Navy Shouldn’t Stall Plan

Complications with military base reuse plans should not surprise anyone in Orange County, given the turmoil of recent years over the future of the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station. But what is going on lately at the closed Marine Corps Air Station in Tustin is puzzling precisely because things appeared to be on track. The problem is in Washington, and, specifically, with the Navy Department. It is time to put some pressure on the bureaucrats to stop dragging their feet.

Through much of the wrangling over a proposal for a commercial airport at El Toro, the quiet redevelopment proposal for nearby Tustin has advanced as a model of orderliness. The city has a plan for the 1,584-acre property that would include a campus of the South Orange County Community College District, 9.2 million square feet of commercial and industrial space, 4,600 homes, a public golf course, parks, a day-care center, law enforcement training facilities and a homeless shelter.

Late last year, the Orange County Rescue Mission became the first organization to move to the site, having acquired 6.1 acres to use two barracks to provide 192 beds for the homeless. They also have plans to construct buildings where homeless families and individuals could stay up to 18 months.

While the plans for the homeless have been moving forward, there is less to cheer about lately on other fronts. Despite federal legislation that is supposed to ease the transfer of closed bases to local communities, Tustin leaders now find that the Navy has stalled on local efforts to take control. Washington has asked the locals to assume responsibility for part of the cleanup.

Critics elsewhere say this is part of a pattern wherein the Department of Defense falters on expensive base cleanups and allows those to go forward where there is minimal work to be done, say, at a facility that will convert to a shipyard.

This is a bad precedent for a number of reasons. Base cleanup is, and should remain, a federal responsibility. Furthermore, ducking the bill can only invite the federal government to cut other corners. The Navy is closing bases because they cost too much, but in its haste to dump property, it must not be allowed to wash its hands of places where people will live. Returning land in usable shape for housing, education and social services is simply the right thing to do.

What the Navy does or does not do also could compromise the guiding philosophy of the base reuse process. The El Toro fiasco has made it plain, the long and painful way, that deciding what to do with closed bases is largely about identifying a plan that enjoys community support. Without a credible commitment to back base reuse with environmental cleanup, the federal government, in effect, could steer outcomes of base planning by signaling how much of a cleanup it is willing to pay for.

It’s conceivable that decisions of a duly constituted local redevelopment authority could be disregarded, or even overturned, based on the support the federal government might have for a particular level of land restoration. Or, as may be likely in many cases, the redevelopment plan simply can break down and stall for lack of movement on the environmental cleanup front. While El Toro is a much more complicated base reuse situation overall than Tustin, the cleanup issue there is of paramount concern and likely a factor in federal assumptions about future uses.

Since El Toro has become a national model of disastrous base planning, Tustin offers a chance to hold the federal government’s feet to the fire while the spotlight is on Orange County. The more time passes without transferring the base, the more the economic climate could change and affect what Tustin can implement.

It would be a shame if a terrific plan remained on the drawing boards simply because Washington got away with jettisoning its obligation. The impasse is even more frustrating because the base has many vacant houses in the heart of a county with an imbalance of jobs and housing.

The base reuse process must be a two-way street, wherein communities draw up plans in good faith to recycle closed facilities for some common economic and community gain. Tustin has done its part by putting together an imaginative and comprehensive plan, and for its effort deserves something in return.

The city has been working with the congressional delegation to advance its case, but more needs to be done, as is happening elsewhere. At a polluted air base in Massachusetts, the Environmental Protection Agency and state and local officials working together have applied pressure recently on the Department of Defense to get on with a thorough cleanup. Tustin, and California in general, which has many bases awaiting transfer, need a similarly united front.