What's the budget?' "

"Despite the varied proposals, marketing consultant Linda Congleton, one member of the group critiquing them, fretted that few of the designs offered activities, landscaping or attractions that were truly different from Southern California's other recreational draws."

"They worried that the board was moving too fast to pick a designer without knowing key elements of the future park, including how much it would cost and its annual operating budget."

"The group critiqued each design with a 'reality factor.' For example, most featured water that might have to be lined to protect ground water. Many directed cars into the park off busy Bake Parkway, yet only a few indicated parking areas."

Click for the entire article with highlights of the various proposals.

El Toro Info Site report, September 13, 2005 - updated
John Wayne Posts Record Statistics

Airline passenger traffic at John Wayne Airport increased in August 2005 as compared to August 2004.  In August 2005, the passenger traffic count was 899,923, an increase of 3.2% when compared to the August 2004 passenger traffic count of 872,271.

"We served more passengers in August than in any one month in the Airport's history," said Airport Director Alan Murphy. 

Commercial Carrier flight operations decreased 3.4%, while Commuter Carrier (air taxi) operations increased 8.5% for the month when compared to the same levels recorded in August 2004. Both types of flights are down for the year to date compared to 2004.

OC Register, September 13, 2005 - updated
"Great imaginations; Designers offer very different visions for the Great Park"

"Some of the seven Great Park designs are detailed down to the color of bicycles that visitors could rent; others offer a broad conceptual mosaic but are light on details."

"Hamid Shirvani, chair of the design jury and president and professor of architecture at California State University Stanislaus [said], 'They're avante garde, abstract, modernist, ecological - seven powerful schemes.'"

"One design calls for a rowing channel along the course of the main runway, another plan creates a central, iconic pyramid, another plan leaves the control tower intact as a remembrance of the half-century military presence on the site where beans once grew and American Indians roamed."

Click for the entire article.

The designs can be seen online at the Great Park website.

Viewers must answer the poll questions on each design in the order presented and can not go back to compare one with another.  A cookie will be set to interfere with viewers taking a second look at the submissions. Click here to post comments on the poll.

El Toro Info Site report, September 12, 2005
Great Park Corp advertises design choices

The Great Park Corp placed a full page ad in today's Orange County Register, inviting readers to log on to the GPC website and participate in a Great Park Master Designer Online Poll.

The ad headlines "Seven World Renown Designers . . . One Orange County Great Park. Make Your Mark on Orange County History." It also will be run in the Irvine World News.

Unfortunately, last minute changes kept the online survey offline until later in the morning. If you have not done so, check it out now.

The Great Park Corp budgeted $130,000 for the Internet survey and a mail back survey assessing the seven design options as parts of a million dollar build up to selecting a master designer and putting the firm to work.

Please complete the Irvine poll. Viewers are also invited to post less structured opinions on the designs, and on the poll itself, by clicking here.

El Toro Info Site report, September 12, 2005
Regional airport authority bills stall in legislature

California lawmakers worked well into the night Thursday and took final action on hundreds of bills that the governor has until Oct. 9 to sign or veto. There were no reports that two bills intended to create Southern California regional airport authorities - AB 1197 or SB 32 - were enacted during the end of session crush.

Any regional authority authorized during the next, 2006, session of the Legislature can not take effect before January 1, 2007.

As reported here in July, the fight over El Toro will peter out with no formal cease fire declaration. Victory is in hand but it will be hard to know exactly when it is finally, absolutely, irrevocably over.  

An airport is technically possible at El Toro for several more years until there is major construction on the former base. However, the end of this legislative session is seen by many as the final step in the political demise of El Toro airport. The prospects for resurrecting the project become less feasible as each such milestone is passed. 


El Toro Info Site report, September 11, 2005
911

Four years ago today, a vicious terrorist attack changed many aspects of how we live and do business. Probably no industry saw more dramatic change than commercial aviation. The impact on Southern California airports was particularly complex.

