VoteJacksonville.com Coalition Launches Petition Drive to Return Navy Jets to Cecil Field

JACKSONVILLE, Fla., July 3 /PRNewswire/ -- "The fight for freedom starts here." That is the rallying cry of the VoteJacksonville.com Coalition as it begins a petition drive to move the U.S. Navy Master Jet Base to Cecil Field. The committee was formed to put the question of returning Cecil Field to the Navy before voters.

"As America pauses to celebrate our nation's 230th birthday, we have an opportunity to remember the heroes who came through Cecil Field in the defense of our freedom," said John Arnold, Chairman of the VoteJacksonville.com Coalition.

Joining Arnold on the VoteJacksonville.com Committee are Tomas Jimenez, Ben Willingham, Dave Van Saun, and Chris Bartlett.

"In spite of fierce opposition from our Mayor and City Council, we strongly believe the 4th of July is an appropriate time to reach out to the people of our community and enlist them in the effort to return Cecil Field to the Navy," said Van Saun, who also served as a Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Senior Team Leader.

The base, in 1999, moved from Cecil Field to Virginia. But now, as a result of the latest BRAC process, the Pentagon has completed its final BRAC report finding that Virginia Beach, Virginia -- the current home of Oceania Naval Air Station -- failed to meet the conditions that would have kept the base open.

According to BRAC law, Jacksonville now has the opportunity to bring the entire master jet base to Cecil Field. It would require that Jacksonville keep the promises made during the BRAC hearings.

However, on October 21, 2005, following discussions with City Council members and in the face of opposition from developers and 300 residents living near Cecil Field, the Mayor told the Navy that Jacksonville was no longer interested. Only three days prior, a study released by the University of West Florida's Haas Center for Business and Economic Development showed that returning the Naval Air Station to Cecil Field would:

• Bring more than 31,000 high-quality jobs to Jacksonville with an average salary of more than $50,000;
• Increase the economy of Jacksonville by $2.6 billion annually; and
• Improve the opportunities and lives of thousands of Jacksonville residents.

Ken Underwood, the Registered Agent for VoteJacksonville.com, stated, "The Mayor and City Council's opposition to bringing the Navy base back is completely nonsensical. I've seen mayors go to the mat for 500 jobs, much less 31,000. There must be something more to this than what we're seeing. I mean think about it ... we're at war and we have a major metropolitan area in our nation that's telling the Navy 'We don't want you.' Everyone in Northeast Florida should be embarrassed, if not outraged, by the position that they have put us in. It's just a matter of time until this is a national story."

The petition drive aims to gather almost 24,000 verified signatures of registered voters by July 24th in order to put the issue before voters during the September 5th primary election. If approved by the voters, the charter amendment would become law and the city would provide free and clear title of Cecil Field to the United States Navy.

"Of course, it wouldn't surprise me to see the Mayor challenge the constitutionality of this democratic process," added Underwood. "I pleaded with the Mayor last week to support our ballot initiative, but he said that there was no need to do a referendum because he already knows what the majority of the people want and that he's not going to do it."

The campaign has established a website at http://www.votejacksonville.com/ where people interested in learning more about the issue and getting involved can find information. The website also features a "Where the Mayor and City Council Stand" section, along with appropriate email addresses and phone numbers. VoteJacksonville.com is one of many groups in the community that are fighting to bring the Navy back to Cecil Field.

Voters say no to jet base - 11/15/2006

By Haya El Nasser, USA TODAY

When the Base Realignment and Closure Commission convenes every few years to decide which military installations should close, move or streamline, cities lobby, plead and pray. Their goal is to keep or lure as many military jobs as they can.

Not in Jacksonville.

In an unusual twist to the latest BRAC ritual, Jacksonville voters last week said no to reopening a naval base. The plan was to move the East Coast's master jet base from Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia Beach to Cecil Field, a Jacksonville base that closed in 1999.

It's not uncommon for communities to spend $1 million or more to protect a base. Last year, BRAC recommended closing 14 Army posts, nine Navy bases and 10 Air Force bases. It also recommended either enlarging or shrinking 29 others, including Oceana. Congress and the president approved.

