Marines Derail Plans for Rail Yard : Transportation: Commuter system proposal is dealt another blow as use of Camp Pendleton site is denied.

A Marine Corps general surprised San Diego County transportation officials Wednesday by blocking the proposed site of a commuter rail yard at Camp Pendleton.

The announcement was yet another snag to hit what officials have called the most significant transportation project for San Diego County in decades--a $140-million commuter rail system between Oceanside and downtown San Diego.

The Marine Corps decision, which also short-circuited a high-level meeting between transit and military officials scheduled for today, means the district will be paying for 16.5 acres of land it cannot use, said Betty Laurs, a spokeswoman for the North County Transit District, the lead agency in the local project.

“We are, of course, disappointed with their decision,” Laurs said. “We have been working with the Marine Corps over the past few months hoping to mitigate some of their concerns.”

Despite the announcement, however, district officials remain confident they will ultimately get the storage yard and maintenance facility, though it will be redesigned for district land along the railroad right of way, Laurs said. A 100-foot swath of land on either side of the tracks is part of $500-million in right-of-way Southern California mass transit officials purchased from the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway this year for eventual takeover in December, Laurs said.

“We will continue ahead and put the facilities in,” Laurs said. “We’ll just confine it to land we already own. The right of way is ours.”

Brig. Gen. Don Lynch, commander of Camp Pendleton, praised the commuter rail plan but cited the potential for disruptions to Marine families living next to the facilities proposed for the southern portion of the base near Camp Del Mar and Oceanside Harbor.

“I cannot allow an erosion of the quality of life on the base which would surely occur if we allowed the construction of a major industrial activity within a few yards of our family housing,” Lynch said in a prepared release. “It is unproductive to further study” the transit agency proposal, the release stated.

The maintenance and storage facility the NCTD has proposed for the base would include an inspection pit, an overhead crane, fueling systems and a parts storage area for 11 locomotives and 44 commuter rail cars as well as a storage yard for locomotives and rail cars from San Diego and Orange counties.

Those facilities would be a small part of the support network of the massive commuter rail system announced in June that will stretch 336 miles throughout Southern California. The North County Transit District is spearheading the San Diego County portion of the project, which would link Oceanside and downtown San Diego by autumn, 1994, with six coastal rail stations in between.

As envisioned, the double-decker trains would offer commuters another alternative to automobiles and make four round trips daily pulling 10 cars each carrying 160 passengers. Officials anticipate the 3,500 daily riders to grow to 10,000 daily by 2010 when the county population grows to 3.1 million people, almost 1 million more than today.

Already, however, protests have erupted in Encinitas and Carlsbad, two cities slated for rail stations. People in Encinitas have raised concerns over a proposed bus facility to accompany the railroad station, while in Carlsbad the relocation of two longtime businesses from the downtown area to make way for the station has angered some locals.

Laurs said the district has noted the concerns but is moving forward.

“Our board is committed to putting in all of the stations along the line,” she said. “We have the jurisdiction and the authorization to do so.”

Camp Pendleton poses a slightly trickier issue, however. As part of the long-term lease of base property that the district will take over in December, board members had proposed utilizing the 16.5 acres for the new maintenance and storage facility, expanding what is now just a switching yard, Laurs said.

In case the Marine Corps rejected the plan, however, the district has already come up with a narrower design for the project using the 100-foot wide right of way the military cannot block, Laurs said. Barring a change in the Marine decision, the rest of the acreage will sit empty, at least for the moment, she added.

“The interesting thing is, the way we interpret the lease, we will still hold the land, they can’t do anything with it,” Laurs said. “The land is not theirs to develop. It is spelled out in the lease to be used for a switching yard and maintenance facility.”

Neither design pleases Myers, who cited his own concerns related to potential hazardous wastes, noise, security, impacts to Oceanside Harbor and destruction of wetlands in the Santa Margarita River area.

Laurs said transportation officials had been working on ways to ease the Marine Corps’ concerns before Wednesday’s announcement.

“In terms of hazardous waste disposal, we were offering to help mitigate some of their own issues,” Laurs said. “We understand the environmental sensitivity of the base.”

District officials were baffled as to why the Marines chose Wednesday to announce their plan to block the on-base facilities. Laurs said officials were always aware that the decision might be made, but were caught off guard by the announcement one day before transportation officials and the military were to sit down and talk about it.