Blackwater drops plans for training center in California

Blackwater has dropped its controversial plans for a military and law enforcement training center in Southern California.

The Moyock, N.C.-based private military company has learned that the project would not comply with the county noise ordinance, spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell said Friday.

"Although the site would have brought a great benefit to San Diego County - providing local, state, and federal law enforcement with access to low-cost superior training facilities while bringing much-needed jobs to the area - the proposed site plan simply does not meet the county's parameters or our business objectives at this time," Tyrrell said in an e-mail statement.

The proposal had stirred a storm of opposition from a coalition of rural residents, environmentalists and anti-war activists.

In December, five members of a local planning board who had voted to approve the project were recalled by voters in Potrero, the tiny community 45 miles east of San Diego where Blackwater wanted to build its facility on an 824-acre chicken and cattle ranch.

Raymond Lutz, one of the leaders of the opposition, said Friday he believes the company simply yielded to the popular will.

Lutz had just announced his candidacy Thursday for the local state Assembly seat, pledging to run largely on an anti-Blackwater platform.

Lutz said: "They just said, in my view, 'We're out of here. We have to get out of this and cut our losses right now.' "

Bill Sizemore, (757) 446-2276, bill.sizemore@pilotonline.com