Group Gains an Ally in Fight to Protect Pendleton From Orange County’s Sprawl

An attempt by a volunteer urban-planning and environmental group to protect Camp Pendleton from private development, both for the sake of wildlife there and so it will continue to be a buffer against Orange County’s suburban sprawl, has won at least one supporter in Congress.

Rep. Jim Bates (D-San Diego) has said he will introduce legislation to preserve the area as open space by requiring that, “if and when the United States Marine Corps ever vacates” any or all of the 125,000-acre base, the land will remain under federal control and be dedicated as a national park or wildlife preserve for several endangered species.

However, the proposal was met with apprehension from the Marine Corps and was criticized by another member of San Diego’s delegation in Washington, who believes it would be counterproductive to the goal of keeping the base under federal ownership.

Packard Opposes Bill

Rep. Ron Packard (R-Carlsbad), whose district includes the sprawling base, said through a spokesman that he opposes Bates’ bill because of its mere suggestion that Camp Pendleton might one day be abandoned by the military.

Packard “doesn’t feel there’s any need for this kind of legislation,” said David Coggin, his chief of staff. “He has long said that Camp Pendleton will be a Marine base well into his great-grandchildren’s lifetime. If we start doing bills like this, it gives people the notion that maybe it should be closed. It would establish a fait accompli to developers or others who want to put an airport there.

“The congressman is very adamant that he would not introduce, and would not support, legislation in this regard, because it’s totally unnecessary.”

Bates’ reply is:

“I don’t understand his logic at all. The bill makes it clear that the base would not be developed with residential, commercial or industrial uses.

“I don’t anticipate anything ever happening to Camp Pendleton, and I don’t think this bill is a signal that we’re pushing them out. But, given the changing military needs in our country, if, in the distant future there should be a change, we want to be ready for it. This bill simply lays the groundwork to ensure that this land remains in public hands, for use as a park and for wildlife.”

Swath of Development Feared

The legislation is sought by the San Diego group Citizens Coordinate for Century 3, or C3, which fears that the forces of rampant growth are so great in Southern California that, in time, corridors between San Diego County and the counties of Riverside and Orange will be a continuous swath of housing tracts and commercial development.

The group maintains that Camp Pendleton is both a physical and psychological barrier in preventing the so-called Los Angelization of San Diego and a worst-case scenario that all of Southern California may one day become an L.A. suburb.

Don Wood, president of C3, said last week that he is delighted by Bates’ proposed legislation and confused by Packard’s opposition.

“There are already piecemeal attempts by developers and others to pull out pieces of the base--for oil drilling, for toll roads, for airports,” Wood said. “The base has an entire office dedicated to encroachment problems like these.

“If this bill passes, then anytime the Marines declare any portion of the base as surplus, it would not be available for developers to rip off for private, commercial development. Passage of the bill would decrease the number of attempts to encroach there. It strengthens, not weakens, the Marine position, because it takes away the incentive for private interests to try to rip the base off.

‘We Like the Marines’

“We want to make it very clear that we like the Marines being there. They have the current ability to keep developers off their land because they have guns. But what if the Marines ever do leave?”

Wood said he hopes that Packard “will turn around when he sees the value this bill would have to the Marines, whom he purports to support.”

Today, San Diego County Supervisor John MacDonald, whose North County district includes Camp Pendleton, will ask other board members to adopt a generic resolution echoing Bates’ position on the base’s future.

Bates himself has not decided when he will introduce the bill; in the meantime, he is circulating drafts of it to environmental groups for reaction.

He said some environmentalists have told him that it is not worded strongly enough and that it should stipulate that Camp Pendleton automatically become national parkland or a wildlife preserve.

Backed Down on Wording

Bates said he backed down from the stronger wording in favor of first calling for a review by the Department of the Interior.

Camp Pendleton, which stretches along 17 miles of oceanfront and backs up 10 miles inland to Cleveland National Forest and the Santa Margarita Mountains, is the only base in the country where Marines can simultaneously practice amphibious assaults, troop maneuvers and bombing runs with live ordnance.

The base is also a host to a herd of 50 bison and such endangered birds as the California least tern, the light-footed clapper rail, Belding’s savannah sparrow, California brown pelican and the least Bell’s vireo.