Supporters of the Youngstown Air Reserve Station are asking 26 communities that surround the Vienna station to adopt a number of measures that would help show that they want the station there and to be there for years to come.
The effort arises from a 2016 land use study that identified “compatibility issues” around the station, said Julie Green, director of the Trumbull County Planning Commission.
The Department of Defense is “very concerned” about how air reserve stations’ missions are “impacted by outside influences,” and how the stations “impact outside influences,” Green told the trustees March 6.
None of the issues being asked of Brookfield trustees would affect the current state of the way things are in Brookfield, or any future developments, based on current development trends, officials said.
Station supporters have prepared draft memorandums of understanding and development checklists that could be attached to comprehensive plans and zoning ordinances – Brookfield is not zoned – for the review of local officials.
Brookfield is being asked to limit structures to no more than 800 feet above the elevation of the runways, which, at this point, has no practical impact.
“Nothing in Trumbull County is 800 feet tall, I don’t think,” Green said.
“It’s not really going to affect our current development patterns, unless they change extremely drastically in the next five years or less,” said commission Assistant Director Nic Coggins. “That’s not something that is truly going to affect us. It is gonna show a big support, that’s mainly what Brookfield is affected by. It does show a big support for the air reserve station.”
Brookfield also is being asked to preclude land uses that would attract birds.
Other communities are being asked to address lighting, noise, emergency response coordination, drone usage and other issues.
“The purpose for adopting these is the Department of Defense looks at these type of things when they’re going through and saying how much money they’re allocating for each location, when they’re looking at assigning new airplanes to a facility,” Green said.
Dave Christner, president of the Eastern Ohio Military Affairs Council and executive board member of the Youngstown Air Reserve Station Base Community Council, said officials would like to make YARS a “center for expertise” on a number of issues, such as night flying.
“A lot of the airbases, especially on the East Coast, have horrible light, a lot of light pollution,” Christner said. “We are the ideal place to go to. We want to play up on that. We want to make us be the center of expertise for nighttime training, and that involves the communities around us making sure that we don’t have lighting that can affect that, can affect the night vision goggles and those kinds of things. It’s just another check mark on there that says we’re important and don’t close us.”
Communities that address the issues listed in the study and keep station officials in the loop on certain matters “allows for the future consideration of any further expansion of the base or any operation,” said T.J. Kieran, environmental coordinator for the commission. “We compete against other bases nationwide. They see that local support, that goes a long way towards us getting the award for that next contract.”
