Navy Orders Tustin to Transfer Base Land to Santa Ana Schools

The U.S. Navy has ordered Tustin to make a deal by Thursday to give land at the Tustin helicopter base to two Santa Ana school districts, or it will sell the base to developers and leave the city empty-handed.

In an ultimatum to Tustin Mayor Jeffery M. Thomas, Assistant Secretary of the Navy H.T. Johnson rejected the city’s claim that handing over land to the Santa Ana schools would undermine the financial success of its base redevelopment plan.

Tustin wants to sell most of the 1,600-acre base to develop homes, a golf course and businesses. The city has said it needs to sell the property within the school districts’ boundaries--planned for a commercial center--to help pay for roads, a sewage system and other infrastructure.

Johnson, based in Washington, wrote in a Feb. 12 letter to Thomas that the Navy will sell the property if Tustin can’t make a deal with the Santa Ana Unified and Rancho Santiago Community College districts by Thursday.

“The Navy is prepared immediately to ... request that the General Services Administration undertake a public sale of all portions of the installation not encumbered by [public uses],” Johnson wrote.

Developers already have lined up to buy portions of the property from Tustin. Unlike its neighboring Marine base, El Toro, the Tustin base is relatively free of contamination and could be developed more easily.

Tustin City Manager William A. Huston declined to discuss Johnson’s letter Friday, which he said was sent “in the context of negotiations.” The Navy hasn’t yet approved Tustin’s request to take over the land.

“I’m very confident that the city and the Navy will be able to reach an agreement,” Huston said.

Santa Ana officials were privately jubilant and publicly low-key about the letter, not wanting to jinx talks. Johnson’s deputy, Duncan Holaday, will be in Orange County on Monday to help seal a deal between Tustin and the Santa Ana districts.

John R. Hanna, president of the Rancho Santiago board of trustees, said his district was close to agreement with Tustin, but was held up by the city’s unresolved issues with Santa Ana Unified.

“This is probably what it takes to get Tustin to wake up and smell the coffee,” Hanna said.

Tustin has fought Santa Ana’s demands for school space for eight years. In 1994, Santa Ana Unified asked for 75 acres on the base, and a coalition of schools--Rancho Santiago, Santa Ana Unified and the South Orange County Community College District--asked for an additional 100 acres.

Those requests were accepted by the federal Department of Education, but a new federal law changed the disposal process for military bases. That led to a new plan by Tustin that eliminated the Santa Ana land and gave 100 acres to the South County college district.

In his letter, Johnson said the Navy would honor the original requests for land by the public agencies if Tustin’s plan is rejected and the property is sold by the federal government.

Attorney Martin Burton, representing the Santa Ana districts, said the deadline set by the Navy should end the impasse.

“The Navy has a job to do,” he said. “They want to get this thing settled and we do too.”