In the sweeping Southern California metropolis spanning from Santa Barbara to the Mexico border, Camp Pendleton has long remained the largest undeveloped stretch of the coastline.
The 17 miles of beach and coastal hills has, since World War II, proven critical in preparing soldiers for amphibious missions. The bluffs, canyons and mountainous terrain that comprise the interior of the base has been fertile training ground for those sent to conflicts in the Middle East and beyond.
But change may be on the horizon.
The United States Department of Defense is considering making a portion of the 125,000 acre base in northwestern San Diego County available for development or lease in what, if successful, would be unprecedented for the military installation.
“There’s no place in Southern California like Camp Pendleton when it comes to open space along the coast,” said Bill Fulton, a professor of practice in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at UC San Diego.
In late August, Secretary of the Navy John Phelan conducted an aerial tour of Camp Pendleton and visited with Marines at the base where he had “initial conversations about possible commercial leasing opportunities” by the Department of Defense, Phelan’s spokesperson Courtney Williams told The Times.
“These opportunities are being evaluated to maximize value and taxpayer dollars while maintaining mission readiness and security,” Williams said in a statement. “No decisions have been made and further discussions are needed.”
Details about the sites being considered for commercial lease remain unclear. Officials with Camp Pendleton declined to comment to The Times.
Discussions over the 83-year-old base comes at a time when the Trump administration is more aggressively trying to use public lands to raise money for the federal government and rolling back protections on open space.
The administration this month proposed rescinding a Biden-era rule that sought to protect public lands from industrial development and instead prioritizing the use of the land for oil and gas drilling, coal mining, timber production and livestock grazing.
Secretary Doug Burgum has repeatedly emphasized that federal lands are untapped assets worth trillions of dollars.
“We believe that our natural resources are national assets that should be responsibly developed to grow our economy, help balance the Budget, and generate revenue for American taxpayers,” he said in a statement to Congress in May.
While there has been development on Camp Pendleton those projects have solely been for military uses. A large hospital was recently added, and there are various buildings for the base’s more than 42,000 active duty personnel.
Camp Pendleton has won praise for balancing national security needs with environmental preservation.
In 2022, Camp Pendleton was named the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s military conservation partner of the year for its efforts to support the recovery of several species, including the tidewater goby, coastal California gnatcatcher, the arroyo toad and southern California steelhead.
Conservation and management of the least Bell’s vireo, California least tern, and western snowy plover have resulted in significant increases to on-base populations of these species, according to the agency.
In addition to endangered populations, the base is home to a herd of North American bison, one of only two wild conservation herds of bison in California.
Past efforts to build more on the camp have not been popular with the public.
In the mid-1990s, the U.S. Marine Corps put forth a plan to build 128 homes for officers and their families on a 32-acre bluff at San Mateo Point near Trestles Beach, one of the nation’s most famous surfing spots. The California Coastal Commission ultimately rejected the project.
In 2021, the Department of the Navy issued a request for information to seek feedback on hosting “critical energy and water infrastructure resiliency projects” on a portion of Camp Pendleton.
In the document, the department sought information on long-term partnerships to plan, design, construct and operate facilities that could include energy generation, transmission and storage, microgrid technologies, water desalination, drought mitigation, stormwater management, reuse or alternative use of decommissioned energy infrastructure, high speed fiber communications, data centers or residential, commercial or industrial purposes.
It is not clear whether any potential projects were identified from the request for information.
NBC News reported that funds from development on Camp Pendleton could potentially fund Trump’s Golden Dome missile defense project, citing defense sources. But officials have not publicly specified where funds would be allocated.
Absent specifics, it’s challenging for people in the areas immediately around the base to know what to expect and how to prepare, Fulton said.
“Are we talking about little shopping centers or high-rise hotels?” he said. “You would assume that the military has certain constraints that they would want to impose to protect their activities, but we just don’t know.”
Given the base’s coastal location, development on the site could certainly be fruitful for the federal government. Developers have long had their eye on smaller swaths of coastal land in Southern California. Years-long battles between developers and environmentalists were waged in the fight over proposed housing and commercial developments at Bolsa Chica in Huntington Beach and Banning Ranch in Newport Beach. Ultimately, those projects were scrapped.
Camp Pendleton, bordered by San Clemente to the north and Oceanside to the south, opened in 1942 during World War II at a time when the military was looking for large places to train soldiers, particularly for amphibious missions in the Pacific. It became a permanent installation two years later and has trained thousands of service members, sending troops to battle in Operation Desert Storm and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Camp Pendleton has a deeply entwined relationship with its southern neighbor, Oceanside, once a sleepy beachside town turned military city and recreation hub.
In 1940, the city’s population was 4,652. Ten years later, it had swelled to more than 12,800 and grew further as the United States entered the Korean War and more service-connected families moved into the region, according to census data.
Development on the base would certainly have an effect on Oceanside, city leaders say.
Service members and their families frequently travel off the base to surrounding communities to shop and dine out, providing a steady customer supply for local businesses including those that cater heavily to Marines including dry cleaners, tailors, barbershops and military surplus stores. The base’s regional economic impact is more than $6 billion dollars annually, according to the city.
“I think it would be very concerning to see large scale development without collaboration with local municipalities,” said Oceanside Deputy Mayor Eric Joyce. Joyce said the city hasn’t yet been given any insight into the federal government’s plans for the base.
“We have neighborhoods that are literally right up to the gate, who are very impacted when there are changes in traffic or other developments there,” Joyce said, adding that the city has a deep respect for the base and any shifting away from its original mission of training Marines would “be deeply concerning.”
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