On the eve of September 11, 2001, Measure F still was the law in Orange County pending final appeals. Airport planning was restricted by the measure to completion of an El Toro - John Wayne Airport Environmental Impact Report which then would have required voter approval.

The pro-airport OC Board of Supervisors hoped to certify El Toro Airport EIR 573 quickly before the FAA released its regional air traffic analysis. The long-delayed FAA report was expected to - and eventually did - contain bad news for El Toro plans.

Even before 911, the aviation industry opposed operating two Orange County airports. Then the attack happened, causing a sharp and persistent contraction in the number of passengers wanting to fly. It crippled much of the industry.

Had El Toro been built, the unneeded airport would have severely burdened airlines with infrastructure costs. El Toro could have been a financial disaster for the struggling major carriers.

Los Angeles Business Journal, September 9, 2005 posted September 10
"Crowds Ease at LAX"

"Though domestic travel to Los Angeles International Airport was down this summer, it doesn't mean fewer visitors came to L.A. - it just means fewer visitors flew into LAX."

"Domestic travel to LAX fell 3.4 percent in June and 3.1 percent in July compared with the like periods last year, according to Los Angeles World Airports."

"One reason for the drop at LAX was that fewer flights were coming in. 'Domestic flights to LAX have been reduced due to the increase in fuel prices,' said LAWA spokeswoman Nancy Castles. 'That has helped the airlines ensure there are more people per plane, but it's reduced the number of seats available.'"

"Meanwhile, hotel occupancy in Los Angeles County reached 81.5 percent in July, up from 78.5 percent for the like period a year earlier, according to Smith Travel Research. June occupancy was also up from a year earlier."

"'I can't tell if they're flying to another airport and driving in, but I do know that a higher percentage of visitors are traveling by car,' said David Sheatsley, vice president of research for L.A. Inc., the Convention and Visitor's Bureau."

El Toro Info Site report, September 9, 2005
Public Has Opportunity to View and Provide Comment on Orange County Great Park Designs

[Excerpts from a Great Park Corp media release]  Beginning September 12, 2005, members of the public will have several opportunities to see and comment on the proposed designs for the Orange County Great Park. The designs were created by seven of the world’s leading landscape architecture firms as they compete to become the “Master Designer” of the Great Park.

An initial jury of leading architects, designers and academics picked seven finalists in the international competition. The Great Park board of directors approved the list in May. They submitted their designs for the Great Park on September 1, 2005.

A second jury design panel was assembled to evaluate the designs of the seven finalists. 

The public can review the designs beginning September 12 on the Internet at www.ocgp.org. In addition to viewing the designs, an online poll to determine popular preferences and to answer questions will be conducted from September 12 through September 25.

Beth Krom, Mayor, City of Irvine, said “For those unable to visit the Civic Center, the internet provides an accessible way review the designs and comment at any time, day or night.”


Irvine World News, September 8, 2005

Local comments

This week's Irvine World News includes articles about the Cal State Fullerton Campus at the former El Toro base, progress on cleaning the underground plume of contaminated water, and opinions regarding the community's response to Hurricane Katrina.

Click here.


El Toro Info Site report, September 7, 2005 - updated
Domestic passengers still avoiding LAX
 
July data shows foreign travel from LAX has rebounded and inched ahead of July 2000's pre-SARS and pre-911 level.

However, large numbers of domestic travelers are still avoiding LAX. Almost a half-million fewer domestic passengers used LAX this July than in the same month in 2000.

They flocked to other airports - principally Long Beach and John Wayne. John Wayne and Bob Hope Airports each had their busiest month ever. Long Beach had the second biggest month in its history, narrowly missing setting a record. Ontario experienced its busiest July and its second highest passenger count, second only to August 2001.


Today's LA Daily News reports that Los Angeles City Councilman "Dennis Zine said the airport [LAX] needs a great deal of work. 'Right now, it is not very customer-friendly,' Zine said. 'It takes too long to find parking. It takes too long to get through security and it takes too long to get to your gate.'"


