Mailbag:

Orange County must expand its air service. The county needs more daily flights, but John Wayne cannot handle the expanded air traffic alone with its limited 500 acres of land.

For six years, residents have been promised a tax-free “Great Park” in the location of the closed 4,700-acre El Toro Air Base. The Great Park was proposed only so the closed air base would not be developed into a 24-hour international airport. Over the last six years, a staff of 20 has spent nearly $200 million, and all they have to show for it is a carnival ride called the “great park balloon” and a visitor’s center.

The total price tag for this park is expected to be greater than $1 billion, to be offset partially by the development fees from homebuilder Lennar Corporation when it builds 9,000-plus homes on part of the site.

At this time, Lennar is trying to keep itself in business dealing with the current real estate slowdown (Lennar Corp. has lost almost 75%, or $7 billion, of its market capitalization since purchasing the land in 2005). It doesn’t look like that development fee money will be coming any time soon, if ever.

In reality, Orange County needs more employers and businesses to create jobs for the residents who already live here.

Over the last 25 years it has been a classic NIMBY (not in my back yard) battle involving North Orange County, where John Wayne Airport is located, and South Orange County, where the closed El Toro Air Base is located. It’s time for the north and south to unite for the good of all residents and to solve this air transportation problem. Instead of wishing for a 24-hour John Wayne Airport and a Great Park that will never get built, how about building an AirPark?

The Orange County AirPark would be a 4,700-acre zone that includes a 3,300-acre park and open space, 900-acre business and multipurpose community center, and a 500-acre regional airport. The key to making this work is having the airport revenue and retail/commercial development fees help finance it.

The key is the 500-acre El Toro airport will be the exact same size with the exact same restrictions as John Wayne. The hours of operation, number of gates, types of aircraft and yearly passenger count would be the same as John Wayne. The only advantage El Toro would have is that it would be the county’s first “green” airport in keeping with the AirPark’s “environmentally cooperative” theme.