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By Deirdre Fernandes
The Virginian-Pilot
VIRGINIA BEACH - City officials will never know if their efforts to keep Oceana Naval Air Station would have stood up in court. In the end, the city decided it didn't matter.
The city and state announced Wednesday that they would drop two lawsuits against the federal government over its attempts to remove jets from the Navy base.
The suits were filed in November against the Department of Defense and the department's inspector general.
One suit argued that a federal commission overstepped its authority when it ordered the master jet base moved to the former Cecil Field in Jacksonville, Fla., if the city and state did not meet certain conditions.
The other suit challenged the inspector general's ruling that Virginia Beach failed to meet the conditions by not condemning homes around Oceana. The city argued that its plan to buy land from voluntary sellers met the requirements.
The lawsuits were never served on the federal government.
They were meant to ensure that the city and state had a legal argument if the jets moved to Florida.
Ultimately, Jacksonville voters decided they didn't want the jet base. I n January, Inspector General Thomas F. Gimble ruled that Florida had failed to meet its requirements to get the jets, effectively leaving them in Virginia Beach.
"The commonwealth and the city remain committed to ensuring that the master jet base remains at Oceana," Gov. Timothy M. Kaine said in a news release. "However, we no longer believe these lawsuits have to be litigated to secure the base."
City officials have made strides in recent weeks to smooth what has been a tense relationship with the Navy over development around Oceana. In February, city and Oceana officials signed an agreement that outlined how both sides would handle development proposals near the base.
"Why spend more of the taxpayers' dollars when we have gotten what we wanted?" Councilwoman Rosemary Wilson said.
The city and state have paid legal consultant Hunton & Williams nearly $600,000 since 2005 to deal with issues related to Oceana.
"I'm glad that we've moved on to the next stage," Wilson said.
• Reach Deirdre Fernandes at(757) 222-5121 or deirdre.fernandes@pilotonline.com.
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Props to Timmy
At least you made a decision, something that the VB council would have not and has never done when it came to the Master Jet Base.
Sheer Idiocy of the Highest Order
results in transplanted neo-residents from somewhere else moving to Virginia Beach for the former Southern Charm and milder weather than way up nawth and only after buying their Southern Dream Home discovering that they have moved into, within and beneath the traffic pattern of only the largest Master Naval Jet Base on the East Coast and possibly the entire United States of America, and then proceed to whine and moan about noise and degraded quality of life, while expecting the Feds and the State to not only accomodate but compensate them for an idiot decision of their own choice ! Wonders do indeed never cease, and one who was born, raised and had enough sense to leave when the local natives became outnumbered by imports from elsewhere simply marvels in slack jawed amazement that those people managed to find little old former Princess Anne County with a map and yet somehow failed to realize that Oceana Naval Air Station has been right there for well over 60 years ! ROFLOL
VB Council of Fools
I bet they start approving developer projects all over the place.
Job Well Done
Thank you Tim Kaine - our silly city council would have taken too long to decide this.