[CPEO-MEF] Tierrasanta residents sound off on military housing plan

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California
THE SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE
Tierrasanta residents sound off on military housing plan
By Jeanette Steele
July 26, 2003

Some Tierrasanta residents fear their community will turn into a
gridlocked, school-poor mess if 1,600 units of military housing are
built on the southeast side of Miramar Marine Corps Air Station.

"I think it will cause hostilities," said Mary Ann McCann, echoing
others who say Santo Road, the main thoroughfare through Tierrasanta,
will become a parking lot from the additional traffic.

"I think the San Diego area has such a nice relationship with the
military . . . to antagonize it is a shame," said McCann, a Tierrasanta
homeowner for nine years.

They also worry the San Diego Unified School District won't have money
to build two elementary schools planned for the project, thus overtaxing
Tierrasanta classrooms.

And, David Hogan, spokesman for the Center for Biological Diversity,
called the project an "absolute disaster from an environmental
perspective."

It will cause a "huge gash" in one of the largest de facto coastal
wilderness areas in Southern California, he said.

Military planners heard some of these views at public meetings this
week.

"The Navy and Marine Corps will consider all of the comments (the
community) provides in the final decision," on the project, said Lee
Saunders, a Navy environmental public affairs officer.

The Navy is taking community response until Aug. 12 on a draft
environmental impact statement for a complex that is intended to ease
the housing crunch for the region's military families.

The military, which is required to offset impacts on surrounding
neighborhoods, now has roughly 3,000 service personnel on waiting lists
for family housing in San Diego County.

After six years of planning, the Navy announced last month that its
preferred site is 300 acres just north of state Route 52 near Santo
Road.

Tierrasanta is the closest community and will probably feel the most
effect on its roads, schools and shopping centers.

This article can be viewed at:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20030726-9999_7m26housing.html

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