Residents Oppose Air Force Plan for Ocean View Homes

Air Force officials have leased 26 acres of prime ocean view real estate in San Pedro, where they plan to build about 150 housing units, hoping to lure top space industry engineers and their families to Los Angeles.

But they faced heated opposition from San Pedro residents when they unveiled the plan at a community meeting this week. Most of the 150 residents who attended the meeting said they are not convinced that the new development next to Angeles Gate Park is needed. They said the next round of military base closures, scheduled to begin in the fall, could affect the Los Angeles Air Force Base in El Segundo.

Lt. Col. Phillip E. Johnson, public affairs director of the Space and Missile Systems Center in El Segundo, said prime housing is used to compensate Air Force engineers who could demand much higher pay in the private sector.

Air Force spokesman Howard B. Antelis said that Air Force officers can refuse assignments, and that attracting engineers to work on satellite research and design in Los Angeles has been difficult because of earthquakes, crime and the high cost of living.

Houses with an ocean view help lure the caliber of workers that the Air Force needs, Antelis said.

A year ago, the Air Force signed a 50-year lease for the property with the Los Angeles Unified School District for $1 a year, said district Planning Director Dominic Shambra.

The property is part of 47 acres known as the Ft. MacArthur Upper Reservation, which the school district has owned since 1977.

Under the lease, the state, county or Los Angeles must compensate the district or provide another property by August, 1995.

The building plans angered residents who have been embroiled in a bitter fight over another military housing complex on Taper Avenue. The 144 housing units will be abandoned by the Navy when the Long Beach Naval Station closes in September. A shelter for 880 homeless people was approved for the site in January, but federal officials are reconsidering the decision.

Residents said the Air Force should use the Navy housing site instead of developing open parkland.

“In good faith we are asking that the military be a good neighbor to San Pedro and take over the Taper Avenue site,” San Pedro resident John Washworth told Air Force officials Tuesday.

But Lt. Col. Gilbert T. Perry, director of acquisitions for civil engineering, said the Taper Avenue housing is below Air Force standards.

Shambra said that during last year’s negotiations, concerns were raised that the Air Force would pull out of Los Angeles if it could not get the Ft. MacArthur site.

“There were a lot of jobs at stake in Los Angeles, and I think it was in everyone’s best interest to provide the housing so the Air Force could remain,” he said.

Antelis said, however, that the decision to keep or close the Los Angeles base will not be made by the Air Force but by the national Base Closure Commission.

Air Force personnel have lived in San Pedro since 1982 in three sites with 574 units.

Although the closest base is in El Segundo, the Air Force has built housing in San Pedro because it had space available for a large number of units, Antelis said.

Another public hearing will be scheduled this winter when a draft environmental report on the planned development is completed.

The Air Force plans to begin building the housing in September, 1995, Antelis said.