Businesses support efforts to save Oceana

Virginia Business
October 2005

When the federal Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC) set its sights on the Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia Beach in late summer, it offered good news followed quickly by bad.

It didn't recommend closing the base or shifting the base's jets to another location. Rather it offered an austere, expensive list of demands that must be met by March if Oceana is to be spared. The ultimatums including razing 1,800 houses on the outskirts of the base, rezoning undeveloped residential lots and prohibiting any more home construction in high-noise and crash zone areas.

State and local officials estimate that purchasing and destroying the residences will cost at least $367 million. But if city officials don't comply with BRAC's de-mands, the jets will likely be moved to Cecil Field Naval Air Station in Jacksonville, Fla., which was closed in 1999.

"It's patently unfair," says Ira Agricola, senior vice president of the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce-Virginia Beach, noting that development encroaches on most Navy bases.

Nonetheless, Agricola says, the business community encourages local and state governments to meet BRAC's requirements. Oceana is Virginia Beach's largest employer with an economic impact of $1.6 billion annually, so losing the jets would be devastating to the local economy. The Hampton Roads Planning District Commission has estimated that 20,000 jobs would be lost.