Supervisor opposes marine expansion into Johnson Valley

The battle: 1st District Supervisor Mitzelfelt supports the Marine base expansion, but hopes to protect the local economy and the country's largest off-roading site.

The issue: The largest Marine Corps training center in the country, the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center at Twentynine Palms, is looking to expand by as much as 420,000 acres.

An application was filed on Sept. 15, 2008, by the U.S. Department of the Navy for the land withdrawal.

The proposal: The application for withdrawal includes 135,000 acres — or 70 percent — of the Johnson Valley off-highway vehicle area.

Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt is hoping to pass a county-wide resolution urging decision makers to look east for expansion — away from Johnson Valley.

By KATHERINE ROSENBERG, Editor

LUCERNE VALLEY - Although county officials have consistently shown their support for the expansion of the Twentynine Palms Marine Corps base’s training center, 1st District Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt Monday released a recommendation to the Board of Supervisors geared towards protecting Johnson Valley off-highway vehicle area.

The report was to be an agenda item at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting, but it was indefinitely postponed until a later meeting, as county officials would like to further examine the consequences of backing an eastern expansion plan.

The recommendation item was to, “adopt resolution No. 2008 in support of proposal to expand U.S. Marine Corps Training Facilities in Twentynine Palms to the east, and in support of maintaining the status of the BLM Johnson Valley Open Area and maintaining all current uses therein.”

But at the suggestion of another county official, the recommendation was postponed until such a time that the board can look at the ramifications of an eastward push.

“I have expressed my concern with expansion into the Johnson Valley open area. But the eastern expansion currently could very likely close Amboy Road, which is a very significant highway. That is very worrisome to me and I think we need to address that as well in our position. As a former Marine, I'm very familiar with the type of training they do there. They do need more space, but we do need to study the impact on our constituents,” Mitzelfelt said at Tuesday’s meeting.

David Zook, spokesman for Mitzelfelt said that the Supervisor still believes that an eastward move —away from Johnson and Lucerne Valleys is the way to go, but the county as a whole has not decided on a position.

On Sept. 15 the U.S. Department of the Navy filed an application requesting the Secretary of the Interior to process a land withdrawal ad reservation of public lands for military training exercises at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center —the nation’s largest such training center.

The request was for 420,000 acres, including 348,000 acres of BLM land, some of which comprises the 135,000 acres requested from the Johnson Valley off-highway vehicle site. At its current 188,000 acres, that represents 70 percent of the area that would be off-limits to recreators.

“Johnson Valley is ... providing economic benefits to the surrounding communities and opportunities for off-highway vehicle enthusiasts and many others to enjoy recreation in the desert,” the recommendation said. “Additionally, Johnson Valley is a popular site for photography and filming of movies, commercials and other productions which generates additional economic benefits.”

As to the push to move east, the report goes on to say that they are “mostly unpopulated, are not heavily used for recreation, and have been used in the past for military training. They do not have surrounding communities as is the case in the Johnson Valley, and they would provided a viable alternative to the original proposal.”

Now, looking at possibly having to close Amboy Road, which leads to Interstate 40, officials are saying they need more time to secure their position.
“Obviously we need to study a little bit more,” Mitzelfelt concluded.