Yup, it’s true, the Navy in San Diego has postponed the California Coastal Commission’s review of the Navy’s proposals for the future development of its NAVWAR properties, also referred to as the Old Town site.
It had been scheduled fro Friday, October 15, 2021. A new hearing date has not been selected yet.
SOHO has been leading a campaign against the Navy’s proposals and is now pledging to keep us all in the loop whenever a new date has been set.
Also, readers are encouraged to leave comments as to why they believe the Navy put off the hearing date.
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The EIS notes that, under Alternative 1, the Navy would make upgrades to security and force protection elements of the existing facility.
The final EIS should include a detailed description off all federally required security and anti-terrorism force protection measures and
requirements that must be installed, followed and complied with when you build a new worldwide Navy cybersecurity center. It must
provide a detailed explanation of how the Navy plans to surround its new cybersecurity facility with new housing and office buildings
and towers, while adhering to and fully complying with those physical security and cybersecurity requirements under each of the five
alternative scenarios examined in the draft EIS.
Specifically, how would the Navy prevent Chinese or Russian spies from buying or leasing adjoining housing towers or office blocks to conduct visual and electronic spying on cybersecurity center activities?
The draft EIS says that the Navy believes that the active Rose Canyon earthquake fault may run near (or directly under) the NAVWAR base site. It provides copies of state Alquist Prieto Act fault maps that show the fault as a dotted line next to the east side of the site, meaning that the fault is
currently concealed, meaning we don’t know if the fault runs directly beneath the site or not. As part of any competent EIS acceptable to federal courts, the Navy should have unbiased consultants conduct trenching and other means of determining whether or not the active fault runs beneath the site.
If it does, the EIS should include a detail discussion and description of specific actions and measures the Navy commits to take to avoid or fully mitigate damage to the site that may take place if the fault runs beneath the site and a major earthquake happens. The EIS should also establish whether or not the Spanish Bight fault runs beneath the site, in case it proves to be active in future seismic investigations. That should include a detailed
discussion and description of specific actions and measures the Navy proposes to undertake take to protect against and fully mitigate any impacts
on the base if a major earthquake hits the site in the future.
One of the previous speakers talked about the closing of the Naval Training Center (NTC). As you know, NTC was closed under provisions of the Federal Base Closing and Reuse Review Act. That review process required that the Navy provide community benefits as part of the base closure process.
Is the proposed NAVWAR redevelopment project subject to the BRAC ACT? If it is, that must be discussed in the final EIS,
If not, the final EIS should include a discussion of the federal BRAC review process and explain why the NAVWAR project is exempt from that federal law.
Another local naval base, the Navy Broadway Complex was redeveloped outside the BRAC review process, but that redevelopment
project was authorized by special interest legislation approved by Congress and signed by the president as part of the 1987
Military Authorization Act. To our knowledge, no such federal law has been passed authorizing redevelopment of the NAVWAR base.
If federal legislation has been passed authorizing the proposed NAVWAR redevelopment project, that legislation must be discussed
and included in the final project EIS in order to pass muster with federal courts.