El Toro Info Site report, September 6, 2005
Great Park Corp Board meets Thursday at 9:00 AM.
 
Click for the agenda which includes a presentation by Great Park Conservancy Director John Sullivan on his Conservancy-funded fact finding tour of a large selection of domestic and foreign parks.

The GPC Board will discuss a possible response to Hurricane Katrina.


El Toro Info Site report, September 4, 2005
Four years ago today

On September 4, 2001, the Board of Supervisors held a tumultuous meeting as the fight over El Toro Airport neared its climax. A reported 111 people - many bussed in from Inglewood - spoke at the BOS meeting before supervisors voted 3-2 to cut the airport project from its once planned 38 million annual passengers to 18 million in a doomed struggle to placate public opposition. Click here to view our archived stories.

The following day, volunteers from the Committee for Safe and Healthy Communities turned in petitions to the Registrar of Voters to place what became Measure W on the March 2002 ballot.


Long Beach Press-Telegram, September 3, 2005
"Last 22 [LB] airport slots allotted"

"The city has allocated its remaining commuter flight slots at Long Beach Airport to a startup headed by a former JetBlue Airways executive and to Delta Air Lines, officials said Friday."

"Under the city's noise ordinance, the airport has 25 commuter slots allotted, with longtime tenant America West Airlines operating the remaining three. There are 41 daily commercial flight slots, and all are spoken for."

"There still are no indications of where the new commuter service will take passengers but there has been speculation.  Cities that might fit the profile: Las Vegas, Sacramento, San Jose, Portland, Reno/Lake Tahoe, San Francisco, Salt Lake City and Seattle."

Website Editor: Data in the LAX Master Plan shows that one-third of all origin and destination passengers using the SCAG region's six airports are going to other airports within a 400 mile radius. Oakland was the most visited with Las Vegas in second place. Because commuter planes carry fewer people than those going longer distances, they account for more than one-third of the takeoffs and landings.


The new service at LGB is likely to draw passengers away from LAX and John Wayne.


El Toro Info Site report, September 2, 2005

AB 556 on Inactive List

 

Assembly Bill 556, dealing with airport noise impacts, was amended three times from its original form and passed in the State Assembly. In the Senate it was amended twice more and then placed on the Inactive List.

 

AB 556 originally sought to enact into law various restrictions, penalties, and public hearing requirements that would affect all airports with 65 CNEL impact areas including John Wayne. The amendments narrowed application of the restrictions to only LAX. Even after the changes, airport operators – most recently Bob Hope Airport Authority – objected to the bill’s precedents regarding avigation easements.

 

An Inactive List bill requires two days notice before it can be placed back on the 'active file'(agenda) for action by the legislative body. AB556 can still be heard in this legislative session as long as the author requests its 'activation' w/in two days of the last day of the Senate's 2005 session this month.


Irvine World News, September 1, 2005
"Applications pour in for Great Park board seat"
Runway party delayed

"Nearly two dozen people submitted applications for the vacant seat on the Great Park Corp. board of directors."

"The current board, comprised of all five City Council members and three members appointed at large, is expected to select its ninth member by October or November. The deadline to submit applications was Wednesday."

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A second piece in the IWN provides this regarding a runway party: "Lennar has been fielding inquiries about some sort of event open to the public to perhaps mark the start of work breaking up the runways. However, the Monday ceremony may have depleted the company's party budget. Another party 'would have to be collaborative,' said Bob Santos, Lennar's executive vice president. Lennar is considering such an event for spring."

Website Editor: The Great Park Corp budgeted $739,000 for Forde Mollrich's "Public Outreach" contract. It includes a $50,000 line item for a "Groundbreaking event". What better form of "public outreach" is there?

After speaking with Bob Santos and others at Lennar and the Great Park Corp and exchanging numerous emails with several insiders, I sense that something is at play other than budgetary restrictions. Initially, everyone said that a public event was contemplated for this fall. There may be problems connected with the runway demolition contract. We also are picking up whiffs of legal and political hesitancy. We will keep after this.


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