[CPEO-MEF] REUSE: "Once feared, redevelopment of Myrtle Beach Air Force Base [SC] has been resounding success"

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Once feared, redevelopment of Myrtle Beach Air Force Base has been  
resounding success

By David Wren
Myrtle Beach Sun-News (SC)
March 30, 2013


MYRTLE BEACH - The federal government’s report had an ominous  
sounding name - "Socioeconomic Impact Analysis Study."

Its conclusions appeared to be just as ominous: the loss of nearly  
5,100 jobs; as many as 1,500 homes dumped on the resale market; a 15  
percent drop in students attending local schools; unemployment rates  
topping 20 percent; and an economic loss topping $91 million from  
payrolls, taxes and other revenues as soon as the Myrtle Beach Air  
Force Base shut down its operations.

Just as foreboding to many Myrtle Beach area residents was the sense  
of losing a longtime friend.

"You could never find a better neighbor than the Air Force, it was a  
great community," said John Maxwell, a former Myrtle Beach city  
councilman who helped lead efforts to redevelop the base after its  
March 31, 1993 closure.

Now, 20 years later, the 3,937-acre former base has been transformed  
into a model for how closed military facilities can be revitalized to  
serve their communities.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/2013/03/30/3409955/once-feared- 
redevelopment-of-myrtle.html

--

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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