“Plans
for former El Toro Marine base unveiled”
See what excessive PR spending buys
“Mayor Picks Airport
Commissioners”
Excessive
PR spending has negative potential
ALUC
gives up on
ALUC
wants evidence that
“Build
residences and they will come.”
SD
Airport Authority Board studies three proposed civilian
airport sites
Could
there still be an
“It’s
official:
Denny
Harris
An
email from
Today
is the day to declare victory
“Great
Day for the
“Agran Dispenses Great Pork”
“Massive PR spending will aid park chairman’s allies in upcoming election”Development
Agreement signing ceremony on July 12
“Grass-roots group
seeks to
ground JWA growth”
When's
the runway demolition party?
|
6
months ending |
2001 Millions of passengers |
2005 Millions of passengers |
Passenger increase (decrease) in millions. |
| Regional total for 6 airports |
43.25 |
43.00 |
(0.25) |
|
LAX |
32.68 |
29.90 |
(2.78) |
|
John Wayne (SNA) |
3.70 |
4.72 |
1.02 |
|
|
3.47 |
3.48 |
0.01 |
|
|
2.33 |
2.54 |
0.21 |
|
|
0.28 |
1.50 |
1.22 |
|
|
0.78 |
0.85 |
0.07 |
|
SNA, ONT, BUR, LBG, and PSP total |
10.57 |
13.10 |
2.53 |
El
Toro Info Site report, July 29, 2005
Today’s
GPC media release states: “The Orange County Great
Park Corporation today released its Community Visioning Report that
finds
county residents prefer that open space, public swimming pools, sports
facilities, cultural and community amenities, major outdoor theatre and
botanical gardens be considered in developing the Orange County Great
Park.
Larry Agran, the Corporation’s chairman, said, “This
important information will now be given to each of the seven design
firms
competing to be master designer of the
Website Editor: The Great Park
Corp budget for “design needs
assessment” is $385,000. Of this, the stakeholder conference and
various surveys
used for the visioning process - conducted between mid-May and late
June - were expected to cost $235,000.
OC Register, July
29, 2005 - updated
“Plans for former El Toro Marine base unveiled”
At Thursday’s meeting of the Great Park Corp board, “Without revealing
many
details, spokesmen from Lennar Communities said the plan calls for
three
districts on the privately owned portions of the land.”
”Developed along the park's periphery, a ‘lifelong learning’ district,
a
transit-oriented district and a park district each would offer ‘unique
portals’
into the 3,718-acre park, said Bob Santos, a Lennar spokesman.”
”The lifelong-learning district would offer education opportunities for
everyone from kindergartners to doctoral students. Lennar's
presentation
suggested that both private and public schools would be invited to
participate.”
”The transit-oriented district would include a mix of residential and
commercial uses.”
”The park district would include housing, a golf course and
"agricultural
uses" that the company did not specify.”
”Forde & Mollrich's contract with Irvine has come under scrutiny
because of
allegations that the consultant overcharged the city for a Great Park
brochure.
The board voted down a motion made by Christina Shea to put the
contract out to
competitive bidding.” Shea, anticipating that her motion would fail,
also requested disclosure of the identity of the brochure's mystery
printer whose name was whited out on an invoice.
Columnist Frank Mickadeit weighed in on the
F&M item which led to his use of the "weirdness" title in his
column. “Rather
than doing the prudent thing - which would have no other effect than to
make a
highly paid vendor more accountable - the board majority resorted to a
tactic
it has used in the past when doing the right thing might make life a
little
less comfortable for Agran's friends. It took turns recasting Shea's
allegations into something they aren't.”
Click
here for both articles.
Website Editor:
Better still, if you have the time, watch the meeting online
in streaming video and draw your own conclusions. Click
here and then scroll
down to the link for
See what excessive PR spending buys
The recent discussions about
When the County’s multi-million dollar PR blitz to sell the airport was halted by a judge in late 2001, the Just the Facts website shut down. Seemingly lost in cyberspace was $200,000 of work on the site which was online for less than a year.
We recently searched and rediscovered many of the
County’s
web pages. Among the recovered material was an elaborate animation of
the
flight paths for
For those with a high speed Internet connection, click here to
revisit Just the Facts – a public
information program of the El Toro Local
Redevelopment Authority and its 3D movie Welcome
to the
”Cities near Los Angeles International Airport want Mayor Antonio
Villaraigosa
to limit the number of passengers who use the airport and cancel plans
for an
off-site check-in center in exchange for dropping their lawsuits
against the
city.”
