[CPEO-MEF] Mare Island as a model@cpeo.org

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

In Vallejo, a Lesson in Converting El Toro

Bay Area city's experience with its naval shipyard is instructive for 
Orange County, where the same developer is doing the makeover.

By Jean O. Pasco
Los Angeles Times
March 21, 2005

VALLEJO, Calif. — There's a lesson here amid the rusting cranes and 
vacant warehouses of Mare Island Naval Shipyard, the 152-year-old 
military base that once dominated this bay-front Northern California 
city: Nothing happens fast on a closed Navy base.

It's a lesson that Irvine, some 400 miles south, will learn as it begins 
development of the former El Toro Marine base, anchored in the heart of 
Orange County.

"You have to have a lot of patience, and you have to have a good plan 
and stick to it, within reason," said Councilman Gary Cloutier, a San 
Francisco attorney who moved to Vallejo eight years ago seeking refuge 
from the Bay Area bustle.

His restored 1898 Victorian mansion sits atop a knoll overlooking the 
shipyard, which was closed in 1996. From his back patio, he has a 
perfect view across the narrow strait as the setting sun illuminates a 
junked warehouse, glinting from rows of grimy windows. Crews built 
submarines in the massive structure, just one more job in the life of a 
base that began in 1854 with horses and cannons and ended its days 
handling nuclear subs and warheads.

The 5,223 acres of former Navy property is owned by Lennar Mare Island, 
a subsidiary of Lennar Corp., chosen by Vallejo in 1997 as the site's 
master developer. In 2002, Lennar took title to 650 acres on the island, 
where it says it will build homes, shops, restaurants and businesses. 
The company got the land free but promised to invest $260 million in 
streets and utilities, historic preservation and building renovation.

The project is a striking parallel to Lennar's interests to the south: 
the mothballed 3,718-acre former Marine Corps Air Station at El Toro, 
which the developer won at auction in February for $649.5 million. Like 
Mare Island, El Toro is an enormous piece of land riddled with 
contamination but holding great potential.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-vallejo21mar21,1,7475748.story?coll=la-headlines-california&ctrack=1&cset=true
--
Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
http://www.cpeo.org


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