City of Fort Smith: No input from military on planned military overlay district

Neither the military nor the federal government have given Fort Smith city administration specific requests for a Military Compatibility Area Overlay District (MCAOD) that could be imposed in the city prior to the arrival of F-35 fighter jets.

The MCAOD will be part of the discussion at the Fort Smith Board of Director’s study session held Tuesday evening (May 28). In the months of work on and public outreach about the MCAOD, the city staff has not been clear about the source of rules within the proposed district.

Ebbing Air National Guard Base, home to the 188th Wing in Fort Smith and co-located with the Fort Smith Regional Airport, was selected in March 2023 by the U.S. Air Force to be the long-term pilot training center supporting F-16 and F-35 fighter planes purchased by Singapore, Switzerland, Poland, Germany, Finland and other countries participating in the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program. Initial estimates are that 1,500 military personnel and family members will be associated with the new center once it is fully operational.

U.S. Air Force officials have said the earliest planes and pilots from foreign nations could arrive at Ebbing would be in late 2024, part of the military’s fiscal year 2025 beginning in September 2024. The full complement of 12 F-16s and 24 F-35s from various nations could arrive in fiscal year 2026 at the earliest. It has been estimated that the full cost to create an operational foreign pilot training center will be $850 million.

PLANNING COMMISSION REJECTION
The Fort Smith Planning Commission on May 14 voted four to three against unified development ordinance (UDO) amendments that would create a MCAOD. At the time, then Planning Commission Chairman Don Keesee said one of the major things the planning commission wanted to know in study sessions regarding the overlay district and the regulations is whether they were requirements or requests of the United States military.

“I personally have not heard that answer,” he said. “I want to know that the military said, ‘We want these things.’”

There were several concerns raised by residents during the May 14 Planning Commission meeting, including a vague definition of foreign entities in language controlling land sales in the MCAOD, and vague and potentially over restrictive development rules on property within the MCAOD.

Several citizens at the meeting suggested the city staff work closer with property owners and refine the rules before the Fort Smith Board of Directors votes on the MCAOD.

NO MILITARY INPUT
The proposed MCAOD was developed by the city to “protect public health, safety, and welfare of the community and preserve and maintain existing and future operational capabilities of the Fort Smith Regional Airport/Ebbing Air National Guard Base.” The city set out a proposed set of guidelines that included lighting in areas near the airport, sound reduction requirements in new construction in the area, and height restrictions on new construction on property connecting to airport property.

For property physically contiguous to the airport, there are more stringent guidelines proposed for new construction that include a maximum height of 20 feet and a 30-foot buffer between buildings and the airport property. Also, any property to be sold to a foreign entity would require approval by the Fort Smith Board of Directors.

City Administrator Carl Geffken, in response to questions from Talk Business & Politics, said the city has not received any instructions from the military or any of its agencies about needed regulations in a military compatibility overlay district.

“The City has not received any communication, document, or email message from the military requesting any zoning, including the overlay district, and it is not a prerequisite to a fully operational foreign pilot training center,” Geffken said. “The City of Fort Smith has undertaken the work that resulted in the military compatibility overlay district based on our knowledge of basing actions in other states, and it was our desire to present Fort Smith as the best option for this mission.”

MATRIX DESIGN
The city hired Colorado Springs-based Matrix Design Group to provide the expertise and knowledge to draft what became the MCAOD, Geffken said. The city is paying Matrix $210,000 for the work.

According to the Matrix Design Group’s webpage, the company “includes professionals with the most up-to-date and relevant experience across the broad spectrum of planning services.”

The overlay district has undergone several redrafts in the past year. The June 2023 version was much more restrictive than any of the versions brought to the public and the Planning Commission, Geffken said. This version included a “clear zone,” an “accident potential zone 1,” and an “accident potential zone 2.” Each of these zones had various restrictions on the use of land in those areas.

“Since the airport and military flying began in the 1940’s or 1950’s along with the continuous commercial and civilian flights, we felt that this was overly restrictive,” Geffken said in an email to the Board of Directors.

MCAOD REVISIONS
There were subsequent versions in December, February, March, April and May. Most notably, the March version removed the vertical obstruction language. However, city officials knew there was a need to limit the height of buildings close to the airport property, Geffken said.

“The April 2024 version refined the MCAOD by revising 1.09 SAFETY Military Compatibility Area (Figure 4), which includes a height buffer. The goal of the height buffer is to limit the ability to have buildings that can look into or have a line of sight into the 188th. The initial height was 20 feet high. I also approved the airport buffer and development approval. The 30-foot airport buffer matches the same 30-foot buffer on Leo Anhalt’s land where the VA clinic was built.  Since that passed the Planning Commission and was approved, we thought that was an acceptable distance. This was the version sent to the Planning Commission and presented for public input,” Geffken said.

The May 2 version is the result of the public input meetings. In this version, the term safety MCA was changed to security MCA and sound transmission class thresholds were reduced based on input by the builders.

“I also approved allowing delineated parking or turn around areas in the first ten feet of the 30-foot airport buffer (leaving 20 feet of a buffer) but after meeting with Rodney Ghan, I increased the 10 feet to 15 feet and approved the inclusion of drainage channels and detention ponds, at or below grade, in the buffer.  The land owned by Leo Anhalt/Nunnelee and Wright has the full 30-foot buffer on it and the 30-foot buffer plus more behind the VA is used for a detention pond,” Geffken said.

The height buffer also was changed to 35 feet above the established airfield elevation, Geffken said.

A May 22 draft removes the property west of Old Greenwood Road and north of Phoenix from the airport buffer, he said.