The OLF battle may not be over | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This article originally appeared in the Beaufort Observer.

    The Navy has not decided where to build the "Outlying Landing Field" commonly called the OLF to provide training for its Oceana and Fentress airfields located in the Norfolk area. It is true the Navy announced they would seek other sites. That was three or four years ago. To date there has been considerable opposition to proposed sites in Northeast North Carolina. Until a definite site is picked Washington and Beaufort Counties are vulnerable.

    Some current events give us reason to be concerned. In order to justify the taking of up to 33,000 acres of prime farm land, an examination was made of Federal easements, farm programs including conservation easements and any other Federal contracts that affected the title to the land in the OLF area. The determination was that there was not enough acreage encumbered by Federal contracts to make this argument stick. What came out of this exercise is alarming.

    The Secretaries of the Department of Defense and the Department of Agriculture entered into an agreement, a memorandum of understanding, that the Department of Agriculture would secure agreements, leases, easements or otherwise contracts on land that would give the Department of Defense the right to use the air rights and other rights for defense purposes. The Department of Defense would provide the money and the Department of Agriculture would provide the personnel to secure the agreements. The friendly local Soil Conservation Service and/or Ag Extension Agent would sign up the farmer or land owner. After all, these agents had done this for years and told the land owner that those agreements did not mean anything, so long as the land owner did the minimum, he would get his government check. That is just how it worked until now. If you cannot trust your Soil Conservation and Agriculture Extension people, who can you trust?

    What changed things? Invenergy, a national company that produces electricity from wind turbines came to Beaufort County and announced they had done wind studies and leased sites from property owners to build a wind farm and sell the electricity on the distribution grid. The windmills were to be almost five hundred feet tall. Another arm of the Department of Defense became concerned, claiming the windmills would interfere with the training of pilots who regularly fly across Beaufort County at 500 feet above the ground in below-radar approaches to the Dare County Bombing Range. Most of the squawking came from Seymour Johnson Air Base at Goldsboro but it was not long until the Marines got involved along with the Navy.

    Beaufort County Government became involved because of economic development and the tax base that goes along with a multi million dollar construction project that produces a clean product. The environmentalists weighed in, along with elected officials, at the state level and to some extent the Federal level. Things got confused and there are still a lot of people who are sorting through the situation. Issues range all the way from those who oppose wind energy because it kills bats and eagles, to subsidized energy is bad public policy because it raises prices and picks the tax payers pockets, to state level elected officials who classify the military as economic development and fear the closure of bases if training areas are compromised. Most of these people panicked and forgot about the Constitution.

    Bills are in the Legislature aimed at stopping wind mill development or at least regulating it to the point no one will want to build a windmill in North Carolina. Severe legislation like this is usually declared unconstitutional by the courts. Some of this kind of thinking is short sighted because technology never stops evolving and big windmills could become very valuable in a few years.

    The military has used the Memorandum of Understanding with the Department of Agriculture to buffer and protect bases such as Fort Bragg. Agriculture agents in counties surrounding bases have been signing conservation agreements and development rights agreements with land owners using money provided by the Department of Defense.

    The latest development should be of concern to all those who opposed the OLF. Beaufort and Washington Counties received a request from Dick Fowler, Executive Director with the North Carolina Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts to come to the April 1, meeting to make a presentation for the NC Foundation for Soil and Water Market Based Conservation Program. This Market Based Conservation Initiative is intended to include 18 counties in Eastern North Carolina. The counties listed are Beaufort, Bertie, Carteret, Craven, Duplin, Edgecombe, Franklin, Halifax, Harnett, Johnston, Jones, Lenoir, Martin , Nash, Onslow, Pamlico, Sampson and Wake. Obviously some of these counties are a lot more important in the air space issue than others.

    The proposed agreement is to have a market based system in which land owners will offer bids that they are willing to accept for annual payments having to do with the use of their land under two mile wide and other designated military fly ways. The owner making the offer is a fine legal point that protects the government. The purpose of these particular contracts at this time is to control the use of land under flyways. The military wants the rights down to within 100 feet of the ground.

    Beaufort County has the most militarily restricted air space of any county in the nation. Ninety six percent of our air space is restricted. Some at present to as low as 500 feet.

    One statement presented in the proposed contract is: The Foundation will "Enforce (together with NAVY if such right is exercised pursuant to Article V herein) all individual contracts with landowners, including, but not limited to, engagement of appropriate parties for enforcement". Article V is not presented in any of the proposed land owner contracts we have seen to date. Contracts are to be recorded with the county register of deeds.

    The source of the funds for the enforcement of the contract, the payment of the Foundation staff. And the contract payment are not stated in the proposed contract. All normal contracts and leases give this information. However, other information from state officials says this is a "demonstration project" that is funded by the Navy in order to protect two mile wide Marine Corps training fly ways. You are dealing with an invention of the Federal Government and if there is a dispute you will be dealing with the Navy and or the Federal Government. These contracts focus on conservation and casually mention, the 100 foot construction height limit and that all lighting must be directed horizontally or downward and not upward. All development activities are restricted to farm related buildings.

    We support the military renting or leasing the air rights over their designated 500 foot flyways. No one should lease rights closer than 500 feet to the ground. For one thing that is as low as the military desires to fly. A lot of new grain elevators are higher than 100 feet. A lot of windmills can be more than 100 feet in height.

    The anti windmill environmental faction proposed using these agreements down to 100 foot of elevation to stop the construction of windmills. Be careful when you talk to anti OLF people. Some are willing to give the Navy an OLF to stop the windmills.

    The most important issue in all of this is property rights. Owners of land have the right to benefit in their ownership for whatever purpose that is moral and legal. Do not get bogged down in side issues about energy policy, doing retail business with the personnel stationed at the various military bases, or unproven assertions about windmills killing bats and eagles.

    There are dangers in this system as it is proposed by the Foundation. While farm preservation and conservation are worth while goals, property owners should always read carefully, and fully understand any contract, especially those that regulate land rights are to be recorded at the court house. The proposed agreement between the Foundation and the Beaufort County Soil Conservation Service says it can be terminated with a 30 day notices to the Foundation. The Conservation Service gets paid $150 for each contract. But, your contract is still recorded with the Beaufort County Register of Deeds and is fully enforceable. Remember Article V. We need to be alert should the military start taking easements at any location other than within a designated flyway that has a specified width.

    What could happen if the majority of the acreage in the OLF area were leased down to 100 feet? At that point, all the Navy requires is a landing strip to bring in the OLF. They have not sold the land they purchased in the OLF area. Allowing the government to control a part of the ownership on this land area could provide the hook for the military to take the remainder of the unencumbered rights by simply paying the owners and then putting them off their land.

    Endorsement of this proposal for any other purpose than to use designated flyways for specific periods of time above 500 feet is not in the interest of the people of Beaufort County.

    The world has changed, we need to be extremely careful when our friendly neighborhood farm agents come bearing gifts.
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