The U.S. Army will cut nearly 300 acres of forest to move sensitive departments at Fort Meade closer to the installation?s center and expand for incoming military employees.
The Army released its final report on how it will accommodate nearly 6,000 new jobs and an additional 5 million square feet of office space accompanying the Base Realignment and Closure program.
The report listed environmental impacts, disturbance of wildlife and transportation as the most significant negative effects new construction will create.
The Army wants to build over its two golf courses in the center of the fort to make way for the new employees and buildings and to provide better security.
But all golf is not lost ? Fort Meade will build two new golf courses on 367 acres of wooded property near Route 175.
The Department of the Interior suggested the Army use golf courses in Anne Arundel and limit development by private contractors, but the Army said the number of golfers would be too great to share the county?s golf courses, according to the report released Monday.
The Army plans to mitigate the effect with stormwater management practices approved by the Maryland Department of Environment.
The Army also will monitor nutrients from the golf course entering the watershed of the neighboring Patuxent Wildlife Refuge.
“Use of this land as a golf course rather than as a site for construction of new facilities still strikes us as the most responsible use of the space,” said fort spokesman Travis Edwards, who added that the golf courses fund youth services at the fort.
“It?s a shame, and it?s shortsighted,” said David Prosten, president of the local Sierra Club, after learning of the report.
Anne Arundel BRAC coordinator Bob Leib and Howard BRAC coordinator Kent Menser said they received the report Tuesday and could not comment.
The report also said the private developer will have to pay state and local taxes, and the fort will give up an easement for the expansion of Route 175.
BY THE NUMBERS
The U.S. Army approved Fort Meade?s approach to expanding for incoming military workers. The expansion includes:
» 1.4 million square feet of administrative office space
» 33 acres of parking lots
» 153,066 square feet for new housing, fitness facilities and a base store
» 2 million square feet of office space developed by a private contractor located on fort property but not within the secured installation
Source: U.S. Army
