[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