Environmental Assessment of the Privatization of Military Family Housing, Fairchild Air Force Base, Washington

Abstract : The USAF operates and maintains approximately 104,000 family housing units at its installations throughout the United States. More than 38 percent of all units do not meet current modern standards and require major improvement or replacement. The lack of adequate military family housing (MFH) forces many military members and their families to live in housing in need of repair, renovation or replacement, or to live off-base where the cost and quality of housing vary considerably. Congress enacted the Military Housing Privatization Initiative as part of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1996 to create alternative authorities for improvement and construction of MFH. Consistent with the USAF Housing Privatization Program, Fairchild AFB proposes to convey its MFH units, grant leases of land and convey land, and transfer responsibility for providing housing to a private developer. Fairchild AFB currently has a total of 1,319 MFH units: 1,077 are on-base, and 242 are off-base. Under the Proposed Action, approximately 80 acres of land would be leased to the private developer for 8 years, 212 acres of land would be leased to the private developer for 50 years, and 84 acres would be conveyed to the private developer. The private developer might also have the option of an additional 52 acres of land under the 50-year lease (Housing Maintenance Office and an undeveloped parcel), depending on the proposed use of that land. Of the 1,077 units on Fairchild AFB, 575 would be demolished, 481 would be renovated, and 21 would convey in their current condition. In addition, 94 new MFH units would be constructed on Fairchild AFB at a location to be proposed by the private developer. MFH units at Geiger Heights (226 units) and Cheney (16 units) would be entirely conveyed to the private developer and would no longer be used for MFH. A total of 596 MFH units would be left in the Fairchild AFB inventory after 8 years.