A lot of folks, particularly in the business community, breathed a major sigh of relief this year when Davis-Monthan Air Force Base was spared by the Defense Department’s latest round of Base Realignment & Closure (BRAC). The base is a huge contributor to our local economy with money and jobs.

But at what cost? The price to save DM was the declaration of 8,500 homes in Central Tucson as “incompatible with residential use”. Residents are worried that their homes will become unlivable and their investment in those homes will become worthless as increasing numbers of noisier planes fly more frequently throughout the day and night. We all saw an Air Force jet crash in a residential subdivision in Yuma earlier this year; when will our luck run out in central Tucson? And what is the economic price of all this on homeowners and business owners in the city? Is it worth the benefits that the base provides to our economy? Perhaps it’s time to do that calculation.

Especially because we may not have a choice to save the base next time the BRAC comes around in a few years.

I recently spoke to a friend of mine in the Air Force, and he told me that it is general knowledge among insiders that DM’s days as a base are numbered because of the development which has been encouraged on the southeast side of the base. The boneyard and some other sections might stay, but most flight operations will move out to a less urban base to more effectively achieve Defense Department goals.

If this is true, then we should get our heads out of the sand now. It’s time to make lemons out of lemonade, and that’s exactly what other communities who have lost their bases are doing.

The Defense Department’s official BRAC FAQ page tells us that “A base closure can actually be an economic opportunity, especially when all elements of a community work together.” They give these examples:

(1) Charleston Naval Base, S.C. — The local community, assisted by DoD, was able to create approximately 4,500 new jobs. Approximately 90 private, state and federal entities are currently reusing the former naval base.

(2) Pease Air Force Base, New Hampshire More than 185 operating tenants currently established at the Pease International Tradeport (PIT). The PIT has been designated a Foreign Free Trade Zone by the U.S. Department of Commerce, and has developed an air cargo access capability via an 11,300 foot runway. There is in excess of 3,800,000 square feet of new, or newly renovated space, that has supported the creation of over 5,000 jobs, in biotechnology (Lonza Biotechnics), education (Southern New Hampshire University), in addition to a wide variety (Pan Am, Marriott, Redhook Brewery) of retail and professional service availability day-to-day.

(3) Fort Devens, Mass. — More than 3,000 new jobs have been generated and 2.7 million square feet of new construction has occurred. With 68 different employers on site, redevelopment ranges from small business incubators to the Gillette Corp., which occupies a large warehouse/distribution center and manufacturing plant.

Generally, bases in high-growth areas like Tucson do better at conversion, but even rural bases, with advance planning, have a track record of gaining more jobs than they lost. Loring AFB in Maine near the Canadian border went from 1,100 base-related jobs to 1,500 civilian jobs after the base left.

The former Lowry AFB in suburban Denver now boasts a $4 billion economic impact from 3,000 homes in a New Urbanist community, two million square feet of commercial space, and a community college campus for 10,000 students, all of which is now taxable, unlike the base. Lowry is now a national model for alternatives to urban sprawl.

The Defense Department will clean up all environmental hazards on their dime, and offers much more money to help planning efforts, retrain employees, and attract new businesses.

Progressive developers all over the country are partnering with cities to create win-win solutions and replace defense jobs with clean, quiet, higher paying business jobs and innovative mixed-use communities. There is a lot of knowledge available to help us make the right moves. It’s time we stop begging DM to stay, and plan for how we can benefit when the base leaves.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 12th, 2005 at 10:58 am and is filed under 3rd Rail of the Week, Economic Development, Public Health, Sensible Development. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.