Voters killed El Toro airport 10 years ago today

1968: President Lyndon B. Johnson meets Marines departing El Toro Marine Corps Air Station for Vietnam. During the 1960s, many U.S. Marines left for and returned from the war at El Toro.
2009: Lt. Col. Ernest A. Pat Buford (retired) of Laguna Woods gets a 400-foot-high sunset view of the former El Toro Marine Corps air base from the Great Park balloon. The fighter pilot was stationed at El Toro Marine Corps air base from 1949 to 1961.
2002: Ann Kogerman, wife of Bill Kogerman, chairman of the anti-airport group Safe and Healthy Communities, has a tearful moment after Bill Kogerman dedicated the Measure W victory to her.
2002: Aliso Viejo Councilman Greg Ficke, right, and Laguna Niguel Councilwoman Linda Lindholm react to the count of votes showing Measure W winning.
2002: Write-in candidate John Adams celebrates, with Supervisor Todd Spitzer, early poll results that show Measure W winning. Supporters of measure W, the anti-airport, pro-park initiative, celebrated with hundreds of other supporters gathered at a Holiday Inn in Laguna Hills.
2002: Leonard Kranser of Dana Point was the editor of the anti-airport website eltoroairport.org. He was an active volunteer in the cause, showing up at all sorts of meetings to wage war against an El Toro airport. He wrote a book called "Internet for Activists."
1999: After official orders were read closing the El Toro and Tustin Marine bases, a Corsair fighter lifts off from a touch-and-go landing. After 56 years, the base was no longer a Marine Corps facility.
2002: Giant mobile billboards greet supporters of measure W, the anti-airport, pro-park initiative, at the entrance of the Holiday Inn in Laguna Hills during a victory party. The ballot initiative passed with 58 percent of the vote.
1999: KC-130 transports rev up and taxi as Marine Aerial Refuler Transport Squadron 352 departs the soon-to-be-shut-down El Toro Marine Corps Air Station for the last time enroute to its new home at Miramar Naval Air Station in San Diego.
1998: Students from Vernie Jones Day camp in Rancho Santa Margarita wave to an F/A-18 as it taxis to the runway at El Toro. They were part of the last public tour of the base as it phased into shut-down.
1993: El Toro is designated to close by the Base Realignment and Closure Commission. The Orange County Board of Supervisors proposes to oversee El Toro base-closure planning with an advisory council made up of cities, businesses and community interests. The process is meant to help the county present a unified front in working with the Navy. Initial reaction is optimistic, but it doesn't last long as cities and the county fight over the fate of the base.
1975: Vietnamese refugees arrive at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station on April 30, the day Saigon fell. During the 1960s, many US Marines left for and returned from Vietnam at El Toro.
1974: President Richard Nixon with wife Pat waves after arriving at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station. While the base was active, all U.S. presidents in the post-WWII era landed at this airfield in Air Force One.
2012: The mommy train takes off at the Great Park in Irvine Sunday. Tisa Read of Lake Forest was enjoying the day with her children Christopher, 4, at left, and Nicholas, 2, as the balloon hovered in the background.
1961: A formation of four VMA-121 A-4C Skyhawks fly over El Toro Marine Corps Air Station. The Marine Corps' air station in Miami had closed three years earlier, which brought the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing to El Toro.
1945: F4U Corsairs stationed at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station near what is now Irvine fly on a practice mission over what is now Rancho Santa Margarita. El Toro remained the central headquarters for Marine Corps aviation on the West Coast until it closed in 1999.
1943: El Toro Marine Corps Air Station was built during World War II on about 4,000 acres acquired for $100,000 from Irvine Ranch Corp., a precursor to The Irvine Co. The dedication ceremony, shown here, was marred by the death of 1Lt. Matthew H. Kennedy. The veteran pilot was part of a nine-plane demonstration when he crashed within 500 yards of a bus loaded with civilian sightseers, according to MilitaryMuseum.org
2010: Once used as a platform to display an full-size Marine aircraft, this structure off of Pusan Way was all that remained at the turn of the decade.
2012: Trent Peters and his nephew Cole Peters, 7, jostle for the soccer ball that seems to mimic the color of the Great Park balloon.
2012: Jason Van Auker of Irvine, maneuvers his kite in front of the balloon at the Great Park, where he was with his family Sunday.
2012: The iconic Great Park balloon takes passengers for a ride Sunday during a perfect sunny day. It has been 10 years since Measure W stopped development of a commercial airport at El Toro Marine air base, making way for the Great Park.
2012: Nick Casassa and his dad, Tony, of Irvine play a game of Frisbee golf while the Great Park balloon appears larger than life in the background Sunday.
2012: A classic Thunderbird is on display at the Great Park car show in Irvine as the iconic balloon rises in the background. It has been 10 years since Measure W stopped development of a commercial airport at El Toro Marine air base making way for the Great Park.
2012: Yuka and Kojo Samkamoto capture a picture-perfect moment with their Boston terrier, Pom, at the Great Park car show Sunday. It is the 10-year anniversary of Measure W, which was the final blow in the political fight to stop development of a commercial airport at El Toro Marine air base.
2012: Bicyclists cruise around the Great Park in Irvine as the balloon floats in the background.

