County Considers Using Tustin Base for a Jail : Civic affairs: But city officials strongly oppose having a prison in their back yard. Air station closes in 1997.

Homeless advocates want to use it as a shelter. Some businessmen say it would make a great showcase for air blimps.

And now, weighing in for the first time in the debate over the future of the Marine Corps Air Station in Tustin, Orange County officials say they might like to turn the place into a jail.

The jail idea is still in its infancy, but it has already stirred up tensions between city leaders in Tustin and county officials, who are set to take a formal stand on the issue Tuesday.

Tustin Mayor Leslie Anne Pontious wrote the county last month to ask that it formally oppose putting a jail at the air base after it closes in 1997. Building a jail next to a residential area is “intolerable” and “makes no sense,” she wrote.

But county officials are cool to the mayor’s request.

Under a recommendation from staff members, the county would not only reject Tustin’s call for opposition, but would also notify the federal government that it is interested in using the Tustin base as a correctional facility. Supervisors are expected to adopt that recommendation Tuesday.

Built in 1942, the Tustin air station has served primarily as a Marine helicopter base. It has 13 miles of roads, 171 buildings and two mammoth wooden hangars at their disposal.

But the military announced plans last year to close it. The federal government plans to keep a small portion of the site for military housing, but it is now soliciting proposals from governmental and private interests on how some 1,200 acres on the base might be put to use.

Despite the resolution on next week’s board agenda, county officials downplayed the Tustin jail idea last week.

“This all seems a little premature to me,” said Supervisor Thomas F. Riley, a retired Marine general whose district includes the Tustin site. “Lots of things could happen by (1997). But it’s an option and the board has to respond to it.”

Under increasing strain to find more jail beds for its rising criminal population, the county has been stymied for much of the last two decades in its effort to find a site for a new jail.

The county is now moving ahead with an expansion of its Theo Lacy Branch Jail in Orange, but the last plans for a new full-scale jail--in Gypsum Canyon--died in 1991 under the weight of financial and political obstacles.

There have been few new options since then. “This is it as far as I know,” Riley said of the Tustin idea.

County Budget Director Ronald S. Rubino said the county is only “keeping its options open” by expressing interest in the Tustin base. No formal plans or proposals have been made for the type or cost of a facility the county could put there, he said. “It’s not a big deal. It’s not until 1997--the first that it would be accessible,” he added.

Undersheriff Raul A. Ramos said that Sheriff Brad Gates has suggested to supervisors that the county look into the feasibility of building a jail at the base. “That land is always a possibility, but it’s the Board of Supervisors that sites and builds the jails; the sheriff only operates them,” he said.

One county official who asked not to be identified said that many hurdles remain before the jail proposal could be considered seriously. Among them: competition from other governmental agencies, local opposition in Tustin and--the one that has proved the fatal blow for previous proposals--finding the money to build the facility.

“It’s a long shot,” the official said. “It’s like going into the lottery. You know you’re probably not going to win, but you might. You might. “

Pontious, the Tustin mayor, said the city felt obligated to seek out the county’s formal opposition to a Tustin jail after learning that the U.S. government was considering a federal penitentiary. City officials had also heard that the Sheriff’s Department was exploring a local jail proposal.

The mayor said she was not surprised that the county appears ready to turn Tustin down. “This is predictable,” she said.

But she promised that city leaders will be seeking out federal and congressional officials to secure a better use for the air base--almost anything, she said, but a jail.

It is the second time in less than two weeks that the county has found itself at odds with local officials over its jail ideas.

Supervisors put off a vote earlier this month on placing a furlough center for drunk drivers and other low-risk offenders in Costa Mesa after city leaders complained they had been kept in the dark about the project. The issue comes up for a vote again Tuesday.