OTAY MESA – The city of San Diego is trying to regain the power to tell Blackwater Worldwide whether it meets city rules to operate its military training facility in Otay Mesa.

City Attorney Michael Aguirre filed an appeal yesterday against a federal court ruling last month that allowed Blackwater to operate the training facility – even though the city had not completed its permit process.

Aguirre said the judge erred in her ruling, disrupting the city's land use process that includes public hearings. If the city is successful, Blackwater would have to undergo review by the city's Planning Commission and the City Council to get approval to operate, Aguirre said.

“If we have individuals operating war training facilities in the middle of a business park, as proposed here, with absolutely no security whatsoever, that dramatically and radically changes land-use patterns,” Aguirre said.

The legal challenge was filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in San Francisco.

On June 17, U.S. District Judge Marilyn Huff ruled in favor of Blackwater in a lawsuit in which it alleged the city interfered with its permits for an indoor Navy training center in Otay Mesa near Brown Field.

Huff ruled that the city did not have the right to hold public hearings on the project, basing much of her decision on the city's internal audit of the project. That audit upheld the company's building permits and the site's designation as a vocational school.

Blackwater, a government contractor, is now trying to force the city to issue a certificate of occupancy, changing the building's designated use from warehouse to military training facility, Aguirre said. The city is balking while the company continues its operations there.

Aguirre said he is seeking an expedited hearing on the appeal.

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Ronald W. Powell: (619) 293-1258; ron.powell@uniontrib.com