Cities Offer More Military Housing in Effort to Keep Base

Faced with the possible relocation of Los Angeles Air Force Base in El Segundo, at least two South Bay cities are taking steps to encourage the construction of affordable military housing in an effort to persuade the Defense Department not to move the space research and development facilities.

Air Force officials, who announced earlier this year that the base is one of five in the country that may be shut down or relocated to reduce defense spending, have identified the lack of affordable housing and land on which to expand as key issues in their pending decision.

City officials across the South Bay are considering a wide range of options to address the issue, including using redevelopment funds to build new housing and allocating existing low-income housing units for military personnel. Some cities may try to bring down the cost of developing a military housing complex by adopting new zoning laws to allow more units per acre.

“Any effort by the local communities to address these concerns is welcomed by the Air Force and will be taken into consideration when the decision is made as to the future of the base,” Air Force spokesman Ed Parsons said Wednesday. Several studies of the possible closure are pending, but a decision is not expected until the end of the year.

The base, which includes housing facilities in San Pedro and the Air Force Space Systems Division headquarters in El Segundo, employs 3,200 people. The Aerospace Corp., a private, nonprofit research and development group that works closely with the adjacent Air Force division, employs 4,000.

Air Force and city officials say thousands of other jobs and millions of dollars in revenues are directly or indirectly linked to the base and the related aerospace industry.

While several South Bay cities in recent weeks have passed resolutions in support of retaining the Air Force base, Hawthorne went a step further this week, pledging to use “every available means to cause the construction of military family housing units” within its borders.

Hawthorne officials are seriously considering channeling some redevelopment funds toward the construction of a multiunit military housing complex. Possible sites for the development include surplus school property and a large plant nursery that recently went on the market.

Hawthorne Mayor Betty Ainsworth also sent a letter to the mayors of 18 cities last week urging them to adopt similar resolutions, saying a commitment by all South Bay cities “is the single most important action that needs to be done now.”

The El Segundo City Council, which does not have a redevelopment agency, is expected to make a similar pledge next week and is considering creating an agency for the purpose of setting aside money to build affordable housing for the military.

“The problem is . . . we haven’t had a chance to think through the viable options,” El Segundo City Manager Ronald Cano said.

City officials recently surveyed local businesses, met with congressional leaders and made plans to send a delegation to Washington. “We’re taking a very aggressive approach,” Cano said.

South Bay cities were jolted into action last week after a draft of a local economic impact study predicted that closing the base could eventually mean the loss of 13,000 jobs and a $729-million reduction in regionwide spending by 1997.

Many local officials, however, say the economic impact on their communities of closing the base will probably be worse than the Air Force study indicates. Although about 80% of the Air Force employees live within 10 miles of the base, the study used figures from a 50-mile radius, thereby diluting the impact on South Bay cities, said Dominique Cau, executive vice president of the El Segundo Chamber of Commerce.

“We feel their estimates don’t truly reflect the impact on El Segundo,” Cau said. “We see a much more severe impact in loss of revenue and jobs.”

The chamber is compiling the results of a questionnaire it sent to 1,500 businesses in the city, seeking predictions of how loss of the base would affect sales.

The South Bay Cities Assn. and the South Bay Assn. of Chambers of Commerce are collecting similar information from cities in the area for a report that they hope will be included in the final version of the Air Force economic study.

The Manhattan Beach Chamber of Commerce appears to be the only local business group that isn’t participating in the survey. Chamber Vice President Russ Lesser said the group decided not to take a position on the future of the base because “we don’t want to be self-serving.”

“We scream and yell as business people that government is inefficient and government has to clean up its act,” Lesser said. “But isn’t it hypocritical for us to say, ‘Go ahead and do that, but don’t cut our base?’ We want the Air Force to make an objective decision and do what’s in the best interest of the United States.”

Local officials are arguing, however, that it could cost the Air Force as much as $1 billion to relocate and that it would be much more efficient to allow the cities to come up with a solution to the housing problem.

Air Force officials have been concerned about the lack of affordable housing in the South Bay for several years, although some of the pressure was relieved in 1982 when they built and renovated 540 townhouses at Ft. MacArthur in San Pedro, Parsons said.

An additional 170 single-family houses were built in Pacific Crest and Pacific Heights in San Pedro in 1988, but the Air Force still has an immediate need for 250 affordable housing units for officers stationed at the base, Parsons said.

“We’re not asking (South Bay cities) to pay everything, but we obviously can’t afford to build total housing right now at the present cost of housing in Southern California,” Parsons said. “We’re asking for assistance.”

Rancho Palos Verdes Councilwoman Jacki Bacharach said the request may not be practical for her city, which has some of the priciest real estate in the South Bay and whose redevelopment agency is mandated only to deal with landslide issues. But, she said, it is still in the city’s interest to lobby the Air Force to keep the base in town.

South Bay officials say the city of Hawthorne may be best equipped to deal with the problem quickly because it has an active redevelopment agency and several possible sites for a housing complex.

Hawthorne City Manager Kenneth Jue said the Lawndale School District’s Jonas Salk School, which was closed in 1972 because of a drop in enrollment, could be an ideal site for a military housing development. The five-acre site--on which district officials would seek a long-term lease--could accommodate 125 housing units. By using redevelopment funds to help subsidize building costs, the city could help solve half of the Air Force’s housing problem at an affordable price, Jue said.

“Some developers have made inquiries about military housing, but nothing has come (about) because the Lawndale School District hasn’t fully completed their study yet,” Jue said. “We’ll certainly pursue it.”

It could be years before new and affordable housing is available for Air Force personnel, but local officials are hoping that their resolve will be enough to fend off New Mexico and Colorado, states that are lobbying hard to land the Air Force base.

U.S. Rep. Mel Levine (D-Los Angeles), who along with 16 other members of Congress sent a letter to Defense Secretary Dick Cheney earlier this month opposing the relocation of the base, said in an interview Wednesday that the length of time it would take to build new housing matters less than the commitment to do it.

“I think what is key here is for cities to demonstrate the ability and willingness to do it,” Levine said, “and if that is demonstrated, then the time frame shouldn’t make a difference.”