Glendale pushes for F-35s; Pima revamps zoning rules for D-M area
by Multiple Authors on Dec. 17, 2008, under Edge, Local, Special
Lockheed Martin F-35
Glendale and Tucson are two top contenders for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, hailed as the potential savior of Air Force bases, which employ thousands of Arizonans but are threatened with closure as the jets they serve get slated for the scrap heap.
While Phoenix-area officials have been meeting with Air Force officials and touting the West Valley and Luke Air Force Base as an ideal home for the F-35, Tucson officials have apparently stopped lobbying.
Mayor Bob Walkup and Glen Kerslake, president of Davis-Monthan Air Force Base booster group DM-50, said this week that it had been more than two years since they had heard any news on whether the F-35 would come to Tucson or had formal conversations about it.
It hasn’t, however, been a complete standstill. The Pima County supervisors revamped zoning and building regulations Tuesday to encompass a wider area around D-M, echoing zoning changes the Tucson City Council approved in 2004 to restrict building around the base and prevent airplane crashes such as the one recently in San Diego.
The changes add 2,366 acres to the 5-mile-wide overlay zone, which restricts building and land use from midtown southeast to near the intersection of Houghton Road and Interstate 10. The overlay would only affect new construction and major renovations.
Supervisor Ann Day said the changes were aimed at ensuring that D-M – one of Tucson’s “big four” employers, along with the University of Arizona, Raytheon Missile Systems and local governments – can survive future rounds of base closures by the Department of Defense.
Davis-Monthan is the training base for A-10 attack jets, slated to be in use until 2028, base spokesman Sgt. Jacob Richmond said.
Glendale’s Luke Air Force Base is the world’s largest training base for F-16s, which are slated to be taken out of commission in the next decade.
With the F-35 considered the replacement for both the A-10 and the F-16, earning a spot on the finalist list has been closely linked with base survival, not to mention the competition between Phoenix and Tucson as rivals for everything from biotech to big league baseball.
After meeting with top Air Force officials Thursday, Peoria Mayor Bob Barrett told the Arizona Republic, “If we are successful in acquiring the F-35 for Luke, it will help the mission of the base for the next 40 years.”
D-M spokesman Richmond declined to comment on the possible effects of the F-35′s placement in Tucson or the future of the base if D-M is not selected as one of the supersonic jet’s beddown or operational sites.
But with an economic impact of more than $866 million a year at last tally – fiscal year 2006 – and employment of more than 3,315 civilians, the effects of a base closure would undoubtedly be huge.
The Thursday meeting between the Air Force and Peoria’s Barrett was put together by state Attorney General Terry Goddard, who recently filed a lawsuit against Maricopa County for building homes too close to the base, which is protected from encroachment by state statute.
The son of a Davis-Monthan airman, Goddard said he was not lobbying on behalf of Phoenix and said he was instead quashing any disquiet the Air Force may have had about selecting an Arizona base for the F-35, D-M included.
Air Force worries, he said, stemmed in part from noise complaints in Eglin, Fla., the first base to get F-35s, where pilots will learn to fly the high-tech stealth fighter.
Although the F-35 is widely considered to be louder than the A-10, it’s not clear exactly how loud the plane would be because its engine design has not been finalized, Goddard said.
The expanded noise control zones that Pima County used in the changes made Tuesday were designed to take into account the possibility of louder jets – such as the F-22 or F-35 – in D-M’s future, county planner David Petersen said.
Goddard said Air Force officials told him Thursday that environmental impact forms should be mailed in the next week. The studies would take about two years, he said. Then, he expects, there will be a decision.
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By B. William Poole, Carli Brosseau
