El Segundo to Continue Fight to Save Base

Despite a sign that Congress may delay a decision on the closure of military bases for two years, El Segundo officials said they will continue their fight to save one of the South Bay’s main economic engines.

Los Angeles Air Force Base is one of the nation’s leading centers of research on military space hardware, with more than $60 billion in developmental contracts.

But it is considered vulnerable to closure and relocation because its 110-acre campus near LAX is not part of a larger military base.

This week on Capitol Hill, the House Armed Services Committee endorsed a bill that would delay a round of military base closures until 2007. The Pentagon had planned to cut military base capacity by 25% -- more than 100 facilities nationwide -- beginning in 2005.

But Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.), a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said the proposal faces an uphill battle in the House and Senate.

Former El Segundo Mayor Mike Gordon also expressed doubt about the bill’s chances of survival.

“From our perspective, this doesn’t change anything,” said Gordon, who recently discussed the issue with politicians in Washington, D.C. “This is a false sense of hope being given to those who are trying to save our base.”

With ongoing military efforts overseas, Gordon argued, the necessity of the Los Angeles Air Force Base was greater than ever.

“With the dependence of design and procurement of satellites to wage these confrontations,” Gordon said, “you don’t want to jeopardize the military value that’s being performed here at the base.”

The House committee’s action comes as a $115-million modernization project at the Los Angeles Air Force Base broke ground this week. The project, which includes a 580,000-square-foot office and research building, is expected to be completed by 2006.

To finance the project, the base and the cities of El Segundo and Hawthorne entered into an unusual deal that included the passage of a congressional bill allowing the base to deed a portion of its property to El Segundo in exchange for tax revenues. The base would use the funds to finance construction of a 580,000-square-foot office building.

Because the parcel was closer to Hawthorne than El Segundo, the property was ultimately annexed to Hawthorne, which will share tax revenue with the base.

Los Angeles Air Force Base, which opened 50 years ago at Aviation and El Segundo boulevards, is considered the heart of the South Bay’s aerospace industry.

It is home to the Air Force Space and Missiles System Center, which develops Global Positioning System navigation satellites and radars with such contractors as Boeing and Northrop Grumman.

“The closure of this base wouldn’t represent frontline fighting forces,” El Segundo Mayor Kelly McDowell said. “What it does represent is 65,000 civilian jobs at stake.”