Banning, Beaumont Supervisor Seeks Changes to Decide March Air Reserve Base's Future

Deciding how the land around March Air Reserve Base in Moreno Valley should be used in the future warrants changes to the commission that oversees allocation of resources at the site, Riverside County supervisors agreed this week.

Supervisors Marion Ashley and Kevin Jeffries asked for -- and received -- their three colleagues' blessing to pursue reorganization of the March Joint Powers Authority, which was established after the base was partially de- activated in the early 1990s and became a duty station for reservists only.

The JPA has been tasked since that time with overseeing disposition of much of the land that formally belonged to the Air Force and ensuring that developments at the location don't conflict with ongoing Air Force Reserve, Air National Guard and Civil Air Patrol operations.

"Our number one goal must be to protect and preserve the military base," Jeffries said. "The future of the JPA needs to be determined now."

He and Ashley expressed concern that the current JPA, comprised of county officials, as well as representatives from Moreno Valley, Perris and Riverside, lacks a cohesive governance and management structure, potentially making prioritizing projects difficult and conflicting with the mission of the base, which has been threatened with complete de-activation.

"We need to bring the JPA all back to the county," Ashley said. "We can work with the cities on annexation proposals. The three cities are going to have their own ideas. But we'll figure out a fair and equitable way to go. It's probably going to take some revenue-sharing agreements."

The supervisors proposed turning over management of JPA assets to the county Economic Development Agency and working through the Local Agency Formation Commission to settle land use conflicts.

Jeffries said the JPA needs to be re-designated an "airport authority" to better define its role and pointed out that shifting day-to-day functions to the county would save more than a million dollars annually.

Ashley hoped that the county could promote some undeveloped land on the perimeter of the reserve installation to the Veterans Administration for construction of facilities. He also said the Riverside National Cemetery is running out of space and could acquire some of the Air Force property that was converted to civilian use for expansion.

The supervisors set a goal of June 30, 2017, for reorganization of the March JPA.

– By City News Service. Image via Signal Mirror on Flickr.