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Air Reserve station study puts its future in community’s hands
By Ed Runyan
VIENNA
A draft version of the Youngstown Air Reserve Station Joint Land Use Study identifies 14 areas where the station and community could benefit from better coordination of their needs and interests.
Its goal is to identify ways to make the reserve station stronger and better able to be assigned missions into the future and avoid the next round of base closings. YARS is the Mahoning Valley’s third-largest employer, with nearly 1,900 people assigned there.
In the area of anti-terrorism, the study says “current world conditions” make it necessary for military installations to meet more restrictive standards, such as moving utilities to a more centralized location on the base and enhanced security protocols between the station, Trumbull County and Vienna Township “to ensure a comprehensive and coordinated security and safety response.”
It says there is a need for greater coordination of communications among emergency management in surrounding communities and the station. For example, the use of multiple radio frequencies can reduce the effectiveness of those communications.
Based on remarks offered by citizens at a February meeting and from Vienna Township Trustee Phil Pegg, the most significant impact of the study will be changes in Vienna.
At a meeting, a woman criticized language suggesting that Mathews High School should be relocated out of a flight path to a location near state Route 11 to the south.
Pegg said Thursday other implications of the plan not overtly stated in the draft report is that U.S. Department of Defense guidelines for population density near the station would prevent churches or parks, for example, from being developed along state Route 193 from King Graves Road south 1.75 miles.
Based on what the township already knows about the study’s implications, the township has already asked Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins for a legal opinion on whether the township can place a moratorium on implementation of density-oriented limitations on the township until the township completes its comprehensive plan and zoning changes.
Vito Abruzzino, executive director of the Eastern Ohio Military Affairs Commission, which formed several years ago to help preserve the station’s mission, said the DOD cannot force a community to make any changes, but the study will educate everyone on what types of restrictions or development around the facility the DOD prefers.
It’s up to the community to decide whether to meet those needs. Just having a JLUS report is a leg up on other military facilities because now the military will know what is here and what is not, Abruzzino said. The only other Ohio military facility to have one is in the Dayton area, and it is decades old, he said.
To read the study, visit www.yarsjlus.com.
It says land-use plans in area jurisdictions can be an effective tool for preventing or resolving land-use compatibility issues.
The report says there are concerns about the effect on the station of the loss of commercial air service.
Because the airport receives funding for operations and improvements to the airport from the Federal Aviation Administration, “any reduction in funding that could impact airport operations could have a potential impact on the” station, it says.