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Texas Constitution
Proposition 1Relations between a military base and its surrounding community can be love-hate, especially when high-performance jets rattle windows during takeoffs or landings. Tarrant County and Fort Worth in particular have enjoyed a positive relationship with the expansive base on the city’s west side since the facility opened in 1941 as the Tarrant Field Airdrome. Decades before North Texas leaders started touting Dallas/Fort Worth Airport as the area’s economic engine, the hub long known as Carswell Air Force Base served that role. Now named Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, it provides crucial military training on a site surrounded by six incorporated cities: Benbrook, Fort Worth, Lake Worth, River Oaks, Westworth Village and White Settlement. If the base remains active and fully operational, the surrounding cities gain a definite economic benefit. But the occasional clash of interests can occur over compatible land use near military bases. That’s what Proposition 1 on the Nov. 3 ballot is designed to help alleviate. Voter approval would give cities and counties another tool to encourage compatible land use: the ability to issue bonds and notes to buy buffer areas or open spaces adjacent to bases. Encroachment is a four-letter word in Pentagon parlance. Military airfields like the one in Fort Worth have clear zones and Accident Potential Zones (APZs) that few people like to think about, but they are a reality. The Defense Department recommends that noise-sensitive uses (for example, houses, churches and amphitheaters) be placed outside the highest-noise zones and that people-intensive uses (shopping malls, apartment complexes) not be placed in an APZ-1 area. In general, the only uses considered compatible with an APZ-1 area are wholesale and manufacturing, agriculture and public right of way. Any development is discouraged in a clear zone, which is basically where planes take off and land. Encroachment issues are deciding factors in the base realignment and closure process. Naval Air Station Fort Worth is a great economic asset for Tarrant County. It would be a shame if it were ever shut down because of inappropriate development in what should be buffer areas or open spaces around the base. That said, cities want to encourage economic development within their limits and are understandably touchy about someone else placing zoning or use restrictions within their incorporated boundaries. Tarrant County is fortunate to have strong lines of communication between the base and its six adjoining cities, in part thanks to the voluntary formation of the Regional Coordination Committee. Representatives from Tarrant County and the six cities, along with nonvoting members from the base, the Benbrook Area and Fort Worth chambers of commerce, Lockheed Martin, the North Central Texas Council of Governments and the Defense Department’s Office of Economic Adjustment, work together to promote and preserve the base.
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