Navy Won’t Use El Toro to House Camp’s Marines

The Navy has turned down Rep. Darrell E. Issa’s (R-Vista) attempts to reopen military housing at the closed El Toro Marine base to help Camp Pendleton Marines and their families who need low-cost housing, Issa said Friday.

“These houses simply are too far away from Camp Pendleton for them to be a viable source of military family housing,” said Robert B. Pirie Jr., acting secretary of the Navy in a May 4 letter to Issa.

The rising cost of gasoline combined with the distance involved, would place an “unfair burden” on too many “fragile household budgets,” Pirie said. The old military homes are roughly 30 miles from Camp Pendleton.

Issa will continue his efforts to find low-cost housing for the Marines, although he acknowledged the Navy has made it clear that El Toro will not be considered.

The Navy’s rejection of the El Toro housing project also is a blow to county Supervisor Tom Wilson and his ongoing efforts to refurbish and use some of the 1,100 military residences for civilians.

After hearing the Navy’s response, Wilson said: “I feel we could have worked out an amicable agreement and a program getting low-income people, both in the military and civilians, out at El Toro.”

Wilson had proposed reopening the base’s locked and abandoned residences and reopening the commissary if enough people moved to the base.

“I understand the distance these Marines would have to travel and I understand the Navy’s reticence,” Wilson said, “but I don’t think their evaluation and usefulness of that housing is as clear as it might be.”

He said he is not giving up trying to use the base for civilian housing.

County supervisors have been trying for more than a year to open the base for housing, albeit temporarily, until a final decision is reached on whether to build a commercial airport at the former base.

According to housing advocates, the base presents golden opportunities for housing in a county in which two-bedroom apartments rent for about $1,200 and the vacancy rate is lower than 2%.

Nearly 2,000 military families at Camp Pendleton are on housing waiting lists--15 months for enlisted personnel and 13 months for officers.