Hearing on Base Closure Brings Little Opposition

Little opposition was offered Wednesday as a commission studying military base closures took testimony on a Pentagon recommendation to shut down the Tustin Marine Corps Air Station.

In fact, Tustin City Councilwoman Leslie Anne Pontious told the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission that the city would not protest a move to shut down the base, if that is what President Bush and Congress want.

Speaking on behalf of the council, Pontious, who is mayor pro tem, told the commission that the city’s “concern and focus” would now be to make sure that the land not be used for an airport or jail or anything else that would be incompatible with the community.

Her low-key testimony was in stark contrast to the protest voiced by more than a dozen people who appeared earlier to testify on the proposed closure of the Long Beach Naval Station.

Only one person appeared to testify against closing the Tustin base.

Dr. Earl R. Kiernan, a Tustin physician, urged the commission to keep the air station open and to use it as a blimp center. Kiernan, president of a design group called Airships International Inc., said technology is being developed that will bring airships back into the military as spotters for Navy battleships.

The commission, an eight-member panel appointed by Bush and confirmed by the Senate, opened regional hearings on the West Coast this week. Members took testimony in San Francisco on Monday and Tuesday on the controversial recommendation to close Ft. Ord in Monterey. On Wednesday, it heard testimony on the proposals to close the Long Beach naval base, the Tustin base and smaller facilities at Point Mugu and in San Diego, China Lake, and Kaneohe, Hawaii. Next week, the commission will be in Denver.

Pontious and Tustin City Manager William A. Huston agreed that if the base was developed for high-tech industry and related commercial uses, new businesses and thousands of jobs would be created.

“We will be much better off in the long run,” Pontious said.

Asked about the community attitude that the Tustin base’s closure was “a done deal,” Commission Chairman Jim Courter, a former congressman from New Jersey, scoffed: “That’s crazy. They (the community) can anticipate whatever they want. They can start looking at other uses. . . . We have eight commissioners, and I am sure none of the commissioners have told them how they will vote--we don’t know how we will vote.”

Albert M. Shifberg-Mencher, director of the Tustin Chamber of Commerce, told the commission that the Marine base, which has a payroll of $55 million, is the largest single employer in Tustin. In the short run, Shifberg-Mencher said, the closure would affect small businesses around the base and the owners of the thousands of apartments rented by Marines.

The Pentagon announced April 12 that it wanted to shut down the Tustin air base and transfer the 3,500 Marines and 125 cargo helicopters stationed there to Twentynine Palms, a Marine training base northeast of Palm Springs.

Although the Pentagon’s recommendations to close 30 bases around the country touched off a storm of criticism elsewhere, the proposal to shut down the Tustin base seemed to be acceptable to the Marines and officials in the communities around it.

The government estimated the value of the base’s 1,600 acres at about $500 million. Others have put higher estimates on the property.

Experts cautioned that major problems could complicate the sale of the base to private entrepreneurs--toxic waste contamination and two gigantic blimp hangars that have for years been on the National Register of Historic Places.

The military housing and other facilities such as the bowling alley, base exchange and chapel would remain open and would be used by Marines at the nearby El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

A final decision on the Tustin base closure is scheduled for this summer, but it could take up to six years to actually close the facility and move the helicopters and crews from there to the Marine Air Ground Combat Center at Twentynine Palms.