Coast Guard Request Imperils Base Reuse Plan

Top city officials who were in Washington, D.C., last week trying to head off a threat to their reuse plan for Tustin Marine Corps Helicopter Air Station returned this week with grim news.

Officials of the Navy, which has final say over the base’s reuse, said they may uphold a Coast Guard request for 55 acres of the property, including a tract that has 274 housing units.

“We were told that if a decision was made today, it would not be in our favor,” said Assistant City Manager Christine Shingleton, who accompanied Mayor Tracy Wills Worley and City Manager William A. Huston on the trip.

Shingleton said that if the Coast Guard request is upheld, it will throw into disarray the city’s plans for the base, expected to close some time in the period of 1997 through 1999, and deny the city potential tax revenue projected at hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.

The city’s preliminary plans for the 1,600-acre base call for a mix of commercial and residential development, including schools and parks.

The Coast Guard has said it is requesting the 55 acres to house its personnel and their families.

Tustin officials have suggested options that would be nearer to the Coast Guard’s Long Beach headquarters, such as vacant bases in Palos Verdes and San Pedro, Shingleton said. But so far, she said, Coast Guard officials have not warmed to the idea.

Tustin officials have been planning for the closure for about five years and now feel somewhat betrayed, Shingleton said.

“We’ve spent over $1 million on the reuse plan, in partnership with the Navy, and now we don’t have the partnership we feel we deserve,” she said.

Navy officials have not said when a decision on the issue might be made.