Minutes of the Alamo Area Council of Governments Joint Base San Antonio Camp Bullis TFM Meeting Thursday- May 24, 2018- 10:00 a.m. Shavano Park City Hall 900 Saddletree Court, Shavano Park, Texas 78231 MEMBERS: Findley Brewster, Texas A&M Ed Brown, CoSA OMVA Craig Carpenter, 502 ABW/JD John H. Anderson 502 ABW/XP Maxie Tirella, Congressman Lamar Smith Michael Waldrop, 502 ABW Garrick Williams, CPS Energy Adam Chavarria, Bexar County Phil Crane, Providence Cres, RECSA Davies Schepull, TXDOT Ben Whiteheed, Rep. Joaquin Castro Valerie Ramirez, 502 ABW/CI Tony Felts Development Services Manager, CoSA Kevin Sharkley, ASA, JBSA-FSH Karen Bishop, Sr. Super Stormwater SARA Jennifer Bear, 37 TRW/XP Paul Dvorak, HQ, JBSA-Camp Bullis Carlos Guerra, CoSA Planer Lori Stinson, SA Chamber, VP Military Affairs Robert Van Berg, CoSA Aviation Donovan Rodriguez, Senator Menendez Bill Hill, City of Shavano Park Meg Reyes, JBSA Community Initiatives Wiley Smith, JBSA Lackland Roy Elizondo, City Councilman Pl. 2, Fair Oaks Ranch Laura Koerner, City Councilwoman, Fair Oaks Ranch Mary Anne Havard, Mayor Pro-Tem, Fair Oaks Ranch Linda Alverado-Vera Planning/Public Involvemert Program Manager AAMPO
AACOG STAFF: Tim Trevino, Senior Director of Operations & Strategic Partnerships Steve Lamb, JLUS Project Manager Celina Barron, JLUS Project Coordinator Brian Martinez, JLUS Project Specialist
Welcome & Introductions of Camp Bullis area partners: Steve Lamb called the meeting to order at 10 a.m.
Dark Skies: February 8, 2018, the City of San Antonio (CoSA) City Council passed an MLOD update to the Dark Sky Ordinance created in 2008. The Ordinance sets light intensity requirements in industry terms including max lumen levels, vertical illuminance, lighting plans required for permitting, and added definitions for clarity. The maximum allowable light varies according to proximity to the affected base and use of the property.
CoSA is engaging in community meetings with citizens surrounding JBSA-Lackland Air Force Base (AFB). Attendance to Lackland Air Force Base community meetings brought in 75 people for the first meeting and 25 for the second. CoSA has received more than 2500 phone calls that were more information seeking than negative.
Next, CoSA will rezone properties within San Antonio City Limits to establish an MLOD around Lackland AFB. Next steps include zoning commission consideration May 1 and City Council consideration on June 7. CoSA will follow the same process for JBSA-Camp Bullis (to occur after Lackland rezoning process). Dates have not been set up for community meetings for Camp Bullis. Bexar county is moving forward with their version of zoning that will go to commissioners’ court.
Martindale: Martindale is a 207 acre TX Army National Guard (TXANG) facility on the SE side of San Antonio. A land speculator purchased 600+ acres immediately east of Martindale in 2003; he now proposes to rezone two tracts (112 acres and 70 acres) from light industrial (L) and some residential RM- 4 to residential R-4; and developers have the land under contract contingent on rezoning -- Heartwood Homes for the closer tract and Lennar Homes for the eastern block. CoSA Development Services didn’t notify TXANG until late in process due to confusion over ownership; rezoning has passed Planning and Zoning Commissions already (March), but Development Services will now recommend against rezoning, and a MOU on future notification for Martindale is being created.
Army Public Health Center (Aberdeen Proving Grounds, MD) Army Noise Team conducted a noise study, site visit 3 April, final study 24 April 2018. (Recommendations from study on PowerPoint slide 9)
TXANG considering CUB/REPI, as was done for Camp Swift 2 years ago ($3.1M) or state funding. Would likely take 2 - 3 years to obtain the funding.
Multiple Active and Reserve units in the SA area rely on these UH-60s for training. Flight medicine doctors from RAFB, LAFB, and FSH use Martindale’s UH-60s for medivac training, so do combat medics at Camp Bullis and some ARSOUTH and other area active military personnel; losing a local source of UH- 60s could cause significant training issues, necessitate TDY to Camp Mabry/Camp Swift/Fort Hood.
Martindale also assist the State with civil support of local agencies during domestic emergencies to include wildfire suppression, flood rescue operations, humanitarian aid, and disaster relief.
Trinity Aquifer: Texas Water Supply Co. (TWSC) recently obtained funding from a New York hedge fund. The company owns 40 wells in two clusters. TWSC announced plans to eventually pump 32,000 acre feet (a/f). The pumps are near Camp Bullis and are grandfathered from Groundwater Conservation District (GCD) limits and under Texas right of capture there is apparently no state law remedy to prohibit this.
The Middle Trinity Aquifer is a separate aquifer from the Edwards Aquifer and is much less prolific. The total Modeled Available Groundwater (MAG) for the Bexar County portion (Trinity Glen Rose Groundwater Conservation District, TGRGCD) of the Middle Trinity Aquifer is 25,000 acre feet (a/f, one a/f is 326,000 gallons), and the new pumper proposes to pump 32,000 additional a/f, and already has about ½ of that capacity on-line with a well field just south of Camp Bullis.