”A confidential 15-point settlement proposal obtained by The Times also
asks
the mayor to take more steps to lessen the effects of noise, air
pollution and
traffic; spread flights to airports around the region; and pay legal
costs for
the lawsuit.”
”Some attorneys emphasized that the proposal is very preliminary.
‘Those points
are very general and conceptual. They are not settlement points,’ said Barbara
Lichman, an attorney for the county,
”Airport-area residents said their settlement proposal would ask
”The mayor also remarked this week that his first priority for the
city's
airport agency is figuring out how to distribute burgeoning growth in
air
traffic among the region's airports.”
More
. . .
“Mayor Picks Airport
Commissioners”
“Mayor Antonio
Villaraigosa announced
his nominees to the civilian seven-member Airport Commission on Monday
and said
the group would focus on spreading air traffic among the region's
airports
while limiting growth at Los Angeles International.”
“He said that LAX is
critical to the
region's economy, but that he expected other airports to help serve a
projected
doubling of air traffic in the Southland by 2030.”
"’The people of
“Villaraigosa didn't
provide
specifics on how a regional air traffic system would work, saying only
that ‘we've
got plenty of ideas.’"
Website Editor: No mention of
OC Register editorial, July
25, 2005
”Public
relations mailer
suggests its board wants credit more than credibility for project.”
The Register takes a more moderate tone with today’s
editorial column in contrast to yesterday’s tasteless editorial
cartoon poking fun at the
“Certainly, the cost of the PR contracts and mailer should be
questioned. Questioned, too, should be the purpose of such a mailing.
The city doesn't have to convince anyone about anything at the park at
this point. Straightforward informational pieces can be produced for
far less. Some critics wonder whether the goal is to raise the profile
of the politicians charged with overseeing the park's development.”
El Toro Info Site report,
July 24, 2005 - updated
Excessive PR spending has negative potential
Some of us in the anti-airport camp are
uncomfortable with
the level of
The page 1 headline in the Register’s local section on Friday was “Mailers' cost questioned”. The paper should have written “Mailers' purpose questioned”. Whenever the subject comes up, we are asked “Why are we selling something that is already sold?”
As we look back on the County’s airport-at-any-cost campaign we see that over promoting and over spending had a negative impact on public support. The heavily funded “Just the Facts” PR campaign had an effect opposite of what was intended. It was widely lampooned as “Adjust the Facts”. The million dollar flight demonstration – a stunt intended to show that aircraft noise would not be a disturbance – turned into a PR nightmare for the airport cause.
El Toro Info
Site report, July 21, 2005 - updated July 22
ALUC
gives up on
This afternoon, more than six years after the last
plane
took off from
Until today, the commission majority insisted that
it had
the discretionary authority to review development projects in the
Over recent years, the commission majority repeatedly rejected arguments by its minority members that ALUC violated governing law by failing to revise the plan to match the intentions of the “airport’s” owner, the Navy.
Numerous projects in
Today's
unanimous vote came without debate. Former ALUC member Denny Harris was
praised for his contribution. Three members of the
audience spoke briefly in favor of the action. One long time
Website Editor: The
IWN focuses on the production cost of
the brochure. It fails to ask the question that bothered former
Great Park Corp
director Dick Sim. Why is so much money being spent to publicize
the
“Mayor
reaches out to opponents of LAX expansion”
”Signaling a dramatic shift toward a regional
approach to Southern California
air travel, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is set to bring in a new airport
commission and has opened confidential negotiations with opponents of
the $11
billion Los Angeles International Airport expansion plan.”
”Villaraigosa had campaigned on a promise to limit modernization to the
first
phase that involves realigning runways, improving traffic flow and
other
broadly supported measures.”
”Jan Chatten-Brown, the attorney representing the Alliance for a
Regional
Solution to Airport Congestion . . .
[said the mayor’s] ‘vision is very consistent with my client ...
to have
a real regional system to take the pressure off of LAX, and to provide
adequate,
safe and secure airline service, including at Palmdale and Ontario.’”
Click
for more . . .
El Toro Info Site report, July 19, 2005
ALUC
wants evidence that
The Airport Land Use Commission meets Thursday to ponder this resolution: “If the MCAS El Toro property has transferred and evidence of that transfer has been received by ALUC staff prior to [the] meeting, adopt the draft resolution confirming that the Airport Environs Land Use Plan is no longer applicable to the MCAS El Toro property or its environs.”
