KEY OC DATE: Commissioned March 17, 1943.
OC SIGNIFICANCE: Following attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. military rapidly expanded training facilities along the West Coast. For more than five decades, El Toro served as the West Coast center of Marine Corps aviation, supporting operations during World War II, the Korean War, Vietnam War and Operation Desert Storm. At roughly 4,700 acres, El Toro was the largest Marine Corps air station on the West Coast and a major economic driver for OC. The base served as a hub for aviation innovation and hosted every U.S. president from the end of World War II through its decommissioning, including frequent visits by President Richard Nixon en route to his San Clemente “Western White House.” The base earned the Commander in Chief’s Installation Excellence Award in both 1985 and 1986, becoming the only military installation to receive the honor twice.
DEFINING MOMENT: Following closure in 1999, Orange County officials planned to convert the base into an international airport. After three contentious elections, voters eventually rejected the airport and chose to convert it to residential and retail as well as one of the nation’s largest urban parks. In 2005, developer Heritage Fields purchased the property and agreed to transfer 1,347 acres to the City of Irvine for what would become the Great Park. In 2016, Irvine-based Five Point Holdings was formed and it became the master developer of the Great Park Neighborhoods, surrounding the park. FivePoint CEO Emile Haddad led the redevelopment of much of the former El Toro base into the Great Park Neighborhoods.
BY THE NUMBERS: FivePoint’s 2,100-acre Great Park Neighborhoods plan calls for approximately 11,400 homes, including roughly 1,000 affordable units, surrounding the 1,347-acre Great Park.
QUOTABLE: “It’s a new chapter, and a new day.” — Emile Haddad
FUN FACT: El Toro’s “Flying Bull” patch was designed by Walt Disney Studios in 1944.