TWSC sells the west well field water to SAWS via a Bexar Met contract that SAWS inherited when it took over Bexar Met. The contract cannot be terminated until 2027 and SAWS cannot refuse or limit water purchases up to 17K a/ft annually. The contract does have a conservation provision that wells have to be shut down when they reach 600 ft, which has drastically reduced pumping over 2017 and 2018 YTD, there will be no such provision with the east field. TWSC amounts dwarfs Camp Bullis’s and Camp Stanley’s Middle Trinity withdrawals (160 and 32 a/f respectively); and could disrupt many Trinity wells. Two of three Camp Bullis wells went dry late March 2018.
Camp Bullis has a connection (August 2017 completed) to SAWS per 2015 Texas Defense Economic Adjustment Assistance Grant (DEAAG) grant that connected all JBSA installations to SAWS as a backup to ensure JBSA water security. Camp Stanley is working to get a SAWS connection by FY 20.
P4/ Community Partnerships: By 2040 we are projected to grow by a million people. The military impact to the Alamo region is $49.1 billion and the direct impact is $16 billion. What is being seen around camp bullis is urban growth and more lighting noise and traffic concerns. Partnerships are consistently worked in an effort to put forward creative mitigation efforts.
Worked to secure $5 Million from a DEAAG Grant to help secure water to camp bullis. Working on FY 19 REPI package that would help limit incompatible land use. A Memorandum of Understanding for Development Notifications for a 5 Mile buffer surrounding Camp Bullis has been signed. CoSA updated the Dark Skies Ordinance including the Military Lighting Overlay District (MLOD). City council action is expected June 7, 2018. Earlier this year Gen. Pringle was able to brief the Military Transformation Task Force (MTTF) the CoSA in identifying JBSA priorities. The list was compiled by military civil engineers and looked at holistically. This was done so that the CoSA can advocate for JBSA and help compile resource for the projects. Below are the top five priorities for JBSA:
1. Growden Gate 3RD Lane. 2. Off Base Traffic and Gate Study. 3. Vehicle Gate Runners. 4. JBSA-wide Drainage Culvert Improvements- 12 areas. 5. Fence-Line Preventive Safety Measures.
Alamo Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (AAMPO): The AAMPO is a regional, multi-modal transportation planning agency created by federal law to Coordinate with regional transportation partners, Identify transportation needs and priorities and Allocate funding to priority projects across the region. So honing in on the MPO study area, it is a region of 2 million residents driving 50 million miles every day. The MPO is responsible for developing three planning documents for the region. The Unified Planning Work Program covers a two year timeframe and includes MPO operations, and planning studies. The Transportation Improvement Program, covers a four year timeframe, is financially constrained, and is currently being updated with a new TIP expected to be adopted in April 2018. And finally, the Metropolitan Transportation Plan covers a period of 25 years, is financially constrained, and if we are designated non-attainment for ozone in October 2017, as expected, it will need to be developed by May 2018.
Bexar County’s population is expected to increase by over 1 million people by the year 2040. While Bexar County will remain the population and employment hub for the region, Comal and Guadalupe counties will be experiencing triple digit growth percentage increases over the same time period. Bexar County is ranked 7th in numeric growth, Kendall and Comal are ranked 2nd and 6th nationwide in percentage growth. The growth is not due to babies being born but due to people moving to those counties from other areas. They bring with them cars, trucks, and the need for housing, schools, retail, services, court systems and so forth! The transportation infrastructure in these high growth areas is being strained to its limits.
In the MPOs long range plan, density is projected to rise around Camp Bullis in both population and employment. The next long range plan will be conducted this fall. Short range and long range projects are available mapped out on the AAMPO website.
Capitol Area Metropolitan Planning Organization TXDOT and the AAMPO are working on a regional analysis of the I-35 Corridor. Both regions are growing towards each other, becoming a mega region and the MPO’s are looking how to provide better mobility between our two areas. The analyses has been going on for about a year now and expecting some recommendations this summer. Recommendations that will come out of this might not be just be for the I-35 corridor but to improve connectivity in communities that are growing along the corridor.
Note: TXDOT Projects that affect military instillations provided within PowerPoint.
Drones: Please refer to slide.
Geographic Information Systems: Our GIS Coordinator, Celina Barron, has created a web application on Dark Skies. It is currently on our website and information on light pollution, impacts on the community and Military and Dark Skies. The McDonald observatory thought the presentation was excellent and will be using it for their website as well. Commissioner Wolfe thought it was excellent and wanted it to be on a newscast in the next few weeks. It not only would get our name out but it would help development services, JBSA to help get the word out about Dark Skies.
Working with ESRI to create a web portal that would become a one stop shop for GIS, story maps, brochures and other important information.
Outreach: We recently created an Air Quality Ozone Pollution Brochure that includes what ozone is, how it is formed, how ozone affects health and other related information. Recently, we have been to Kenedy Chamber of Commerce Blue Bonnet Days and Market Days in Helotes. More outreach events will be conducted throughout the year.
JLUS Consolidated actions: The consolidated actions compiles all the recommendations from the Camp Bullis, Lackland AFB, and Randolph AFB Joint Land Use Studies. It allows us to track where we are. Refer to AACOG JLUS Webpage for the most current updates of these documents at: aacog.com/JLUS
Adjourned: Meeting ended at 11:25