The Virginian-Pilot
©
VIRGINIA BEACH
Kenneth Kingsmore supported placing the ARSR-4 radar at Oceana Naval Air Station almost 15 years ago.
He knows the radar's capabilities and is fiercely protective of it.
"It's a fantastic radar," said Kingsmore, manager of the long range radar joint program office, headquartered at Langley Air Force Base in Hampton. "It's the best surface radar."
But until 2006, his office wasn't part of the federal government's review of whether buildings, construction cranes, cell towers or windmills were too tall and a potential obstacle to the long-range radars located across the country.
Now, concern over a long-range radar station could jeopardize Virginia Beach's plans to transform the Oceanfront with high-rise buildings and scuttle the city's attempts to lure the wind-farm industry.
Air Force and Department of Homeland Security officials got involved in evaluating potential structural threats to radar after being surprised by construction projects several years ago, Kingsmore said.
In 2005, it was a proposed plan to build a water tower near the radar in Fort Fisher, North Carolina. Then technicians who were sent to fix a radar in Minnesota discovered 400 wind turbines sitting in front of it, Kingsmore said.
"We weren't aware of it, until it popped up," Kingsmore said.
Those two incidents, along with the growing popularity of wind farms, caused Kingsmore and others to raise alarms about radar interference and its potential threat to national security.
The ARSR-4 radar, like the one located at Oceana, is designed to detect objects up to 250 nautical miles out. The radar can spot planes that don't want to be detected and have turned off their transponders, which relay location and other identifying information.
The windmills, with their constantly rotating blades, can confuse the radar. And buildings shield what the radar can see, said Kingsmore who has given presentations to national groups about radar and wind energy.
In July 2006, the Federal Aviation Administration, which is in charge of reviewing structures and buildings that tower over 100 feet, started asking long-range radar experts for their opinion.
So, when Virginia Beach most recently applied for permission to construct 18 to 20-story buildings at several locations at the resort, about two miles from the radar, Air Force and Homeland Security officials objected.
This past summer city officials were told that buildings taller than 10 stories - or about 110 feet at the Oceanfront, including near the Convention Center where a hotel is planned - would block radar and threaten homeland security.
While the city is mindful of national security, "these are real problems for Virginia Beach," said Steve Herbert, a deputy city manager.
Beach officials recently estimated that the city would lose $1.3 billion in direct and indirect tax revenue over 50 years if the FAA only allowed buildings to climb nine or 10 stories at the Oceanfront.
Unanswered questions - about how severe the loss in radar coverage would be since there are already tall buildings at the Oceanfront and whether some of the city's proposed buildings would pose less of a threat to security - remain, Herbert said.
The city is working with the state's congressmen to find a compromise with the FAA and Air Force.
Herbert has suggested moving the radar to Fort Story or Oceana's Dam Neck Annex, closer to the water, where buildings wouldn't block the radar. The city and the FAA also have discussed placing a supplemental radar at those locations to compensate for any loss coverage.
The cost estimate to potentially move a similar radar in Texas was $25 million and officials predicted it would take five years, Kingsmore said.
The Air Force's solution was nine or 10-story buildings at the Oceanfront, Kingsmore said.
"We try to offer something that's palatable," he said.
Deirdre Fernandes, (757) 222-5121, deirdre.fernandes@pilotonline.com
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You have no clue
Mike you are hopeless. Again you failed to read thoroughly, absorb, and then understand what you just read in my last post. Apprently you missed my statement about the law being applied equally and that you should be compensated for the loss of your property and rights. Where did I imply that you shouldn't not be afforded those protections? However, you seem to contradict yourself as you state you support government taking private property and being fairly compensated. So if the FAA/AIRFORCE/NAVY or whoever takes your building and fairly compensates you, it's Ok then? You all obviously had no objection government taking over 20 pieces of property from you. I guess it depends on which government entity huh? You're a real piece of work Mike. I think that it should be an absolute last resort for government to take private property especially if it is someones home. I also believe that it is worth fighting for in court. However there are some in your business that could care less. You give government an inch, they take a mile. In your case they took over 20.
Different View
Well that is an interesting comment Keith. In my twenty years or so with my present company, I would estimate that the government has taken over twenty pieces of separate property by condemnation, or we have provided a deed in lieu of condemnation. In fact, I fully support the right of the state to do so, and also support our right to be fairly compensated. That said, the hysterical reaction of the anti tax zealots like you to this issue is perplexing. In your last post, you imply that if we own valuable commercial property, then we are not entitled to the protections afforded property owners. That is, if you are rich, it is your fault. In this case, if the FAA changes the rules after the fact, and devalues your property by changing the rules of the game, that is tough, it is your fault, just give them the deed and walk away. I think that is patently ridiculous in the case of the FAA and the case of the Navy with AICUZ.