In addition, the ALUC will consider a request from
the City
of
After Aliso Viejo submitted a 36 page document for ALUC review, the commission's Executive Officer notes that if “evidence of [MCAS El Toro’s] transfer has been received by ALUC staff . . . the Commission no longer has jurisdiction to review the project.”
We hope the “evidence” is compelling enough to convince the commissioners to end the county’s longest running bureaucratic waste of time. Six years after MCAS El Toro closed, ALUC may conclude this week that it no longer is an airport.
Orange
“Build residences and they will come.”
OCBJ
Insider Editor Rick Reiff writes, “Watch for mid-rise and
high-rise housing to replace offices and industrial buildings [at the
“There’s an abundance of commercial space at the
adjacent
Irvine Spectrum; condos and apartments at the
“But traffic impacts of housing versus commercial will have to be kept in balance, as nobody dares to open Pandora’s box by tampering with the EIR. Bottom line, the Insider thinks the existing target of 3,500 residential units could double or triple...”
Website Editor: We
always expected the businessmen at Lennar
to extract some concessions for signing the development agreements that
were unilaterally
drafted by
We wouldn't mind a few
high rise apartments in the potential flight
paths, just in case politicians try to resurrect the idea of an airport
at
El Toro Info Site report, July 16, 2005
SD
Airport Authority Board studies three proposed civilian
airport sites
The Board of the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority requested further study of three preliminary concepts for proposed airport sites as part of the Airport Site Selection Program.
The three concepts include potential civilian,
non-military
sites in Campo in the southeast corner of the county, the
El Toro Info Site report, July 15, 2005
Could
there still be an
At the end of a week that saw several important
doors shut
on the aviation reuse of
Individuals as diverse as Larry Agran, Todd Spitzer, Tom Naughton and this website’s editor all suggested this week that a final door remains open somewhere, somehow, just a crack.
As we wrote below, this is a war that will peter out with no formal cease fire. Victory is in hand. But it will be difficult to know exactly when it is finally, absolutely, irrevocably over.
Read our special report, Is the airport dead yet? It summarizes and evaluates several factors that allow airport hopes to linger and what works against them.
Even the demolition of runways need not end the matter. Witness the fact that most major airports arise in large open spaces where there are no runways.
In the end, we conclude that barriers to a
commercial
airport at
“It’s
official:
The
local Irvine paper offers a smattering of late reports on Tuesday’s
events.
They include one pronouncement that this reporter did not hear from any
of the speakers at the celebration. “The city of
A sign to that effect was mounted behind President Bush when he spoke on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln on May 1, 2003 and announced the end of major combat operations in Iraq. We hope this reminder of the lingering insurgency was unintentional and is not prophetic about what lies ahead in the pro-airport campaign.
The split city council renewed Forde Mollrich's PR
contract by a 3-2 vote.
GPC Chairman Larry Agran graciously thanked former director Dick Sim Tuesday for his contribution and a help wanted notice is out for his replacement.
OC Register, July 13,
2005
"Military era ends
at El Toro"
"The sun rose on Heritage Fields today, it's first as a civilian."
"Lennar Corp. got the keys Tuesday to the old El Toro base, renamed
with a nod to the 56-year military presence on the 4,693-acre expanse
that was farmed before the armed forces decided the land would make a
fine airfield."
"Now the Miami-based builder begins in earnest the task of syncing
development of the museums, schools, shops, houses and other built
areas of the planned Great Park with the wilderness areas, athletic
fields and other public areas envisioned for the land."
"Breakup of the concrete runways, taxiways and aircraft parking aprons
is expected to begin later this year, which will put a symbolic end to
the decade-long, $100 million fight over whether the old base ought to
be converted into a commercial airport."
The Times reports, "Lennar, which formed a partnership called Heritage
Fields LLC to manage the project, said construction could start as
early as 2007, with the first homes going up for sale the year after."
"Some airport advocates cling to the hope that state legislation might
retrieve El Toro as an airport site."
"'I don't think it's over, it's still remotely possible,' said Tom
Naughton, president of the Airport Working Group, which labored to win
conversion of the base to an airport."
"Naughton is a member of a shrinking group. Closing escrow 'brings
closure to the airport issue,' says Bruce Nestande, a transportation
consultant who worked for years to make the airport happen" before
being hired by Irvine to do the opposite.
