I always wondered what it was like in Camp Pendleton whenever I passed it driving from San Diego County to LA. If it wasn't for Camp Pendleton the whole coast from LA to San Diego would be entirely developed. I'm sure there have been tons of developers who salivated about the military giving up Camp Pendleton.
Camp Pendleton is just massive, taking up nearly 20 miles of California coastline and in total area, about a fifth of the size of the state of Rhode Island.
When I was stationed there in the 1982-1984 period, most of the coastline was totally undeveloped. We used some of it to practice amphibious landings.
There was a nice beach in the southern part of it (Del Mar), just adjacent to Oceanside that was only accessible to Marines and their families.