Countywide : North County Cities Want El Toro Voice

Fearing they will be left out of planning for the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station site’s future, a growing number of North County cities are warning the Board of Supervisors that they will oppose any plan that places most of the power in the hands of South County cities.

Several North County elected officials plan meetings over the next several days with their supervisors to push for a base redevelopment agency proposed by Anaheim that would give the decision-making authority to the five supervisors, Irvine and city representatives from each of the five supervisorial districts.

The meetings follow a letter sent to the board late last week and signed by the mayors of Santa Ana, Anaheim, Garden Grove, Westminster, Newport Beach, Huntington Beach and Fullerton, calling for a conversion process that “allows every city in Orange County a meaningful opportunity to participate in an unbiased process for the reuse of El Toro.”

The Los Alamitos City Council agreed Monday to sign the letter and Stanton officials took a similar vote Tuesday. Orange officials were deciding Tuesday night whether to seek a seat on whatever executive board is eventually formed. Other North County cities are being asked to add their names to the letter.

“I think the general feeling we’ve seen with the North County governments is that we need to have a voice in how the El Toro facility is reused,” Los Alamitos Councilwoman Alice Jempsa said of the 4,700-acre base that will close in four to six years. “What happens will impact the entire county.”

Garden Grove Councilman Mark Leyes said that so far, the North County cities “are being systematically excluded from the reuse planning process.”

The new push comes as the county and South County cities--negotiating behind closed doors--appear to be close to a compromise agreement.

Although the county’s proposal for shared authority with South County cities was described Tuesday as “fluid,” the plan put forth late last week essentially gave South County at least 11 of 17 votes.

Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez, recently stepping up his role in the El Toro negotiations, declined to comment on the county plan, saying that negotiations were continuing and the proposal was liable to change. Officials close to the negotiations said an agreement could be reached before Tuesday’s supervisors meeting.

Even though the growing North County cities coalition opposes giving South County most of the power, Vasquez said he was confident that officials countywide would soon reach “some common ground.”