After more than a decade of developer schemes, political battles, and ballot measures, the work of transforming the Great Park's 125-acre "ARDA" site on the former El Toro Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) began in earnest on Tuesday, May 23rd. At the sound of an air horn at 10:50am, demolition of abandoned military base buildings got underway at the future site of the Veterans Memorial Park & Gardens.

The moment was a culmination for Councilmember Larry Agran and many of the 250 people who gathered on the site for the groundbreaking ceremony. Present were veterans of not only our nation’s military, but also of the political battles and initiative campaigns that first overturned a County plan to put an international airport at the former base and then successfully locked-in the Veterans Memorial Park & Gardens as part of the Great Park.

Councilmember Mike Carroll — who also serves as Chair of the Great Park Board of Directors — paid tribute to the “intense grassroots campaign to block the creation of an international airport” and called the day “an important milestone” in the development of a truly Great Park “driven entirely by the community.”