House OKs Land Swap With County That Will Provide Base Housing

The House Monday voted to approved an amendment by Rep. Robert E. Badham (R-Newport Beach) that will allow the county to exchange 41 acres near Tustin Marine Corps Air Station for 137 acres the military owns at Mile Square Park in Fountain Valley.

The approval is the first step in the Marine Corps’ plan to build new family residential units to alleviate a housing shortage at the base. The Senate is expected to approve the measure later, which would end a five-year effort by the Marine Corps to find new land for housing.

In 1973, the Navy deeded 507 of the 644 acres at Mile Square Park to the county. The remaining 137 acres at the heart of the expansive park had been used as a helicopter landing field.

Badham said in a statement released in Washington after the House approved the measure by voice vote that the agreement will benefit both the Marine Corps and the county.

“The Marine Corps desperately needs more housing, and, as the population of our county balloons, we could certainly use some more park facilities,” Badham said.

Capt. Joanne Schilling, spokeswoman for the air station, said the 41 acres the Marine Corps will acquire are included in two parcels. One is a 21-acre parcel next to existing family housing on the northeast corner of the base, and a 20-acre parcel is just south of the base, along the Peter’s Canyon Channel and Barranca Parkway.

The additional housing is critical for the Marine Corps, Schilling said, because the price of off-base rental property in Orange County forces many young Marines to leave their families behind while completing their tours here.

“We don’t know the precise number of new units we will be building,” Schilling said. “That will depend on how big they will be. I would say that at least 200 new units will be constructed.”

Paul Wilkinson, an aide to Badham, said the Marine Corps had tried since 1982 to find a suitable site to swap for the Mile Square Park property. He said that one location had been found in Fountain Valley a few years ago but that negotiations between the county and the Marine Corps “bogged down and nothing came of it.”