Great Park

More than 100,000 people have ascended skyward in Irvine's balloon ride to savor aerial views of Orange County, take panoramic photographs and even make the occasional marriage proposal. But imagine the shock the pilot of the Great Park balloon must have felt just before 9 p.m. Sunday when, high above the ground, the gondola shook and a young man parachuted out. The orange-hued helium balloon had ascended to a height of 330 feet when one of the 12 passengers climbed up and out of the netting enclosing the gondola, unfurled a hidden parachute, threw it ahead of him and jumped out, said Irvine city spokesman Craig Reem.

INDIO, Calif. - In one corner stands a music promoter that made its mark in L.A.'s punk scene, throwing gritty events at warehouses and velodromes, giving voice to songs like "Beat Me Senseless" and "I Kill Children" before birthing an annual desert bacchanal that might be the world's most successful music festival. In the other corner is the master-planned community that put the O.C. in Orange County, where safety, schooling and temperance are hallmarks and a homeowners association can overrule one's choice of house paint.

The housing boom may be bust and the economy may be circling the drain, but that hasn't stopped the design of Orange County's Great Park from being completed. Even the smallest detail is intricately considered in the extensive plans for the Irvine park. A model shows visitors at the northwest entrance parked on dirt roads flanked by jagged slabs of recycled concrete that look almost native to the environment. Shade structures replicate the look of floating clouds.

Construction of a massive new project in Irvine consisting of nearly 5,000 homes and 1.2 million square feet of commercial space is underway, according to the company in charge of the effort. FivePoint Communities Management Inc. broke ground on the Great Park Neighborhoods project Tuesday. The development sits on the site of the former El Toro Marine Corps Air Station. Irvine approved the first phase of the construction last year. "With today's groundbreaking, we are moving forward with the first phase of Great Park Neighborhoods.

Re "Irvine's Great Park hasn't exactly earned its name," April 12 I read with a great deal of shock your story about the lack of progress on the Great Park at El Toro Marine base. I was shocked that anyone really believed that the park would happen in the first place. I also was shocked that the shortsighted attitude of the people in south Orange County deprived us of a badly needed international airport. We can look forward to years of idle property and further hopeless congestion in airports throughout Southern California.

Over the past two years, Orange County residents have received a number of mailings and heard statements proposing a "Great Park" at the site of the former El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

Prisoners and panhandlers best describe who will be found at Irvine's so-called Great Park. I was perusing the environmental impact report for this boondoggle, and here are some of my findings: First, there is the James A. Musick jail, a minimum-security facility that houses 1,250 inmates. It would be transformed into a maximum-security facility, with a capacity of 7,584 inmates! Then, there are homeless facilities -- a grand total of 155 housing units, plus 272,302 square feet of building space set aside for nine providers of services to the homeless.

Irvine's political leaders are acknowledging what many Orange County residents already suspected: It will take a huge pile of money to build a really Great Park at the former El Toro Marine base, and another mountain of green to maintain it. And it's clear that city officials don't know where all of the money will come from. Critics fume that the funding gap is further proof that the Great Park was never more than a ploy to bury plans for a commercial airport at El Toro.

For residents confused by the barrage of information, claims and counterclaims by the factions fighting over the future of the abandoned Marine Corps air base at El Toro, the county auditor has added some needed independent analysis to the mix.

Re "Great Park Board Likely to Face Limits," Aug. 28: Having spoken at the Aug. 26 Irvine City Council meeting, I would like to commend the council for addressing legitimate concerns raised by Orange County supervisors regarding the proposed Great Park board's seeming ability to operate outside public accountability laws. If the Great Park is truly to be for all the people of Orange County, as in the spirit of Measure W passed by Orange County voters last year, the Great Park board of directors must be accountable to and representative of all the people.

Courting more than the vote Re "What makes them stray?" Opinion, May 22 Frank Farley focuses on sexual philandering by prominent politicians. While defining a "Type T personality" profile that fits these individuals, he tries to answer this question: "So why do we keep electing such people?" If, as Farley says, people admire their charisma and risk-taking behavior but often overlook their infidelities and narcissism, are we to accept his characterization of the United States "to some extent as a Type T nation, tilting in the risk-taking direction"?

