Irvine Should Talk Peace

“Dear Marines: Please Leave.” The March 1 letter from Irvine City Manager Paul Brady Jr. to Marine Corps officials about the Marine Helicopter Air Station in Tustin wasn’t quite that abrupt, but the message was clear.

The request came not long after a task force made up of Irvine residents finished a yearlong study of noise and safety problems around the base that had suggested a more neighborly solution: The Marines should simply fly their helicopters a little higher. But Brady was writing at the instruction of his City Council, and his request was made in an atmosphere that had also been strained by a draft report for the military that redefined the way aircraft noise is measured around the nearby Marine Corps Air Station at El Toro. That report raised the possibility of expanding the amount of land exempted from possible development because it is near flight paths.

It’s perhaps inevitable that relations between the Marines and their civilian neighbors would be put to the test as society changed. The end of World War II, which provided an opportunity for returning veterans to settle in Orange County in an environment hospitable to things military, is becoming a more distant memory. Regularly, the roar of aircraft engines cuts through the air in the area’s new suburban communities like the sound of belching technological dinosaurs. People living beneath the flight paths of helicopters openly wonder, what if one of those things comes down here? Fortunately, there have been no civilian fatalities in Irvine caused by military helicopters. But beyond the fear and annoyance over noise lies a more subtle dynamic affecting the military’s place alongside civilian society these days.

The Marines and Orange County communities have enjoyed reasonably good relations, and most important have learned how to talk to each other. But the incredible development of the county in recent years has made bedfellows of the general population and military installations in ways that could not have been foreseen by even the most farsighted planners decades ago. Both bear some responsibility for urban encroachment near the bases--the military for not carving out a larger slice of buffer territory when the bases were built and municipalities for not controlling growth up to the perimeters of the facilities. To this environment, add concern about the peace dividend and the future role of the military, and suddenly the bases are defending more than the country, they are defending--in the case of Tustin, at least--their very existence.

Irvine says it wants to talk, which is good. It would not be good, however, to undertake discussions with a neighbor that begin with the premise that you want him out. Moreover, while the concern about safety is understandable, the Irvine request was Draconian in view of the helicopter station’s good safety record and the Marines’ history of good community relations. And local officials should not forget that many people in Orange County, who have served proudly in war and peace, will not look kindly on a proposal to pull the welcome mat out from under the feet of those who have been first into the fight, with semper fidelis for America.

But the Marines will have to give a little too. Uncertainty over new levels of noise at El Toro and new territory excluded from development must be addressed. If necessary, some flight paths may have to be altered. Some trade-offs in land use or flight routines that acknowledge the considerable swath of military land already set aside in nearby Camp Pendleton ought to be examined.

Some weeks ago, Irvine held an important conference on how best to prepare a regional economy heavily dependent on the military-industrial complex for a new era in East-West relations. It was a brilliant stroke. How about such a conference with the military itself? After all, the Marine Corps represents an important interest group in Orange County and an interested party in how best to manage the changes brought on by a vastly changed world.