On the radio, I recently heard a discussion of a politician (I think it was Congressman Jim Davis) trying to prevent the closing of Tampa’s Macdill Air Force Base. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tampa#MacDill_Air_Force_Base It’s an important base, being the HQ of Centcom and therefore of all U.S. military operations in the Middle East, but there has been talk of locating Centcom elsewhere.
I got to thinking: Closing Macdill, which employs 14,000 people, would be bad for Tampa’s economy. But would it be an unmixed curse? Closing the base would free up a vast tract of land within the city limits, surrounded by water on three sides, and linked to the city via one of our major highways (Dale Mabry Highway, which runs north-south from Macdill AFB to the Pasco County Line). That’s land that could be redeveloped as – well, practically anything. Industrial uses, commercial, residential, governmental, recreational, or a combination.
Lots of American military bases have been closed since the Cold War ended. What experiences have local communities had with redeveloping the land for other uses?
Things don’t always turn out so rosy at closed military facilities, as evidenceb by the Badger Army Ammunition Plant. It was closed in 1975, and has been a political and environmental football ever since. It still sits abandoned and unused on 7500 acres of what used to be prime farmland, but is now closer to a toxic waste dump than anything else. The county, state and Federal governmenr have been wrangling for decades over the cost of cleaning it up.
Presumably the McDill facility won’t have so many environmental issues, being a base rather than a production facility. But there is some history of military bases having less than adequate waste disposal processes for things like jet fuel and the kinds of solvents and other chemicals in use in their repair and servicing shops.
What kind of future the property has will depend a great deal on how much time and effort the military is willing to spend cleaning up the messes before it leaves.
One of the housing sections at one base–can’t recall where–was turned into sort of a co-housing community. Their aim was to create neighborhoods that combine group homes for troubled children with regular stable families, retirees, etc. Families had cheap housing as an incentive, and kids at risk were growing up in fairly safe, stable neighborhoods that had lots of activities and services oriented towards their success. It was quite interesting. Not sure if that model could be duplicated everywhere.
The naval training base over here in Orlando was closed back in the 90s. First the local yokel politicians managed to screw up a deal where Mercedes-Benz was going to build a huge plant on the land. Then there was a movement on to reserve it all for low-income housing. When the politicians realized that the poor don’t pay much in property taxes, the land ended up going to a developer who built a huge subdivision of high-end homes and condos seliing mostly in the 250-500k range. Effect on the economy positive if not particularly responsible.
Here in Edmonton the Evolution paintball range is housed in an old army base (used to be called Griesbach army base if I Googled right). I played there once, and I’ll bet it’s a lot more fun than jiggs subdivision.
I must admit, if Macdill, does close, I’ll personally be more than a little relieved. I live just north of the base, and . . . well, you can imagine the noise.
The San Francisco Bay Area has had mixed experiences with closed military bases since the Cold War ended. Considerable controversial development for commercial and residential areas is occurring in the Presidio, which is also trying to serve as a park.
The Treasure Island Naval Base has mostly been turned into housing and business development.
The Alameda Naval Air Station hasn’t been used for anything significiant AFAIK, except possibly the filming of part of the Matrix movies.
Forts Barry, Baker, and Cronkhite have, IMHO, rather successfully, been turned into a national park.
The Hunter’s Point Naval Shipyard has been a disaster since its closure, primarily due to environmental cleanup problems.
Closure of a base can be good or bad for a community, depending on what happens both before and after the closure.
I am in this field. I’ve worked on the closure of (you’ll forgive me if I don’t specify which one) Air Force Base since 1997.
I’ve heard a lot of good things about the closures of some of the other bases that are located in areas where the real estate is in more demand, but it hasn’t been terribly good for our community. Of our large hangars, only one is tenanted. One was a portable classroom construction facility for a while, but that company went bankrupt and left. We have about three major large tenants, but most of the base is empty. I don’t have actual statistics to hand, but between the empty buildings and the demolished ones, I’d guess we’re at about a 25% occupancy rate, excluding housing.
They have done good things with housing though, although it took over five years for the first one to be put in place, and the second is just getting rolling now, 12 years after formal closure. We’re a small town here, and not exactly filled with businesses looking to rent out buildings that have to be renovated before they can use them, and the airfield competes with two others in the county.
It’s been hard on the area’s economy, but again, sorry, no numbers (I’m at home and have nowhere to look them up.) I do know people working on the others, who says they’re doing much better than we are. It’s a price of being located in an area with low demand, I guess.
Take OTIS AFB (Cape Cod,MA). The base had polluted the groundwater around for decades (a ruptured fuelline poured gasoline into the ground). The governemnt won’t clean it up (nobody knows how), and cancer rates around the base are much higher than normal. Plus, live ammunition is scattered all around the place(a legacy of its use as a National Guard training base).
What is really pathetic-politicians manage to keep these places open, long after they are of any real use…then they complain about the huge federal deficit-well, closing these places would save a LOT of money (but politicians like Sen. Ted Kennedy think money grows on trees, anyway).
What really amazes me…I’ve seen many closed military bases just allowed to rot away …Newport (RI) had THOUSANDS of apartments and houses for senior officers…they were just allowed to rot away(they were finally demolished) at great expense…stupid!
California State University, Monterey Bay is on the grounds of the old Ford Ord.
wevets, didn’t the Navy try and give Hunter’s Point to the City for free and the City refused, based on the environmental issues (which are, by all accounts, extreme)?
Ol’Gaffer, I don’t know about Hunter’s Point, but the Air Force gave my base to the local area for free, but only after cleaning up (or having a remedy in progress) all of the environmental issues. That’s where I come in, doing oversight of the cleanup. I don’t know that the government has charged a local agency for any transferred land.
Richards-Gebauer in Kansas City has been successful as an industrial park/private airport.
On the other hand, most of these facilities, even if ultimately successful, take years to redevelop. During that time, they aren’t serving either military or civilian interests.
And you’d be surprised how little demand there may be for something like a former air base that’s 14,000 feet long and 2,000 feet wide.
It’s in the UK rather than the US, but the former, once massively controversial, USAF base at Greenham Common has been developed into the relatively plainly named New Greenham Park.
The NTC here in San Diego is undergoing a similar transformation, except that the houses are going for about twice that price range. They did also put in a couple of charter schools and there are supposed to be fancy shopping areas and arts centers eventually, as well. I’ll be happy if they put in a Trader Joe’s.
I don’t know about for free, but the base is being transferred to the city. The shipyard closed in 1991, and the least polluted portion, Parcel A (formerly military housing), was transferred to the city in December 2004, after some contaminated soil was removed. That gives you some indication of the headaches and time scale involved.
My duty station was Amarillo AFB in 1965. When it closed, at least part of it became an atomic waste dump. I heard it was for sale recently. A large aircraft manufacturer looked at it, but declined.
Right now I leve a few blocks from an old Naval Ait station that closed in the late '60s. It lay dormant until the early '90s when the city made part of it a park. The old housing and hangers are still there. They rent and/or lease the hangers to businesses. They’ve been used as movie sets, and, during WTO, a jail.
They have renovated some of the housing for low income families.
It took 30 years and its still a major eye sore on the lake front, IMHO.