Oceana's training capabilities have been curtailed by booming development in Virginia Beach and Chesapeake. Residential and commercial development are in the flight path of fighter jets, raising concern about noise and accidents. If local governments near Oceana didn't pass laws by last March to stop more development from encroaching on naval operations, the jet base should move to Cecil Field, the BRAC Commission recommended.

Local laws weren't passed and the plan was to move more than 250 F-18s to Cecil. The F-14 Tomcat, popularized in the 1986 film Top Gun, also flew at Oceana until it was retired in September.

Change of heart

Jacksonville welcomed the move at first. Then came concern over costs of moving the 21 businesses in a commerce center on the 17,000-acre site. There was pressure from landowners and developers who had bought land and residents who had settled nearby. The city said local governments would have to spend more than $200 million on new housing for the estimated 30,000 new jobs that would be created.

"That doesn't include local infrastructure to support the influx, and it doesn't include the required number of new schools," says Susie Wiles, spokeswoman for Jacksonville Mayor John Peyton. "Some 25,000 people have moved into what would be the encroachment zone around the field."

The city's turnabout riled residents who want the military back. An ugly and expensive fight ensued, including a media blitz. Proponents of returning naval operations to Cecil Field put the issue on last week's ballot. It was rejected by 60% of voters.

"The referendum was in itself unusual," says Charles Battaglia, former executive director of the 2005 BRAC Commission. Even more unusual, he says, was that the city "turned down the opportunity for having a strong military presence."

Ken Underwood, a businessman and retired Navy pilot who headed the pro-Navy Vote Jacksonville effort, accused the mayor of opposing the base to protect family landholdings nearby and giving in to developers. Wiles says the mayor is not employed by his father's business. "He has maintained a strict firewall," she says.

"Bringing jets back here would create $2.6 billion annually and 31,460 jobs, direct and indirect," Underwood says. "The average salary would be over $50,000 a year. Seventy percent of voters were ready to vote for the Navy's return. Then the mayor started saying it's a bad deal for the city."

Now, he says, "It's over. There's really nothing that we can do." The jet base will stay at Oceana for now, but future rounds of base closings loom.

The Jacksonville fight shows how growth and development increasingly are affecting military installations. In booming areas such as Jacksonville, residential and commercial development often trumps the needs of the military.

In less thriving communities, a military installation can make or break a city. In prosperous areas, the city can do the same to a military base. That's why the Defense Department has struck partnerships with unlikely allies — environmentalists — to contain sprawl and create buffer zones around bases. It announced a national partnership with the Agriculture Department last week to do just that. The goal: promote land conservation near bases.

Saying no to jobs

The Jacksonville case was unusual because absorbing the jet base would have required buying land and shutting down businesses, says Tim Ford, executive director of the Association of Defense Communities, a group that represents cities that have active or closed military installations.

"Everyone assumed Jacksonville was going to make this happen," he says. "At the end, they're saying no to military jobs. ... Maybe they don't need all those jobs."

Wiles agrees. "We're kind of doing OK," she says. "Some communities view the Navy as an economic driver. Voters here didn't feel they needed it."

Florida State Rep. Stan Jordan, chairman of the military affairs committee and a member of Gov. Jeb Bush's BRAC committee, was disappointed. "It was an ideal place for a master jet base," he says.

He said it would have been the largest one-shot injection of funds in Florida since Disney World opened in 1971.

"There's a huge lesson in all this," says retired Navy admiral Robert Natter, who was a consultant to Gov. Bush during the BRAC process. "One is cities' management of growth around a military base. Conversely, from the military's perspective, encroachment. It has got to be handled in any community as a partnership if it's not going to be a problem in the future."

The naval air station near Kingsville, Texas, (pop. 24,740) tried for two years to lure some of Oceana's operations there.

"If you took that to a smaller town, there wouldn't have been a fight," Ford says.

Posted 11/14/2006 10:53 PM ET
Updated 11/15/2006 9:16 AM ET