Posts Tagged ‘base redevelopment/environmental cleanup’

With the prospect of finding a permanent solution to address the loss of California’s 400 redevelopment agencies uncertain, state lawmakers are proposing a temporary reprieve to give the agencies time to figure out how to continue existing development projects. On Friday, legislators introduced a bipartisan measure extending the Feb. 1 deadline for dissolving the redevelopment agencies until April 15 …

Irvine, Calif., officials are wondering how the redevelopment of the former Marine Corps Air Station El Toro will be funded after the California Supreme Court’s recent ruling upholding the governor’s plan to abolish the state’s 400 redevelopment agencies. Construction of the 1,300-acre Orange County Great Park is heavily dependent on the tax increment financing that redevelopment agencies are set up to provide …

In a first for the Army Corps of Engineers’ Savannah District, the disposal of BRAC property resulted in dividing a building between two separate end users. The city of Albemarle, S.C., obtained the Jesse Niven Reserve Center at no cost from the Army, but implemented an unusual reuse plan …

The Horsham LRA recommended reducing the density of the 862-acre reuse plan for the former Naval Air Station Willow Grove by 30 percent during a conference call last month with its planning consultant. A reduction in the number of housing units from 1,999 to 1,416 would affect single-family homes, townhomes, and apartments and condominiums primarily on the north end of the base, where a 27-acre, mixed-use town center is planned …

The California Supreme Court last week ruled in favor of a state law dissolving about 400 redevelopment agencies, jeopardizing economic development efforts in communities, including those rejuvenating closed bases, across the state. The measure was enacted last summer as part of Gov. Jerry Brown’s plan to balance the state’s budget by reallocating funds raised via tax increment financing from redevelopment agencies to other public services such as public safety and education …

The Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Authority approved on Dec. 21 the economic development conveyance agreement it had negotiated with the Army, paving the way for much of the New Jersey installation’s 1,126 acres to pass into private hands over the next 18 months. Under the agreement, the authority will hand over 50 percent of the proceeds from the sale or lease of property to the Army …

In an effort to generate innovative solutions to the challenge of re-envisioning closed military bases, a San Francisco-based design advocacy organization is hosting an international competition for architects, designers and community groups to collaborate on plans for reusing local installations that have been decommissioned or are scheduled for closure …

Looming cuts in defense spending, along with the prospect of a new BRAC round, should prompt communities that host military installations or weapons manufacturing facilities to consider relying on the civilian economy, peace activist Sanford Gottlieb writes in the Huffington Post. The nation’s experience with five rounds of BRAC demonstrates that communities that suffer a downsizing can reinvent themselves, partially through the help of federal aid …

The budget for the Office of Economic Adjustment will rise $40.9 million to $91.8 million under the fiscal 2012 omnibus spending package approved last week, primarily because of three civilian projects intended to support the realignment of Marines to Guam. The president’s request for the agency included funding for the purchase of school buses for public schools in Guam; construction of a cultural repository to preserve artifacts unearthed during military construction; and the construction …

The Navy last week completed the closing and initial property transfer of about 680 acres at the former Naval Air Station South Weymouth, Mass., to the South Shore Tri-Town Development Corp. through an economic development conveyance. LNR Property LLC will be responsible for the estimated $25 million cost of the conveyance; about half of the compensation relies on revenue sharing …