Senator seeks buffer zone for Navy

A state senator is looking for a little insurance policy to make sure the dominant economic driver in Island County stays around.

Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island, has asked the Legislature to put up $2.7 million toward buying 17.7 acres adjacent to Whidbey Island Naval Air Station to keep development from encroaching on the base, she said Friday.

The area along Highway 20 east of the base could someday be developed as commercial property as the city of Oak Harbor expands, Haugen said. In the long run, that kind of development could come back to haunt the community.

The land is undeveloped, but the area is growing, and there’s “a lot of pressure for development,” Haugen said. It’s considered part of an “accident potential zone” because of flight patterns, she added.

Haugen wants to reduce the chances of the naval air station someday being put on a base-closure list. That has happened in other areas where urban development encroached on military bases, Haugen said.

“NAS Whidbey accounts for more than two-thirds of employment for all of Island County,” Haugen said. “Losing NAS Whidbey would be a disaster for Oak Harbor and Island County, and for the entire state.”

Haugen said she will work with U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash., to get federal money for the purchase. She also believes Oak Harbor will contribute some of the money.

Once purchased, the land would go into a “conservation futures” status and be reforested. Oak Harbor would own the land, and the federal government would own an easement, she said.

“If we can acquire this property now, it will address this issue through perpetuity,” Oak Harbor Mayor Patricia Cohen said in a statement.

Haugen said she considers the budget request vital to keeping the naval air station in good standing with the federal Base Realignment and Closure Commission, which targets military bases for closure.

Whidbey, one of eight military bases in the state, was placed on a closure list in 1991, but state officials and the community mounted a successful campaign to thwart closure.

“After we were removed from the list, there was a sense that the threat went away,” Haugen said. “That’s not the case. Acquiring this land now will protect us against future closure plans.”

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