Kerry calls for reopening El Toro military housing

http://www2.ocregister.com/ocrweb/ocr/article.do?id=86878§ion=NATION_WORLD&subsection=NATION_WORLD&year=2004&month=3&day=23

WASHINGTON – Presumed Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry unwittingly stepped into the middle of an Orange County political controversy on Monday when his office issued a statement calling on the Bush administration to let military families live at the closed El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

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Irvine Mayor Larry Agran said Kerry's proposal "lacks a practical understanding of how far along we are in this." "I think what they are missing here is that we've looked at it over and over, and the overwhelming majority of that housing is very old," Agran said. "Rehabilitating it to bring it up to current standards would be a very expensive undertaking.''

Auctioning the property is set to begin this summer with the sale in the fall, Agran said. The Navy is expected to relinquish the base in early 2005. A Navy spokesman referred questions to the Marine Corps, which could not be reached for comment Monday.

Kerry campaign officials seemed unaware of the firestorm that has surrounded every aspect of the closing and reuse of the El Toro base. When told that several local members of Congress already had broached the idea of re-opening the housing and were told the Marines found it wasn't the best solution, El Toro became less important to Kerry officials than the idea of helping military families.

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n/t

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-eltoro23mar23,1,5979895.story

The El Toro Marine base may be closed, but nearly 1,000 housing units at the former airfield have sprung back to life as campaign fodder.

Democratic presidential contender Sen. John F. Kerry released a statement Sunday urging President Bush to reopen the homes at El Toro to thousands of military families in Orange and San Diego counties that are struggling with high rents for private housing. The base closed in July 1999.

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Democrat Mike Byron, running for Congress against incumbent Darrell Issa (R-Carlsbad) in northern San Diego County, also seized on the issue. Byron placed newspaper ads urging the Navy to renovate and open the El Toro housing, located in a separate neighborhood northeast of the runways.

Issa does not advocate a similar position but in the past has proposed swapping El Toro land with a developer who would build houses at Camp Pendleton.

Navy officials couldn't be reached for comment. They have long maintained, however, that the Navy cannot afford renovating the military housing, which they estimate at $192 million. Preserving the military housing also would disrupt the Navy's plan to auction 3,700 acres of the base later this year. Most of the land is to be set aside by Irvine for public and private park space.

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thousands of military families in Orange and San Diego counties that are struggling with high rents for private housing. (emphasis mine)

I've no doubt that somebody's making out like bandits from the closure of the military housing, and it's not the soldiers.

Problem is that the same people who don't want to see the existing housing at the former MCAS El Toro were also against turning the base into a badly needed regional airport. The land is too valuable to the developers that pretty much own California anymore, to be wasted on such trivial things like badly needed housing for military families or airports.

The houses there have been abandoned since 1999. Full of asbestos and lead painting. To renovate them would cost millions that the Navy does not have.

What the Navy does does want is to auction the land for about $600 million.

The Navy commander in Camp Pendleton repeatedly said he is not interested in El Toro housing and they are working on housing on the base, where the Marines train.

Orange County is the second most densely county in the nation. One reason the Marines left was because of "population encroachment." You do not put an airport in the middle of a densely populated area. Look at Denver.

The people who fought the airport came from across the political spectrum - super liberal like Larry Agran and the OC Weekly, and super Conservatives like... well, most of Orange County. After 10 years and $100 million and four ballot measures the Navy to agreed to auction the land for non-aviation use. With all other base closure, the Navy just transferred the land.

http://www.heritagefields.com/

the current airport, John Wayne International (lol)-SNA has zero room for growth, but the need is there.

Gotta say something here Everything. I agree with other posters that Kerry doesn't know the whole story about El Toro. He does have his heart in the right place though . . .

El Toro had thousands of acres around it with no buildings. Agran sold this as the "Great Park" when it's becoming obvious that it's really a "Great Deal" (for developers and the City of Irvine) and a "Great Tax" (for taxpayers).

OTOH, you're probably right that the housing is substandard and would require considerable investment to refurbish, but that doesn't solve the housing crisis for low- to moderate-income households, including the military families.

What'll happen is that in ten-twenty years they'll pave over the west side of the current boundaries of the airport, add another runway, and ruin neighborhoods in Newport Beach, Costa Mesa, and Huntington Beach. All due to the NIMBY's in South County.

It'd be great if high-speed public transportation was available to underused airports like Ontario, but it ain't gonna happen. Making an unsafe airport even more unsafe isn't the answer.

