The National City Chamber of Commerce and the South County Economic Development Council brought Commanding Officer Roy Love to Paradise Village in National City to discuss the San Diego Naval Base growth and how it impacts National City.
Love said the biggest impact the Navy will have in South County is with its population boom in the next five to 10 years. He estimates that Naval Base San Diego, which is located adjacent to National City, to have a 29 percent increase in population or an increase of about 10,000 people.
Naval Base San Diego is one of three metro bases in the county. There are bases in Pt. Loma, Coronado and National City.
Love said with the anticipated population growth there needs to be more places to live.
“The government housing that we have today is not ready to meet the (population) growth,” he said. In San Diego there are 22 Littorial combat ships that carry about 5,600 military personnel. There are two carrier ships in Coronado that bring in about 6,000 sailors.
“If there is a third carrier in the region that’s a lot of people that are going to be looking for housing and places to live,” Love said.
Love said currently on the navy base have there is room for 5,000 sailors, which leaves them at about 90 percent capacity. He said with the expected 10,000 more sailors coming in over the next few years the base will be over capacity.
He said the navy is trying to figure out where to put more housing for sailors on base and off base. He said National City could be an option for more housing.
Love said the although there is a housing shortage, the population increase is good for National City because he said an increase in military personnel translates into an increase in business and more money spent in National City.
Although more sailors is good for business, Love said there will be an increase demand for public service like transportation in National City.
“It will increase traffic,” he said. “Harbor Drive is already pretty clobbered in the early morning. Every day we process 35,000 to 40,000 people who work at Naval Base San Diego. That’s a lot of people on Harbor Drive to manage. Can you imagine 10,000 more people?”
Love said the way to combat this is that the base is encouraging its government employees to park off the base and walk or take public transportation with buses and trolleys near by. There is also a newly implemented pedestrian bridge.
