[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 249 (Wednesday, December 30, 2009)]
[Notices]
[Pages 69078-69080]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E9-30980]


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DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

Department of the Air Force


Notice of Intent To Prepare a Supplemental Environmental Impact 
Statement for the Military Housing Privatization Initiative at Eglin 
AFB, Florida and Hurlburt Field, Florida

AGENCY: United States Air Force, Air Force Materiel Command, Air Force 
Special Operations Command.

ACTION: Notice of Intent.

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SUMMARY: Pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 
(NEPA, 42 United States Code [USC] 4321-4347), the Council on 
Environmental Quality (CEQ) NEPA Regulations (40 Code of Federal 
Regulations [CFR] Parts 1500-1508), and the United States Air Force's 
(Air Force) Environmental Impact Analysis Process (EIAP, 32 CFR Part 
989), the Air Force is issuing this notice to advise the public of its 
intent to prepare a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) 
for the Military Housing Privatization Initiative (MHPI) at Eglin AFB, 
Florida and Hurlburt Field, Florida.
    This NOI describes the Air Force's proposed alternatives, scoping 
process, and identifies the Air Force's point of contact. As part of 
the SEIS, the Air Force will analyze potential environmental impacts 
associated with the alternatives for the MHPI, including a No Action 
Alternative. This is the fourth revision to the SEIS, which will 
describe the changes in the alternative development process used to 
identify potential parcels of land for the MHPI, consider F-35 aircraft 
noise profiles, identify new alternatives resulting from this process, 
and identify the potential impacts to the affected environment from 
MHPI.

[[Page 69079]]

