Lease Bases for Housing

The Defense Department is weighing commercial leases on parts of Camp Pendleton, a 125,000‑acre Marine base between L.A. and San Diego. Even a small fraction (e.g., 10%) developed at Santa Monica‑like density could house hundreds of thousands and be worth tens of billions, but must balance mission needs and environmental cleanup. This reframes DoD land as a potential housing supply lever in land‑constrained coastal metros. — It links national security assets to the housing crisis, setting a precedent for using federal base land to expand supply in high‑cost regions.