By Brian Martin | bmartin@scng.com | Orange County Register

PUBLISHED: March 5, 2012 at 5:28 p.m.

IRVINE – What is becoming a large regional park, neighborhoods, businesses and offices at the old El Toro Marine base was once on track to become a large international airport.

But 10 years ago today, on March 5, 2002, the passage of Measure W in effect killed the airport.

Now, more than 10,000 homes and a 1,347-acre park are planned for the former 4,682-acre El Toro Marine Corps Air Station. See historical photos of El Toro.

The vote was the climax of a divisive and intense decade-long political and legal battle about the future of the military base.

The fight, in essence, pitted a pro-airport coalition of county government, north county residents and the city of Newport Beach against south county residents who passionately opposed the airport with a grass-roots campaign, their supportive city governments and Irvine politician Larry Agran.

Pro-airport arguments included that it would provide and promote jobs and long-term economic strength for the county in an increasingly global marketplace. Anti-airport arguments included that it would cause too much noise and air pollution, and that there would not be enough travel demand to sustain it.

TURNING THE TIDE

Despite two previous votes in favor of the airport and plenty of momentum on their side, proponents of the project began to lose public support in the late 1990s.

“It was just wrong of them to try to push a huge international airport into the heart of a residential county with a divided 3-2 county supervisor vote,” said Leonard Kranser, one of the anti-airport citizen activists involved in the struggle. The former business owner had just retired to Dana Point when he heard about the airport plans. “With air travel volume as low as it is now, the airport would have been a financial disaster for the county,” he said.

According to Kranser, the tide turned in March of 2000, when voters approved Measure F. That initiative, placed on the ballot by volunteers who gathered 192,000 signatures, created a rule requiring approval from two-thirds of voters before constructing or expanding a commercial airport, toxic waste dump or large prison within a half-mile of any homes. The initiative passed with a whopping 67 percent to 33 percent margin.

A judge later invalidated Measure F, saying it unconstitutionally interfered with the Board of Supervisors’ authority. But it sapped energy from the pro-airport movement, Kranser said.

SETTLING THE ISSUE

The same people who pushed Measure F pushed Measure W, and they sued to stop the county from spending any public funds on campaigning against the initiative.

Voters approved Measure W – the Orange County Central Park and Nature Preserve Initiative – by a significant 58 percent majority. It changed the zoning of the area from allowing an airport to less intensive uses. After the Navy auctioned off 3,718 acres to developer Lennar Corp. for $650 million, the city of Irvine annexed the area, driving the final nail into the airport’s coffin.

Airport proponents said they respect the will of the voters but still believe in the justice of their cause.

“The south county folks were better organized,” said Tom Naughton, a retired engineer and former president of the Airport Working Group. “I understand why they were against it. They would have been more personally affected by the airport than folks in north county. But they were only looking at the next 10 to 20 years. If you look at the next 40 to 50 years, an airport would have been a better use of the land for the people of Orange County.”

Contact the writer: bmartinez@ocregister.com