Posts Tagged ‘encroachment’

The Navy’s selection of an alternate landing site for turboprop aircraft based in Norfolk, Va., will save the government millions of dollars and, more importantly, reduce the risk that Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach is closed in a future BRAC round, according to the region’s congressional delegation. The Navy had spent several years looking for an alternate practice facility to relieve congestion at Fentress Naval Auxiliary Landing Field, which primarily is used by squadrons of F/A-18 Hornets and Super Hornets from nearby Oceana …

Local leaders in Colorado Springs, Colo., are urging city and state officials to develop a forward-looking approach to the next BRAC round, which many believe may be only a couple of years away. “We need an aggressive statewide strategy to protect and enhance current missions,” Scott Bryan, a member of the Regional Coalition for Federal Strategic Action, told the Colorado Springs Business Journal. “It’s a chance to grow the capacity to expand the defense presence here — and we should commit resources to that …

Virginia lawmakers have decided to set aside legislation intended to fight encroachment until they have time to make changes to mollify opposition over the role it would offer the military in local planning matters. The bill calls for “the requirements and concerns of military installations [to] be recognized and addressed in consideration of future development” by local planning commissions …

Chicago-based Invenergy said last week it will not go ahead with a planned, 49-turbine wind farm in eastern North Carolina that posed a hazard to low-level flights from Seymour Johnson Air Force Base. The company said it would consider altering the layout of the turbines — which, at the tip of the blades, extend 492 feet into the air — or moving the 11,000-acre project in Beaufort County to a new site …

Draft recommendations for limiting incompatible development outside of Fort A.P. Hill, Va., located halfway between Washington and Richmond, are scheduled to be released shortly. The joint land use study — conducted by AECOM and Travesky & Associates — also will look at ways to minimize the impact of noise and vibration from aircraft and ordnance training on the surrounding towns of Bowling Green and Port Royal …

Officials from Havelock, N.C., and Craven County emerged from a presentation Tuesday from the county’s Washington lobbyist with a new to-do list to help preserve the long-term future of Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point. Shawn Edwards, vice president of Cassidy and Associates, told the officials to launch an effort to secure a major project at Cherry Point within the next five years that would be vital to the Pentagon, reported Havelock News. Edwards also emphasized the need to ensure the installation’s bombing ranges in Carteret County remain free of encroachment. The meeting reinforced the need for Havelock and Craven County to work more closely. “I think it kind of opens eyes,” Craven County Commissioner Lee Allen said. “If we don’t work together, we all lose together.”

Concerns about the noise generated by the F-35 Lightning II are weighing on the minds of residents in several defense communities as the Air Force and Navy consider where to base units of the next-generation stealth fighter. The host community of the Vermont Air National Guard’s 158th Fighter Wing is opposing the Air Force’s plan to base 18 to 24 of the aircraft at Burlington International Airport, raising the question as to whether the Air Force will stick to its preferred alternative …

State grants announced Monday will help Okaloosa and Santa Rosa counties on the Florida Panhandle purchase land and make other infrastructure improvements to support local installations. Okaloosa was awarded two grants totaling $381,245. One will be used to purchase land along the Shoal River near Duke Field — part of Eglin AFB — as part of an ongoing effort to buffer the facility from development …

Officials from DOD, the Navy and E.ON Climate & Renewables North America reached agreement this week to allow the developer to construct up to 100 wind turbines at a site located about halfway between Naval Air Stations Kingsville and Corpus Christi in South Texas. The agreement, which calls for Chicago-based ECRNA to provide DOD $750,000 in funding for research and testing into solutions to mitigate potential impacts of the wind farm on military radar, is intended to preserve the two installations’ pilot training missions …

As the military services adapt to increased pressure on their budgets, local and state governments likely will find they have a greater role to play in supporting the mission of a neighboring military installation, especially when it comes to ensuring compatible land uses. That increased support could include contributing a greater share of funding to military-community partnerships designed to protect buffer lands from development or, similarly, by encouraging greater participation by conservation groups …