Base, Builders Make Concessions For Housing Project

In a preemptive measure to avoid a future NIMBY battle, Air Force officials laid down the facts for developers planning to build a 13,000-acre residential development along the south edge of Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, NM: the base operates helicopters and F-16s, and occasionally sets off bombs. They all make noise... and really, they were there first.

Officials made their case at a city council meeting involving developers planning the Mesa del Sol master-planned residential community. The development is expected to bring as many as 100,000 residents to the southwestern edge of a massive complex that is also home to the Albuquerque International Sunport.

Fact is, the base was there first (since 1941)... but that's not to say the base isn't willing to make some concessions in the interest of keeping the peace, however.

The Albuquerque Tribune reports Kirtland agreed to cease training for cargo drops and night-vision flights, as they need to be conducted at less than 500 ft AGL. Cool for spotters, perhaps... but probably less than ideal for a family with a newborn.

The base has found other locations for those operations, according to Col. Terrence A. Feehan, installation commander at Kirtland.

But the base will likely need noise easements for helicopter training and ordnance testing within the bases' borders -- and that will likely be a nuisance for future residents at Mesa del Sol.

Officials also plan to ask developers to use light-control devices on the neighborhood's street lights, to prevent light pollution from interfering with the facility's Starfire Optical Range. The range was placed at Kirtland's southeast corner specifically to avoid such lighting, and base officials told the council relocating it to an even darker area could cost upwards of $300 million.

Feehan stressed to the council, however, that he supports the development -- and ForestCity Covington, developer of Mesa del Sol, supports the base's position and requests.

"We've reached a compromise that's best for both of us," said company COO Mike Daly.

Now that the potentially explosive NIMBY situation has been diffused, base officials and developers now only have to worry about... another potentially explosive situation: the possibility of construction crews finding unexploded WWII-era ordnance in the once-desolate area.

That's still a less volatile scenario than Witham Field.

FMI: www.kirtland.af.mil, www.mesadelsolnm.com