Money-Hungry Bunny Pushes Airport Plans

ORANGE COUNTY, CA-If you’re a pro-development group that wants to build an airport on land that neighboring homeowners want to turn into a park, what kind of TV advertisement would you run to get your side of the argument across? A group here hopes that an ad featuring a money-munching bunny will do the trick.

The ad, which began running on a local cable-TV station earlier this week, is backed by a group of cities and business interests that want to convert the closed El Toro Marine Base in South County into a commercial airport. Studies have suggested the airport would create billions of dollars in additional tax revenue over the years, generate tens of thousands of jobs, and immediately take some of the pressure off John Wayne International Airport in Irvine—-the fast-growing county’s only major air facility.

Many local residents, however, want to turn the shuttered base into a giant recreation facility that would be called Great Park. Just last week, park supporters began circulating a ballot initiative that would change most of El Toro’s zoning from airport use to open-space use.