Anyone who makes deals with the Irvine Co. (huge OC landowner/developer) to auction off land to make a more densely populated county isn't a super-liberal, IMHO.

Orange County is now built up. Back in 1988 the El Toro people complained about "population encroachment." Back in 1988 the commander of the base objected to the building of a medical center on Sand Canyon Rd (if you are familiar with the area) as it being under the flight path.

The hypocrisy of the "movers and shakers" of Orange County was that developers: the Irvine Company, the Mission Viejo Company, Argyros' Arnel got permission to build around the base over the years while at the same time the rich Republicans of Newport Beach were dreaming of using El Toro for commercial aviation. Had nothing been built around it you could have buily there an airport now.

When the county government came with the plan for an airport it called for no flights over homes - going northward and eastwood against basic laws of aviation where takeoff is with a head wind, meaning, toward the ocean.

Plus, it called for an airport the size of San Francisco International. You are not going to get all these passengers when LAX is only 35 miles away. And I sympathize with the impact on its neighborhood, but the leaders of LA: county and city, always talk about what a great economic engine LAX is, providing jobs for people in the inner cities.

Not every county has to have its own airport, not when there are five others within 50 driving miles.

Yes, a fast train would be ideal. Even extending the foothill toll road all the way to Ontario would do the trick. Ontario is operating at half capacity and the leaders of the Inland Empire have been begging for more passengers and cargo, saying that they were ready and willing and capable.

The area around the former Norton and George bases has become a major cargo hub with many warehouses. For air cargo you need a lot of warehouses and the land around El Toro is too expensive for warehouses.

As for the great park: had the navy just transferred the base, they it was doing all over the country, the dream of the park could have materialized. But when it announced that it was auctioning the land - well, you either find a sugar daddy who would pay a million an acre, or you have to rely on developers to buy the land and to madk a deal - develop some and leave the rest open space. And, yes, golf course are considered open space for this purpose, thus 80% are expected to remain open space. The nicest part would be a corridor to connect the open space preserve along Laguna Beach with the Santa Ana Mountains.

http://greatpark.ci.irvine.ca.us/

Mountains too close to runway. Population buildup too great. OC folk can go to Long Beach or Ontario if John Wayne too crowded.

He *used* to be super-liberal, but yeah, now he's assimilated into the collective here in OC. (Still not conservative, but, as the mayor of a city like Irvine, he pretty much has to sell out to the Irvine Company. There's no way around that here.)

But still, the cons here just love to hate him. It's funny.

They left the housing for the "waiting wives".. This was during Viet Nam, and it was helpful for the wives to be able to be together...as a support system.. They also kept the elementary school,commissary, rec center and pool open for them..

It must be very hard for the ones who were renting, and now their husband is gone, and there is little or no income.. That cannot rest easily on the mind of the soldier..wondering if his kids back home have heat or food ...

to Miramar in San Diego County. They and their families. This was when no one was thinking about another war, about sending soldiers overseas.

There are very few active military people in Orange County, while there is shortage in San Diego county but even the commander of Pendleton does not see the merit of housing his people 40 miles away, with only one crowded road - I-5 - to transfer them back and forth.

property they're talking about! kerry is up against some powerfule oc people here. this should be interesting tho...

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After hearing Sen. John Kerry's "solution" to a local military housing crunch, we're left wondering whether anyone will be able to stand seven months of presidential campaigning and all the shameless pandering that goes along with it.

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In the costly Southern California real estate market, military housing allowances don't go very far. Most military families have to pay far more than their allowances to find any available housing, explains Ken Lee, an American Legion-affiliated spokesman for military families who also supports reopening a commissary at the site (something we oppose).

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Sen. Kerry's fellow Democrat, Irvine Mayor Larry Agran, criticized the senator's idea, arguing that the base housing is old and would need significant renovation. Officals at Camp Pendleton have said that the commute is too far and renovation too expensive, so even military officials are not exactly clamoring for this idea. Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez's office told us the Navy and Marines haven't been receptive to the idea of renovating housing at the former El Toro base.

But even if this was the right idea, Sen. Kerry used the issue to take a cheap shot at the president. Which is a reminder that we all better get used to months of sound bites, mischaracterizations and oversimplification of serious issues as the presidential race heats up.

http://www2.ocregister.com/ocrweb/ocr/article.do?id=87664§ion=COMMENTARY&subsection=EDITORIALS&year=2004&month=3&day=28