RLUAC Quarterly Meeting
May 19, 2016
Report: Angie Hedgepeth
Government Affairs Director
Fayetteville Regional Association of REALTORS®
Background on RLUAC – The Regional Land Use Advisory Commission (RLUAC) is a non-profit 501(C)3 membership based organization located in the Sandhills of North Carolina consisting of twenty units of local government: eight counties and twelve municipalities. The twenty year old organization was the first regional group established in the country to coordinate land use decisions between the military and the local governments. Today, the primary mission of RLUAC is to balance the following three key objectives through facilitating regional planning and development reviews, communication and coordination: 1)Protect the Civilian Population from negative military impacts; 2)Protect the Long Leaf Pine Ecosystem from destruction; and 3) Protect the Military Training Mission from incompatible development
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David Kennedy (Program Manager, Office of Economic Adjustment from the Pentagon) gave a presentation on the Department of Defense, Office of Economic Adjustment Joint Land Use Study Program that will begin in the next few months. The study is expected to take two years with a grant from the Department of Defense.
Talking Points from Mr. Kennedy:
- This study will be the 5th since the late 80’s
- The last study was conducted in 2008
- The base has encroachment concerns
- Ft. Bragg will go nowhere but if the base allows encroachment, it may get out of control. Missions and training may be moved to other bases
- The Garrison Commander supports the study
- A few more days and the grant will be in place
- The funding will come from Department of Defense
- Regional Land Use Advisory Commission will execute the study and make this happen
- There are a lot of compatibility use issues i.e.. in Ft. Drum there are huge wind turns and no one looked at the flight helicopter path
- Another example of urban development near a base is 2/3 of a condominium unit on the edge of a bases flight corridors
- Cell phone towers is another issue
- The study will analyze the history of phone calls from civilians to the base
- The community is the grantee and the RLUAC executive committee will make the decisions, they are the policy committee
- There will public input and meetings. The public will be solicited for feedback
- Implementation is key and we will push for implementation either by legislative action or rewriting some laws may be needed
- RLUAC will meet every other month (question was raised if these meetings would be open to the public and the answer was TBD)
- We need a “Military Influence Area” or overlay district
- Ordinance will be written and there will be new real estate disclosure
- Conservation easements and buffers
- State legislation that needs teeth
- This will be a two year grant
- Study will have an environmental footprint
- Consulting compay will do the work but the board of directors (RLUAC) will meet more often
Jim Daughtry (Executive Officer RLUAC) gave a brief presentation on their role in the land use study. Talking points are below.
- The last time we did a study, we contacted all realtors and builders for a public input meeting. We had new news etc. there. Only one realtor showed up. Now I am glad we have representation from the REALTORS® Association this time
- We will study a 5 mile radius around the base (Cumberland, Hoke, Scotland, Lee, Harnett, Moore)
- This is the most comprehensive and impressive report I’ve seen
- The environmentalist are expecting great things from this report
Below are the requirements from Ft. Bragg for the study:
- GIS database
- Examine land use changes around 5 mile parcels
- To what extend the land is encroaching on the base
- Study fish and wildlife
- Completely update environmental requirements
- Study the EPA climate change on existing infrastructure of Ft. Bragg and the area
- Study solar farms
- Study the water supply, interbasin transfer and fracking and the potential conflicts with each
- Study Drones – look at the airspace demands and identify areas of non-development
“Incompatible development can affect training here…it would be like closing a goodyear plant and we don’t want that.”
5 phases of the study:
project initiation = 3 months
review and research = 41% of the study and will take 9 months
compatibility/development analysis report = 5 months
implementation plan = remainder of the time “we will expect local government to use it.”
