Scrap the idea of having an up-or-down referendum on El Toro Airport this fall. I understand the attraction of washing your hands of this whole messy, wrenching, divisive affair by leaving it to a plebiscite. It would be the easy way out,if 50% plus one of the voters give thumbs down, the El Toro airport plan is history. If 50% plus one say yes to the plan, then you’ve gained cover from the anti-airport onslaught.
But it would be more than the easy way out,it would be a cop out. El Toro is likely the single biggest issue any of you will ever deal with in your political lives. Give it the deliberation it deserves.
The problem with public opinion on this issue is that it changes; what a majority of voters thought when they passed the pro-airport Measure A six years ago, or when they passed the anti-airport Measure F three months ago, or what they will think this November or the November after that has a lot to do with shifting currents. It’s your job, as statesmen, to look beyond the surface currents, to the underlying merits.
Before throwing the airport to the mercies of the electorate again, why not try a new approach (pun possibly intended). There is talk of alternative flight routes, and also talk of a drastically scaled-down airport plan (in this vein, see yours truly’s four-step program for saving the airport, March 20 issue), and long-overdue talk about a more open and competent planning process.
There are other reasons not to rush to ballot-box judgment. Give the electorate some time to mull over the non-airport alternatives. I suspect the public will reject the Millennium Plan once its negative impacts (including tax expenditures) are comprehended, but in any case, allow time for a full airing.
Besides, neither side in this debate looks ready to field its starting team right now. The pro-airport side is moving to replace CEO Jan Mittermeier as airport czar, which promises fireworks, and the anti-airport side looks ready to split over Irvine’s “great park” idea.
My own suspicion is that a part of the airport opposition has been motivated by a desire to discourage anything from happening at the former Marine base,no to an airport, no to a Millennium plan, yes to letting weeds grow.
That strategy could work for a nice, long while, too, until the federal government throws its weight behind one initiative or another,an airport, perhaps, or a university campus, or a nature preserve, or an auction for developers.
Airport proponents have assumed such delay works against an airport. And to the extent it has squelched cargo flights and created a “new reality” of a placid field where once a roaring military base existed, they’re correct. But in the wake of Measure F, and an increasing public perception that the idea of an airport at El Toro is hopeless, delay could become the airport’s friend.
Measure F doesn’t repeal the airport plan, it just throws up a roadblock; Measure A’s airport zoning remains intact.
Patience, please. Hunker down. Let the fur fly.
