Camp Pendleton Housing Site

I read with interest your Nov. 6 editorial, “Tough Marines and Fragile Fauna.” While it’s true the habitat conservation plan signed by Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt is a big step in the right direction, the plan was limited in geographic scope and didn’t protect all of the sensitive Camp Pendleton coastline environment.

The Marine Corps has introduced a plan to build 128 ocean-front duplex officer housing units on San Mateo Point, an “island” of base property on the extreme northern boundary of Camp Pendleton. Surfers know the area around the point as Trestles Beach. The proposed development site is a bluff area surrounded by state parkland and San Clemente gate-guarded, ocean-front homes. It is known to be home to at least one endangered species and possibly more. If built, the spillover effects of this development will negatively impact the contiguous San Mateo Wetland Preserve, which is also not included in the habitat conservation plan. The wetland preserve is home to three endangered habitats and more than 10 endangered and/or threatened species.

There are more than biological concerns. The California Department of Parks and Recreation and the California State Coastal Conservancy recognize the biological and historical significance of San Mateo Point and have considered it a high-priority acquisition, partly to maintain a buffer zone between local San Clemente housing and the wetland preserve. For several years, the local state parks office and its Sacramento counterparts have tried to include San Mateo Point in their San Onofre State Park lease. The requests have been denied by the Marine Corps, which seems determined to build housing on the site. The corps says “it’s the last flat parcel available” on the northern portion of its 125,000-acre base.

This issue will come before the Coastal Commission for a coastal consistency determination. We hope the commission will find the development plan inconsistent with the Coastal Act and the National Environmental Protection Act and retain its permitting authority. However, even the Coastal Commission has very limited power when it comes to development on federal reservations.

TOM PEZMAN

Surfrider Foundation

San Clemente