The ‘San Angeles’ Barrier : Plan Calls for Converting Camp Pendleton Into Park if Marines Leave

As Southern California--from Santa Barbara to the Mexican border--continues to boom and sprawl, many San Diego residents look at Camp Pendleton as the last remaining open-space barrier against a future “San Angeles.”

Now a well-known volunteer urban-planning and environmental group in San Diego wants to make sure the Marine Corps base’s 125,000 acres (more than 195 square miles) remain open and free from development if the base is ever closed.

The group, called C-3, for Citizens Coordinate for Century 3, is urging Sens. Alan Cranston and Pete Wilson, as well as San Diego County’s congressional delegation, to safeguard the area by introducing legislation this year that would convert the base to federal parkland if it is ever closed.

Proposal Finds Favor in Capitol

The request was made in letters that arrived at most congressional offices earlier this month. At least two of the officials, Wilson and Rep. Jim Bates (D-San Diego), think the idea has merit and will consider introducing and seeking congressional approval of such a public parkland designation.

“At first blush, we think it’s a splendid idea that seems to make sense,” said Wilson’s spokesman, Otto Bos. He said Wilson’s office will examine the proposal more closely, with the idea of introducing the necessary federal parkland legislation if the proposal passes scrutiny.

Although there is no indication whatsoever that the federal government plans on giving up the base, the home of 38,000 troops, Bos said “that, if some time down the road it were to be closed, we should probably have it so designated (as parkland).”

Bates called the proposal “a great idea” and said he will support it. Bates said he would acquiesce to Rep. Ron Packard (R-Oceanside), whose district includes Camp Pendleton, introducing a parkland designation bill. But, if Packard declines, “I will be glad to introduce such legislation,” Bates said.

A spokesman for Packard said his office is aware of the proposal, has talked briefly with Wilson’s office about it and “we’re interested in it.” Packard will probably have a more specific response in the next few weeks, after he has studied the proposal, said his spokesman.

Response from the Marines at Camp Pendleton was noncommittal. Camp spokesman Lt. Col. John Shotwell said the Marines are also aware of the proposal. “We’re currently studying it to see if it would be appropriate to take a stand on this issue if requested by congressional representatives.” Shotwell said the Marines “don’t envision a time in which Camp Pendleton, with its unique and ideal features for amphibious training, would not be vital to this nation’s national defense as a Marine Corps base.”

Marines Holding Line Against Sprawl.

And that would be just fine with C-3 President Don Wood, who wrote the letters to the senators and congressmen asking for the parkland designation. Wood said he and C-3 support the use of Camp Pendleton by the Marines, as it assures that urban sprawl won’t spill over from Orange County.

It’s precisely because the government has no plans to close Camp Pendleton that now is the best time to designate the property--which contains environmentally sensitive lands and is home to much wildlife and endangered bird species--as future federal parkland, Wood says.

“It doesn’t cost anyone anything right now. It’s a painless thing. Developers don’t have rights to it; there is no controversy about its development,” Wood said.

Wood’s organization uses the Presidio in San Francisco as an example of what can be done. Several years ago, members of the Bay Area congressional delegation introduced and helped pass a law to turn the Presidio, an old Army base on spectacular, ocean-side property next to the Golden Gate Bridge, into parkland should the base ever close. Last year, the federal government announced it planned to close the Presidio.

“Now the people of the area can look forward to the base being redeveloped into public parkland,” Wood said.

C-3 believes the forces of rampant growth are so great in Southern California that, in time, corridors between San Diego County and the counties of Riverside and Orange will be a continuous swath of housing tracts and commercial development.

‘Perfect Buffer’

“I don’t think we want to be an integrated suburb of Los Angeles, in which we lose our identity as a separate community,” Wood said. “Camp Pendleton provides the perfect buffer.”

What C-3 fears is that, unless Camp Pendleton is specifically protected, it will go the way of many other former military bases in San Diego County, such as Camps Elliott, Kearny and Matthews. Those bases were turned into the vast housing tracts known as Mira Mesa, Scripps Ranch and Tierrasanta.

Because of that, Wood said, C-3 believes local politicians wouldn’t be able to resist the pressure to develop Camp Pendleton.

“You can’t trust local politicians to persevere against development pressures. I think the record is clear on that point. You can’t depend on the free market to do it,” Wood says.

For many years, developers and others have attempted to make inroads at Camp Pendleton. The most recent proposal called for the construction of an airport capable of meeting the future needs of both San Diego and Los Angeles. Like most other plans for the Marine territory, it just as quickly died. The Marines take such proposed encroachments seriously and have an officer whose full-time job is to counter such piecemeal efforts.

C-3 believes its proposal would help give the Marines an important tool to fight off attempts to use the base for private development.

“This is the only thing we have left of this magnitude,” Wood said. “We’ll never get anything like Camp Pendleton again.”