Marines’ Place in the County’s Road Package
The Oct. 4 edition contained an article headlined “Marines Hold Ground, Snarl O.C. Road Plan.” The first paragraph continued with the statement, “The Marine Corps is refusing to relinquish about 70 acres at its El Toro Air Station for Orange County highway improvements. . . .” The second paragraph quotes Ernie Schneider as saying that the military has “tied this whole package together so we are not getting any of our right of way. . . .” These are misleading statements.
I take exception to the headline and first two paragraphs, which imply that the Marine Corps is not cooperating with local communities to improve the local and regional transportation situation. The Marine Corps is not refusing to relinquish property for road construction, but rather is trying to reduce a severe housing shortage for our Marines, while permitting transportation improvements on government property.
The Marine Corps does not currently own land on which to construct the housing units that will be funded by the road projects. For this reason, a contingency clause was added to the road project agreement that requires the previously agreed upon Mile Square Park land exchange with the county to be consummated prior to permitting the road right-of-way transactions to proceed. The county of Orange has desired the Marine Corps’ land at Mile Square Park for many years. It is in the best interest of both the county and the Marine Corps to complete that land exchange in order to give the Marine Corps a site for construction of sorely needed family housing.
Many of our Marines currently commute from the Riverside or Oceanside areas. Constructing family housing on our bases not only reduces the financial hardship to our Marines required to live on the local economy, but also improves the regional transportation situation by housing personnel near their workplace.
The headline on Page 22, “Marines: Road Use Linked With Housing” more accurately states the contents of agreements between the county and the Marine Corps, and should have been appropriately placed on the front page. The Marine Corps is not “snarling” county road plans.
D. V. SHUTER
Brigadier General, U.S. Marine Corps
El Toro
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