The Development of a General Recovery Program for Responding to the Economic Impacts Resulting from a Base Closure.

摘要

When a Department of Defense installation has been selected as a candidate for closure, the nearby community's perception of the impact has been found to be heightened by the uncertainty of its economic future and the worst case impact predictions presented in the Draft Environmental Impact Statement. Analyses of the recovery histories prior to 1968 indicated such impacts to be short-term. Many communities were found to be stronger economically than before the defense installation was closed. The authors set out to develop a general recovery program from the details of the succussful recoveries achieved for the period 1969 to 1975. The authors examined the case histories of 21 installation closures in which the communities received assistance from the Office of Economic Adjustment. The recovery strategies employed by these 21 communities were similar regardless of the communities' size, location, or economic base. The strategies were all based on three areas; re-use of surplus property to develop the economic sector, human resources improvement, and re-use of installation facilities to correct facility deficiencies in the community. The authors synthesized these strategies into a Community Framework and an Air Force Planners' Framework intended to help mitigate the community's perception of economic recovery. (Author)