California Military Base Has a Final Mission: Become Housing (1)

On an overcast February day, futuristic autonomous shuttles roll silently through deserted streets past decaying, abandoned buildings on the northern fringes of San Francisco Bay. The only signs of life are a phalanx of police officers and, in the distance, cattle roaming among hundreds of sod-covered concrete bunkers that stretch to the horizon.

Nearly two decades after the US Navy decommissioned the Concord Naval Weapons Station in California, the sprawling site more resembles the set of a post-apocalyptic movie than the residential community it’s slated to become. Before ground is broken on a single new home, bunkers, pipelines and other military ...