Website Editor: Several airport
opponents also sounded cautionary notes yesterday that vigilance
against pro-airport attempts is still necessary. Click
here for several print media stories on the transfer event. This
website's reports are below.
El Toro Info Site report, July 12, 2005
Denny Harris
On a day of celebration by anti-airport activists, we are sad to report the untimely death of Denny Harris. Denny won many friends in the movement during his years as a director of Taxpayers for Responsible Planning (TRP) and on the leadership committee of Citizens for Safe and Healthy Communities (CSHC) where he worked tirelessly for the passage of Measures F and W.
Denny was a long time member of the Airport Land Use Commission where, for years, he was the sole voice for rescinding the airport-related development restrictions around the former base. Those restrictions finally expired today with the transfer of the property from the federal government.
Denny is survived by his wife Karri, four adult and two teen age children.
A private family funeral is planned.
El Toro Info Site report, July 12, 2005
Runway party update
At the formal signing ceremony at
It took some checking around to determine that
Lennar will
organize any runway events. The planning has yet to take shape. I
caught up
with Rich Knowland, Lennar’s Division President and Diane Gaynor of the
company’s
marketing and communications consultants outside of
We have Lennar’s promise to do something this
summer and to keep
us posted on the planning. We will pass the word. One caution: The
corporate
minds are already worrying about the liability aspects of a crowd of
deliriously happy activists wildly swinging sledge hammers. But isn’t
that how
the
El Toro Info Site report, July 12, 2005
An
email from
We received the following congratulatory email this morning that we are pleased to share with all of you who are on the "team".
Len and Team --
Just to let you know
we received confirmation that escrow
has closed and that Heritage Fields LLC is now the proud owner of
You won the war!
David
----------------------------------------------------
David Haase
Realty Officer
Property Disposal
Division
U.S. General Services Administration
El Toro Info Site Report, July 12, 2005
Today is the day to declare victory
The long war over whether there will be a
commercial airport
at El Toro effectively ends today with the signing of two documents -
the
transfer of title to the property from the federal government to Lennar
and the
reconveyance of the central core of the former Marine airbase to the
City of
The fight for
This is a war that will peter out with no formal cease fire declaration, no armistice agreement, no unconditional surrender document and no peace treaty. While individuals may give up the fight, no general in command of the pro-airport side will step forward to hand us his sword.
A dwindling number of diehards still cling to rapidly vanishing airport hopes. Anything is theoretically possible. We have to maintain vigilance against attempts in Sacramento to undo the will of local voters. But, the possibilty has much less chance of success with each passing day like this one.
Today’s key events may be as much formal closure as we ever are likely to get.
The fight took the work of many talented professionals, the support of scores of local elected leaders and the energy of thousands of volunteers who devoted themselves to passing two countywide initiatives under the banner of “No Jets”.
El Toro Info Site report, July 11, 2005
“Great
Day for the
Viewers are reminded that the transfer of title
for El Toro
from the federal government to the City of
The historic event has had surprisingly little
advanced
publicity in the press. It has been noticed on the city's website and
here. One supervisor was unaware of the event until we asked if he was
attending.
The agenda for the City Council meeting that follows the reception and signing ceremony includes a report from Mayor Beth Krom on the transfer of the former airbase.
Renewal of the $600,000 strategic planning contract with
Forde & Mollrich, referred
to in the OC Weekly article below, is item 10.1.
“Narrow
focus is airport group's only drawback”
“AirFair, a
grass-roots group that includes former Newport
Beach City Councilwomen Evelyn Hart and Jean Watt, has one specific
goal: to
limit flights and passengers at John Wayne Airport. The group's motto:
‘10.8,
let's lock the gate.’"
“What concerns us, though, is AirFair's narrow
focus.”
“The issue of air traffic and passenger levels is
not unique
to
Website Editor: We agree that you
can't just say "no more". We believe the County and OCTA need to be
part of the solution. It is not just Newport's issue.
Click
for the entire editorial.
“Support
of JWA caps is a good cause”
Columnist
Steve Smith writes, “To those who tried in vain to
get an airport built in El Toro, the support of caps at
“If what you truly wanted all along is less impact
at John
Wayne, you will need all the help you can get [from the
“My position has been consistent from day one. I
did not
want an airport at
“In exchange for this, I am willing to drive to
Website Editor: It’s a
moderate
approach, unlike that of the AWG, but loses credibility with that last
sentence.