    Purpose: The purpose of this action is for the Air Force to 
implement the MHPI by leveraging private sector funds, expertise, and 
efficiency with Air Force resources (land and residences). The Air 
Force would ``privatize'' its military family housing assets (those 
currently owned and operated by the government as opposed to leased 
housing) to accelerate the improvement and availability of housing for 
military families.
    Proposed Action: To obtain 1,477 military family housing units 
through some mixture of parcels from the five alternatives listed below 
plus the Hurlburt Field parcels. To implement the MHPI, the Air Force's 
proposed action includes the conveyance of all 1,413 existing military 
family housing units and infrastructure distributed among several 
parcels of land located on Eglin AFB and Hurlburt Field to a private 
developer.
    Of the existing units, the private developer would demolish 1,404, 
renovate units in place, and accept the Air Force's conveyance of nine 
existing historic units ``as is.'' The private developer would 
construct 1,477 new units (548 units for Hurlburt Field and 929 units 
for Eglin AFB) in phases and return nine historic units (five historic 
units located at Georgia Avenue on Eglin AFB and four historic units at 
Camp Pinchot) to the Air Force for adaptive reuse for purposes other 
than residential housing (e.g., offices, meeting places, etc.) once 
replacement units are constructed. At completion of the project, a 
private developer would own and operate 1,477 military family housing 
units (548 units for Hurlburt Field and 929 units for Eglin AFB) on 
behalf of the Air Force.
    All construction and demolition activities would occur on Air 
Force-owned property at Eglin AFB and Hurlburt Field. The Air Force 
would lease the real property underlying the current units to the 
private developer. For areas not designated for rebuilding, this lease 
would last only until demolition is complete or once replacement units 
are built (in the case of the historic units), at which time the 
property would be returned to the Air Force. For areas designated for 
rebuilding, renovation, or conveyance as is, the real property would be 
leased to the private developer for a period of 50 years from the date 
of the transaction. In addition, the existing Hurlburt Field FAMCAMP 
area would relocate as part of this proposed action.
    Alternatives: Activities described under the Proposed Action, 
including construction of housing on Hurlburt Field, would be common 
across all alternatives, except the No Action Alternative. The 
alternatives for MHPI differ in the distribution of the housing. The 
following locations are being considered:
    Alternative 1. Crestview Park/Duke Field Area consists of two 
parcels totaling 567 acres. The area is located approximately one mile 
northwest of Duke Field, just south of the Yellow River along the 
northern border of the Eglin Reservation.
    Alternative 2. Eglin Northeast Area comprises four parcels totaling 
2,458 acres. The area is located approximately one mile southeast of 
Mossy Head, Florida, right inside the northeastern Eglin Reservation 
border.
    Alternative 3. White Point Area comprises seven parcels totaling 
416 acres. The area is located at White Point along the coastline of 
Choctawhatchee Bay south of Niceville, Florida, and adjacent to SR-20.
    Alternative 4. Eglin Main Base/Valparaiso Area comprises eight 
parcels totaling 695 acres. The largest parcel (620 acres) is located 
in the southwest corner of Eglin Main Base adjacent to the New Plew 
housing area. The remaining parcels are located along the northeast 
border of Eglin Main Base, near the East Gate and adjacent to 
Valparaiso.
    Alternative 5. North Fort Walton Beach Area comprises five parcels 
totaling 457 acres with a 50 acre buffer area. Three parcels were 
previously identified in MHPI NEPA documentation as the ``Camp Pinchot 
Expansion Area'' (located adjacent to the Camp Pinchot Historic 
District and bordered on the west by SR-189 and the east by Garnier 
Bayou) and parts of the ``Poquito Bayou Expansion Area'' (located just 
north of the existing Poquito Bayou housing area). The remaining two 
parcels are located along the southern Eglin Reservation boundary in 
north Fort Walton Beach just north of SR-189 and adjacent to the 
Okaloosa County Fairgrounds. The Camp Pinchot Historic District is not 
included in this alternative.
    No Action Alternative. The Air Force would not implement the 
Proposed Action at Eglin or Hurlburt Field. Instead, the Air Force 
would continue to manage/maintain and replace/upgrade MFH in accordance 
with existing Air Force policy and resources.
    Background: This document constitutes the fourth revision of an EIS 
that started with a Notice of Intent in January 2004 (Federal Register/
Vol. 69, No. 116, pg. 3570/January 26, 2004). The first iteration of 
the Draft EIS was published and released to the public in April 2005 
(Federal Register/Vol. 70, No. 67, pg. 17994/April 8, 2005). After 
consideration of concerns raised during the public comment period, the 
Air Force issued the second iteration, the Revised Draft EIS in March 
2006 (Federal Register/Vol. 71, No. 62, pg. 16302/March 31, 2006), 
which received public and agency comments. Before the EIS was 
finalized, circumstances arose causing the Air Force to halt the 
completion of the EIS and reevaluate the Proposed Action.
    The 2005 Base Closure and Realignment (BRAC) decisions resulted in 
the direction to beddown the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) (i.e., the F-35 
aircraft) and the Army's 7th Special Forces Group. This BRAC directed 
action resulted in a planned net gain of approximately 4,000 additional 
military, civilian, and contractor personnel (not including family 
members) at Eglin AFB. As a result, the Air Force conducted a new 
housing requirements analysis and issued its third EIS iteration, the 
Supplemental Draft EIS in Aug 2008 (Federal Register/Vol. 73, No. 154, 
pg. 46269/August 8, 2008). The third iteration analyzed the potential 
consequences from housing alternatives limited exclusively to the main 
base areas of Eglin AFB or Hurlburt Field due to a shortfall in project 
financials associated with hurricane-related increases in construction/
insurance costs.
    Scoping: In order to effectively define the full range of issues to 
be evaluated in the EIS, the Air Force will determine the scope of the 
EIS (i.e., what will be covered and in what detail) by soliciting 
scoping comments from interested state and federal agencies and 
interested members of the public through the Federal Register and 
various media in the local areas of concern. Scoping comments should be 
submitted to the address below by the date indicated. The Air Force 
will also hold a series of scoping meetings to further solicit input 
regarding the scope of the proposed action and alternatives.

DATES: Three scoping meetings will be held in the potentially impacted 
communities. The scheduled dates, times, locations and addresses for 
the meetings will be published in local media a minimum of 15 days 
prior to the scoping meetings. The Air Force intends to hold scoping 
meetings in the following communities: Crestview, FL; Ft Walton Beach, 
FL; and Niceville, FL.
    In addition to comments received at the scoping meetings, any 
written comments on the scope of the proposed EIS should be provided to 
the address below by Friday, February 1, 2010.

[[Page 69080]]


FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT: Mike Spaits, Eglin AFB Public 
Affairs Office, 101 West D Avenue, Suite 110, Eglin Air Force Base, FL 
32542-5499, phone (850) 882-2836, e-mail: [email protected] or 
check the Web site, http://www.eglin.af.mil/housing_privatization/index.asp.

Bao-Anh Trinh,
YA-3, DAF, Air Force Federal Register Liaison Officer.
[FR Doc. E9-30980 Filed 12-29-09; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 5001-05-P