Don’t Let Marines Take This Beach

Re “Marines Get OK to Build 60 Duplexes Near Trestles,” Jan. 15:

Of all of the thousands of acres on the Camp Pendleton grounds, surely they can find 60 acres to put some homes besides ruining one of the most scenic surf beaches in California.

The Trestles bluffs are a landmark to some surfers. If you fill them with homes, the beach will never be the same. Trestles has great surf, but it also has a look from the 1950s. This spot has not been changed since ever, and we surfers would like to keep it that way. There has to be somewhere else to put the soldiers!

I am a surfer who has always loved turning for a wave and looking up at the vertical drop of the bluff. The moment I read this article I knew that dreams of fathers teaching their kids to surf in a place where the scenery has stayed the same for 50 years would be broken. Camp Pendleton has thousands of acres to build on and the one place they decide is on top of the greatest surf beach of all time.

As a local surfer in those parts I can’t stand it when I hear people talking about the homes coming in. The power plant is bad enough for the water, but the homes will just make it worse. How will you feel when you are on the freeway and you look to see the ocean and all you see is a wall of chimneys?

FLETCHER McCUE

Laguna Niguel

* One cannot help but be sickened by the Marine Corps’ stubborn insistence on building homes on the bluffs above Trestles Beach at Camp Pendleton.

Can they really expect us to believe there is no other suitable place on or near that huge base for the small number of people that would be accommodated in the proposed 120 units? Is it really worth ruining forever one the few remaining undeveloped, unspoiled and environmentally sensitive stretches of coastline in Southern California?

No one would deny the Marines and their families’ right to clean, comfortable and safe housing, but ocean-view duplexes overlooking the beach and directly above wildlife-filled, fragile wetlands is simply going too far.

One would hope that the military officials at Camp Pendleton would be more sensitive to the overwhelming public opposition and abandon this ill-advised project.

RICK GARTNER

Laguna Beach