Depot to get land back from business park

November 07, 2006|by JENNIFER FITCH

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - The transfer of approximately 225 acres from the Cumberland Valley Business Park to the adjacent Letterkenny Army Depot received a green light Monday from the land's redevelopment board.

No money will be exchanged in the transfer, Letterkenny Industrial Development Authority Executive Director John Van Horn said.

Col. Robert A. Swenson in October shared a master plan for the installation's future, which included reacquiring the land due to be deeded over to LIDA. His reasons for the acquisition included moving some depot functions to meet force protection and anti-terrorism guidelines.

"The board took action today ... to agree to modify the (Memorandum of Agreement) to provide the acres he requested," Van Horn said Monday.

The land set for transfer has yet to be surveyed.

Swenson said last month that the depot's facilities near its perimeter should be moved to reduce the threat of realignment or closure in the next review by the Base Realignment and Closure Commission.

As a result of the BRAC decision in 1995 to transfer missions from Letterkenny, 1,425 acres of the depot were declared excess property by the Department of Defense. LIDA was created to redevelop the land.

The Army still holds the deeds to most of the land undergoing transfer, but was supposed to eventually deed it over to the authority.

Since LIDA was created, it has received deeds to about 600 acres of the 1,425 acres of excess property. About 250 acres have been sold and another 210 have been set aside for possible future use by the Chambersburg Area School District.

The depot has about 18,000 acres and has seen its workload increase from $153 million in 2001 to more than $500 million now.

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