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Historical Documents -

Hales Lake Site Already Studied by the Navy and Removed From OLF Consideration in 2003!!

See Table 4-6 Candidate Site Summary, NAS Oceana Study Area

In Table 4-6, Site 4A represents the Hales Lake Site on the Camden/Currituck County border. Notice that the Navy recommended "No further action" for the site. The reason? Population growth around the Elizabeth City area. 1990 U.S. Census Bureau data was used to make this determination. Currituck and Camden have both grown considerably since 1990.

Virginia Beach City Council Approved the Hampton Roads Joint Land Use Study (HRJLUS) On Tuesday, May 10, 2005

The Hampton Roads Joint Land Use Study (HRJLUS) was initiated in 2004 as part of DoD's nationwide JLUS program. It addresses land use compatibility issues among the three jurisdictions of the cities of Norfolk, Virginia Beach, and Chesapeake, Virginia. In the HRJLUS, the aforementioned cities in conjunction with the Navy made the land use decision to mitigate jet noise impacts in the Virginia localities through the establishment of a new outlying landing field in North Carolina. North Carolina was never asked to participate in this agreement. The Final HRJLUS unlawfully infringes upon the civil rights and liberties of jurisdictions outside of Virginia.

The Navy has stated that capacity shortfalls are the reason why an additional OLF is needed. However, on Page E-7 of the HRJLUS the Navy agrees to "Implement/continue all flight ops modifications feasible to reduce air ops to minimal feasible to support mission over Hampton Roads developed areas." In other words, the Navy has agreed to minimize flight operations at their existing landing fields at Oceana and Fentress in order to minimize jet noise impacts on the Hampton Roads cities.

January 22, 2008, Letter From Then-Secretary of the Navy Donald C. Winter to Then-North Carolina Governor Mike Easley:

Secretary of the Navy Winter stated, "While recent actions initiated by jurisdiction in the vicinity of Naval Air Station Oceana and Navy Auxiliary Landing Field Fentress in response to recommendations of a Joint Land Use Study may mitigate further encroachment, both capacity and encroachment continue to form the basis for the OLF requirement."

PASSAGE OF THE NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT HAS MAJOR IMPLICATIONS FOR OLF - December 22, 2010

Great news on the OLF front!! On December 22, 2010, the National Defense Authorization Act passed Congress and now awaits the President's signature. An amendment sponsored by Senator Hagan and Senator Burr provides that funds will not be authorized or obligated for the development of a new OLF in North Carolina or Virginia until the Secretary of the Navy provides the Congressional Defense Committees with a report containing alternative training options besides an additional OLF and a cost comparison between the use of existing federally-owned military assets and the construction of a new OLF. This is something that we had hoped that the Navy would have done prior to embarking on this three-year (and counting) OLF study.

We are enormously thankful to Senators Hagan and Burr for their hard work on this most important legislation!

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