OTAY MESA
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Blackwater Worldwide failed to apply for the proper permits to run a training program for the Navy in Otay Mesa, San Diego city lawyers said in papers filed in federal court yesterday.
The North Carolina-based company never sought the permits needed to turn an entire warehouse on Siempre Viva Road near Brown Field into a vocational school, deputy city attorneys Donald McGrath and Walter C. Chung said in papers filed in U.S. District Court.
City lawyers asked Judge Marilyn L. Huff to reject a motion by Blackwater officials seeking a temporary restraining order that would allow them to begin operating the training center Monday. A hearing on the matter is scheduled for today.
The city's lawyers said that permit requests filed by Blackwater only covered a portion of the more than 60,000-square-foot warehouse. Original plans included in the requested permits also did not include a ship simulator, the lawyers said.
Blackwater officials were told in April by the city's chief building official that they needed a change-of-occupancy permit that would cover the entire building and allow training because existing permits allowed only for warehouse use, the lawyers said.
Blackwater's attorney, Michael Neil, said that the city's arguments are “absolute nonsense” and that the entire area is zoned for a vocational school.
Neil said Blackwater never filed for a change-of-occupancy permit because none was needed.
“You don't have to ask for a permit for something that's permitted by zoning laws and the zoning laws permit a vocational training institution in that zone – that's the way it's zoned,” Neil said.
City officials last week halted certification of final permits pending further review, but Blackwater said in a lawsuit filed last Friday that its contract with the Navy requires it to open the facility by Monday.
Ray Huard: (619) 593-4953; ray.huard@uniontrib.com