The folks around
“Agran Dispenses Great Pork”
“Massive PR spending
will aid park chairman’s allies in
upcoming election”
The OC Weekly’s News and Investigations Editor, Scott Moxley writes,
“Using
their positions on the board that controls lucrative Orange County
Great Park
construction contracts, Agran and his City Council allies have cobbled
together
deals that will put the county’s most powerful political consulting
firm to
work on a PR campaign designed to highlight the ‘successes’ of what
Agran calls
‘the Great Park Team.’”
”With fellow Democrats Beth Krom and Sukhee Kang, Agran is set next
week to
approve the final stages of a $1,339,000 no-bid deal with the political
firm of
Forde and Mollrich.”
“Of the $1.4
million in [Great Park Corp] PR spending [this
year], the park board will give the firm at least $739,000. But Agran
has been
working secretly to renew for another year the firm’s
$600,000-per-year,
city-funded retainer, which expires this month. As it’s planned, this
new
no-bid contract would allow the firm to take over a portion of the
city’s
public information office. Discussions have also included giving Forde
and
Mollrich an additional fee equal to 15 percent of the entire Great Park
PR
budget.”
”Agran hopes to thwart any public backlash over the generous
contracting by
burying debate over the new Forde and Mollrich deal in a July 12 City
Council
meeting that one city official described as a ‘heavily orchestrated
celebration’
of the park’s sale to homebuilder Lennar.”
El Toro Info Site report, July 7, 2005
Development Agreement signing ceremony on July 12
Lennar Corporation will execute the Development
Agreements
between Heritage Fields, LLC and the City of
The event will be at the
The signing of the Development Agreements is a
crucial step
in
Under the federal government’s terms of the sale, the purchaser of the land is allowed 30 days after close of escrow to complete the agreements which are optional. Lennar’s decision to sign immediately upon the transfer of title undercuts any last ditch efforts by airport diehards.
Theoretically, an
entity could have purchased the base at
auction and not signed the agreements. In that case, development
would be
limited to a “Base Plan” that authorizes
principally park, open space and similar uses as exist now and
are proscribed
by Measure W. It
is the development agreement’s “Overlay
Plan” that authorizes a more intensive and economically productive
mix of residential, commercial, industrial, recreational,
institutional, park
and open space uses.
Until recently, airport
opponents nursed private concerns that a deep pockets purchaser could
buy El
Toro, not sign the agreements, give
Daily Pilot, July 7, 2005 - revised
“Grass-roots group
seeks to
ground JWA growth”
“A
grass-roots group aiming to block any future expansion at
“The
Costa Mesa City Council on Tuesday approved a resolution supporting
AirFair . . . AirFair's message is simple: no more expansion of
flights,
passengers or facilities at
“AirFair
has support from a number of homeowners' associations and is
now approaching cities in the airport corridor, but there are no plans
to
approach higher authorities or propose a solution to
“The
City of
Website Editor: Until the County has
studied the eventual aviation needs of its residents, and determined
how they will access air transportation, it is both wasteful and unwise
to consider any deal with Newport Beach that
binds the hands of future Boards of Supervisors.
El Toro Info Site report,
July 6, 2005 - updated 9:35 AM
When's the runway demolition party?
The Great Park Corp website’s calendar of upcoming events doesn’t list the transfer of the property – scheduled for July 12 – or any celebration of any sort. The Great Park Conservancy’s website also is mute regarding the close of the sale or any public rejoicing. The only activity posted is a reception for the architectural firms competing for the job of park designer.
This morning, we spoke with Marsha Burgess, Manager
of Communications & Public Relations in the Irvine City Manager's Office, who advised that
there will be a public reception marking the transfer at Irvine City
Hall prior
to the July 12 4:00 PM City Council meeting. The Council meeting agenda
will
include
the signing of the Development Agreement between Lennar and the Great
Park
Corp.
The public celebration on the base, and ceremonial runway demolition will take a while to organize on the scale that it deserves. Stay tuned.
El Toro Info Site
report, July 2, 2005
On July 2, 1999, this website
posted the story, headlined: El Toro Marine Base Closed. What now?
After
50 years of honorable service to our country, MCAS El Toro closes
today. The flags come down during ceremonies this morning.
The big
question is “What now?” Airport advocates hoped to start commercial
cargo flights from the base this month, and to move FedEx and UPS out
of John Wayne, but were shot down on those plans.
The
runways will go quiet. The county says the delay will be until Spring
of 2000. However, airport opponents, who helped to cause the delay, are
working to keep planes from ever again flying from