TUSTIN : Child-Care Center Is Proposed at Base

The Community Services Department is hoping to open a child-development center that could accommodate more children at the Tustin Marine Corps Air Station once the helicopter base is closed in 1997.

This week, the City Council decided to apply to the U.S. Department of Education to acquire 5.2 acres of land and two buildings inside the base that could house a variety of youth programs, including art exhibits, children’s theater and a child-care center.

Dana Ogdon of the city’s Planning Department said the military is currently using the buildings as a child-care center for children of military personnel.

Facilities include classrooms, playgrounds and parking, he said.

The Tustin Marine base is scheduled to close in July, 1997, and in compliance with federal base closure law, the Department of the Navy has began advertising the property for future transfer to military, federal, state and local agencies.

Ogdon said that 200 to 300 acres of the 1,620-acre property may be available for free or sold at below-market cost to public agencies as well as nonprofit groups that provide services to homeless people.

The U.S. Department of Education is currently reviewing proposals for educational uses, Ogdon said.

The Tustin Unified School District has submitted a request for 103 acres of land to be used for two elementary school sites, one middle school and one high school.

In addition, the school district wants to buy the same child care facility that the city of Tustin is hoping to convert to a child-development center.

A coalition of school districts, colleges and universities also is proposing to convert parts of the base to a job training and business center that would include a multicultural center.

Ogdon said that by next month, the Department of Education is expected to finish reviewing the proposals for educational uses, and a recommendation will be made to the Navy in March on proposals to be included in the redevelopment of the base.

The actual transfer of land and buildings may not be made until mid-1997, Ogdon said.

Gary Magill, a supervisor with the city’s Parks and Recreation Department, said that the city’s child-development program is run by Mothers at Work, a nonprofit group, from a leased building at Lambert School on San Juan Avenue.

He said the base facilities are needed to expand the program, which currently has more than 50 children, ranging in age from 2 to 6, from low- and moderate-income families.

“We’re just trying to prepare for the future,” Magill said.