In Southern California, there's nothing like a very large piece of real estate to cause discord. And the former El Toro Marine Corps Air Station is nothing if not a large piece of real estate. Ever since the military decided to unload the base in the 1990s, Orange County residents have been bickering over what to do with the land, and the decision in 2005 to turn it into the Great Park hasn't ended the conflict. But first the history. Even before the military moved out, county residents divided into two bitterly opposing camps: those who supported using the site for a commercial airport and those who envisioned it as a vast and impressive park.

The private developer partnering with the city of Irvine to build its Great Park project said that he has the financing to move forward ? more than two years after the housing bust and economic crisis put the project on hold. FOR THE RECORD: Irvine project: An article in the Jan. 10 Business section about private developer FivePoint Communities Inc.'s securing additional financing to move forward with a housing project said construction of homes at the Great Park would begin next year; in fact, construction at the Orange County Great Park is expected to begin in 2013.

Bill Greenhouse spent nine months at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station in 1943. Now 95, the former Marine master sergeant remembers the area well ? it was full of eucalyptus trees and orange groves. Today, the planes are long gone. All that's left of the station is a hangar. The property has become the sprawling Orange County Great Park. But Greenhouse and about 80 other veterans and their families celebrated their memories of the station Saturday afternoon as part of a yearly El Toro Homecoming.

More than 100,000 people have ascended skyward in Irvine's balloon ride to savor aerial views of Orange County, take panoramic photographs and even make the occasional marriage proposal. But imagine the shock the pilot of the Great Park balloon must have felt just before 9 p.m. Sunday when, high above the ground, the gondola shook and a young man parachuted out. The orange-hued helium balloon had ascended to a height of 330 feet when one of the 12 passengers climbed up and out of the netting enclosing the gondola, unfurled a hidden parachute, threw it ahead of him and jumped out, said Irvine city spokesman Craig Reem.

The Orange County Great Park's main attraction -- a giant helium balloon ride -- has seen more colorful days. Two years out in the sun on an old airfield in Irvine has faded the painted surface of the giant balloon from a vibrant orange to a pale peach. So the vessel is being outfitted with a bright-new envelope shipped in from France, which was inflated last week so it can once again carry visitors in a gondola 400 feet into the air. It will take a crew of 30 workers five days to replace the balloon and pump it full of helium, officials say. This time around, the city is using a dye-impregnated fabric with UV-protected pigment, which is expected to retain its radiant orange hue for at least five years.

The Irvine City Council is considering placing the management of the proposed Great Park at the former El Toro Marine base in the hands of an unelected and unaccountable private corporation. While I support the notion of a nonprofit group managing the museums and other benefits associated with the Great Park, governing this regional public asset should be done in a way that is accountable to all Orange County residents. I have proposed to Irvine Mayor Larry Agran and his colleagues that this corporation be subject to California laws governing open meetings, full financial disclosure, public records and public bidding on construction of park facilities.

Irvine entrepreneur Mitchell Goldstone drew national attention in February when he protested a Grammy Awards appearance by rapper Eminem in commercials urging tolerance. Now he is taking a stand on a local issue: Irvine's proposal for a large urban park, rather than an international airport, at the former El Toro base. Beginning today, voters wishing to sign a petition to place the "Great Park" initiative on the March ballot can do so at Goldstone's 30 Minute Photos in Irvine.

The first memory Emile Haddad has of what would become the site of the Orange County Great Park and the location of his biggest development project dates from 1986, not long after he and his family fled their home in Lebanon. Then it was still the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, and as he tried to make a phone call from the roadside the quiet was shattered by the sound of an F/A-18 fighter jet screaming overhead. Haddad, 51, had grown up amid the nearly constant bloodshed of a sectarian Beirut, and his first instinct was to hit the ground.

After years of ambitious planning, the Orange County Great Park will take shape -- at least initially -- as a far more modest spread than what supporters once vowed would rank among America's great municipal parks. On Tuesday, the Irvine City Council voted 3 to 2 to spend $65.5 million over the next three to five years on turning a western flank of the old El Toro Marine Base into parkland. The city will use the money to transform about 225 acres of the base into sprawling lawns, exhibition space, sports fields, farmland, citrus groves and a wildlife corridor.