Proposed Outlying Landing Field (OLF) site in Surry and Prince George Counties

To: The Honorable Timothy M. Kaine, Governor, Commonwealth of Virginia
Office of the Governor
Patrick Henry Building
3rd Floor, 1111 East Broad Street
Richmond, Virginia 23219

Re: Proposed Outlying Landing Field (OLF) site in Surry and Prince George Counties

We the undersigned express our strong opposition to the Commonwealth of Virginia allowing the United States Navy to obtain some 32,000 acres of land in Surry County and Prince George County for use as an Outlying Landing Field.

We are opposed to such use of our counties for many reasons. The proposed site in these two counties includes or is near land that has been part of some local families heritage since the 1600s. While this land is not currently used as cropland, set aside for nature conservancy or for any underlying natural resource, its current state of peaceful forest land and cut timber is of great historical and personal significance to us as individuals and families and to our state and nation and is home to the rich wildlife of our region. And it contributes immensely to our rural character, which is being diminished day by day.

We understand the actual building acreage needed for a landing strip, control tower and support buildings is roughly 3,000 acres, but the buffer zone needed for jet aircraft noise would greatly impact the quality of life for farmers and residents living within 50 square miles of the landing zone. For those of us who have lived or visited the Virginia Beach area and heard the aircraft at Oceana, that noise is deafening and disturbing. Since the OLF is designed to train pilots for night landings, residents of our quiet communities in Surry and Prince George would hear jet engine noise well into the night. Sundown during the May August timeframe does not occur until roughly 8:00 p.m. At what time would it be dark enough to simulate conditions in the ocean? Would pilots begin their training at 8 p.m. and continue for one, two, three hours? And if the Navy decides they want to use the landing zone for day operations, what could possibly stop them? In the future, it seems to us the Navy could justify use of the OLF for any type of jet training they deem necessary for the sake of national security. What would prevent the Navy from turning this property into the equivalent of a full-fledged Oceana?

Some, such as the Southampton Board of Supervisors, have made strong cases against the OLF, especially its impact on property values in the short-term and long-term. The financial impact on our residents is clear and perhaps easier to put in words. What is hard to communicate is the emotional bond we feel to this land and our connection to generations of families who have lived and worked on it. If you allow the OLF to be built here, you not only alter the land and affect the local economy, you forever change the emotional memory of this place for the people who have called it home. And you cast aside an important part of Virginias and the nations birthplace. In short, OLF will dearly cost us in Surry and Prince George Counties much needed revenue, reduce our property values by ultimately rendering the area an industrial zone, deteriorate our peaceful environment and threaten our heritage.

We implore you to remove Surry and Prince George Counties, along with our close neighbors Sussex and Southampton Counties, from the list of possible sites for the OLF.