You don't have room to talk Mike Barrett.
Again you cherry pick what is said in the post, comment, then ignore the rest of what was said. Apparently I am right about my assumption about you. As long as property is condemned by government (and it makes no difference which one) and it is condemned to achieve a project that you support, then it's tough cheese and folks should just deal with it. Light rail will probably be one of those cases. Now the same wrath of government is about to throw salt in your oatmeal due to property that has been declared a national security issue that you or one of your buddies own, then you cry foul. My sense of fairness is that the law should be applied equally. I have said that already, but you only read what you want to and don't fully comprehend even then. More times than not, private property is taken by government from a person who is not rich or connected within the powers of influence, then they are left to roll over and take it. Once in a while some will fight as in the case of Neptunes. If there is anyone prejudicial about property rights it is you sir. As long as there aren't any Runymeade buildings or property taken by government for a parking lot, then everything is OK. Right Mike?
Prejudice
Well once again, you reveal your profound prejudice. The City is not using any power of condemnation to facilitate the project on 31st Street. The Beach District is the oldest neighborhood in the city, and the water and sewer lines there are being systematically replaced. This work is being coordinated with Thompson's new project, yet you criticize this anyway. Point is, if a developer owns property, like a hotel that is now restricted to 110', you could care less that the FAA has taken property rights, yet you scream foul when the city condemns property owned by someone else. It appears that your sense of fairness and the law depends upon who owns the property.
Oh come on Mike!
I never said that they shouldn't be compensated if their property is condemned by government. Even Runymeade deserves to be compensated if in fact the FAA/Airforce or whatever government entity decides to condemn one of their buildings. However, those oceanfront property/buidling owners will have to do like ordinary citizens have to do when confronted with condemnation of their homes or property. File suit. Just like the family at Neptunes had to do against the city of VB. Government doesn't have to be fair. It is power and it can achieve it's goals by force. Only through the courts will government be held in check. However, I feel that most private developers would have very little sympathy for a family that will lose their home if the city and the HRT weenies decide they will have to condemn their property for a light rail station or perhaps those folks who have businesses around the Laskin Road corridor that will have to close or move to allow Bruce Thompson to build his empire. So it is difficult for some of us to have sympathy for a private developer that could face the same wrath of government for a similar reason.
Lack of integrity
Well Keith, perhaps you will note that neither the FAA nor the Air Force has offered any compensation to the owners of property who have fully expected to be able to use their property as provided by law. No, they have administratively condemned private property for what they say is national security reasons, and offered no compensation at all. Now I am smart enough to know that if they did this to you or your family, you would scream bloody murder, but since they have done it to unamed greedy developers, you are all for it. Well, that just shows that you have no integrity whatsoever. But if in fact the tall buildings were legal and proper when built, but now, for national security reasons, they are not, then the nation owes the property owners compensation if their property is taken. The easiest solution, if in fact national security is threatened, is to move the radar at the cost of the nation, not Virginia Beach.
Speaking of Integrity There Ol' Sport....
There is no loss of use or property. Working with the existing set- backs, or in this case set-downs, is just part of the bigger game. As some sort of developer, you know the rules to the game, be they sediment controls or building codes. The CoVB lacks the integrity to accommodate the urgent and National needs of community and those that are contnually tasked with protection of this Nation against the intents of those seeking to bring ruin to these United States. Not too far fetched, but a shadowed air craft could approach the resort area, fly obliquely into one or more hotels at night and the Twin Towers could be repeated and the resort area shut down for weeks. Sure, all you all proceed with the lofty goals of a very limited few and construct all the literal phallus symbols along the oceanfront you want. Fool with the Navy and others and they may just leave this city in the real big lurch. If the Navy leaves, the CoVB will not get the empty base and will dry up and waste away to the sands from which it arose. Then the casinos come in to finish ruin.
Pass the Hat at the Oceanfront
Maybe we should pass the hat around the oceanfront hotels to raise the money to move the radar site so they can make the money they deserve. If they are going to make all that money with high rise buildings, they should make an "investment" to ensure they earn the maximum return in the future. Sort of like investing in their own retirement fund.
How about a little personal effort to protect their hard earned businesses? Is it too much to ask the hotel owners invest in their own future? I don't think so... Or maybe they are just rich folks looking for a welfare handout. Sad but the later is likely to be true.
So as i understand
You support spending taxpayer funds to relocate a national security asset in order to ensure deveoplers have unlimited access to build?
One big question, who was
One big question, who was the genius that decided to put a radar behind a developing piece of land? Bigger hotels at the Oceanfront have been a steady trend even 15 years ago, you would think someone at the FAA would have noticed the hotels at the beach? Point of the matter is no matter your view of development the radar was not placed in a proper location, it should have been at Fort story from the start, with an unobstructed view of the ocean.