Countywide : Airport Initiative Stirs Heated Debate

With a month to go before election day, opponents and backers of a commercial airport at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station traded charges Friday during a forum taped at the KOCE-TV studios in Huntington Beach.

The forum on Measure A, a countywide initiative on the Nov. 8 ballot that seeks a General Plan amendment to build an airport at El Toro, was supposed to last a half hour. But the four panelists kept the heated exchange going after the cameras were turned off, accusing one another of distorting the facts.

Businessman and developer George Argyros and Garden Grove City Councilman Mark Leyes spoke in favor of Measure A. Mission Viejo Mayor Susan Withrow and William Kogerman, co-chairman of Taxpayers for Responsible Planning, spoke against the initiative.

Argyros and Leyes said that converting El Toro into a commercial airport after the military pulls out at the end of the decade would create thousands of jobs and make Orange County more competitive in the world economy.

“This is a wonderful opportunity. This is a chance to decide on the future,” Argyros said.

Withrow and Kogerman strongly disagreed, saying it would cost billions of tax dollars to build an air cargo facility at El Toro. Kogerman said passage of Measure A would “short-circuit” the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority, a county panel already working to craft a redevelopment plan for the base.

“The viability of the whole issue has to be considered through the (county planning) process,” Kogerman said.

Leyes countered that the planning authority is “biased” in favor of South County cities that oppose an airport because of noise, traffic and pollution concerns. He said Measure A gives all voters a chance to decide the issue.

The forum will be broadcast on KOCE-TV Oct. 26 at 6:30 p.m. and Oct. 27 at 10 p.m.