SBCT Final EIS - Govsupport.us

Chapter 3 ⎯ Affected EnvironmentHousingThe family housing areas on FRA consist of seven specific neighborhoods, totaling 1,435 units on273 acres. The neighborhoods are bound on the south and east by hills and a large forested area,blocking potential noise and pollution from the nearby Glenn Highway. The impact of the Army onhousing demand in the Anchorage area is not large. In recent years, FRA families have been offeredgovernment on-post housing soon after their arrival in Alaska. The 2001 Family Housing MarketAnalysis (USARAK 2002d) indicated that about 1,400 families live off-post with about 1,300 ofthose renting. This was in comparison to more than 61,000 units in the Anchorage area.An evaluation of USARAK’s barracks and other troop facilities found that barracks facilities at FRAneeded improvement and recommended a major revitalization program to construct new barracks andsupport buildings, as well as renovation of many existing facilities. FRA is implementing a housingrevitalization and new construction program.The Family Housing Master Plan for FRA proposes nine phases of replacement, revitalization, andhousing construction to occur through 2021. As construction or renovation of FRA on-post housingoccurs in successive phases, no more than 10 percent of the housing inventory will be unavailable atany time. Any temporary surges in off-post housing demand resulting from these construction projectswould be easily absorbed by the Anchorage rental market.SchoolsFRA is located in the Anchorage School District. The school districts in Alaska are largely funded bythe State of Alaska. In Anchorage and Fairbanks, the local contribution to the school operating budgetis around 30 percent. The Anchorage School District operating budget is about $7,200 per studentbased on projected students for 2003-2004 (Anchorage School District 2003). The total Anchorageper-student cost, best viewed by the school district’s operating costs and debt service, is about $8,200.The local property tax share is about $2,300 per student. The conservative 70 percent figure for debtreimbursement by the State of Alaska results in a total annual per-student cost for the local propertytaxpayer of $2,600 at most.Federal Impact Aid has averaged $3,752 per on-post student at FRA over the past 3 years (USARAK2004). Students living off-post are on properties that contribute to the property tax base just as otherlocal residences do. Federal Impact Aid has made an additional payment of about $102 per off-poststudent over the past 3 years. Impact Aid more than offsets the lack of property tax paid by studentsliving on post.Environmental JusticeFRA lies 9 miles east of Alaska’s largest city, the Municipality of Anchorage. Directly outside of Anchorage,and also relevant to this environmental justice analysis, is the Matanuska-Susitna Borough.In addition to communities from the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, a few nearby communities withinthe Kenai Peninsula Borough are listed due to their proximity to FRA. The ROI for FRA is based onthe analysis of effects on air quality, the most geographically far-reaching potential effect. Communitieswithin a 70-mile radius of the installation are included in this analysis.Based on U.S. Census statistics from 2000, Anchorage had a population of 260,283 people. Of thattotal, 72,274 (27.77 percent) were minorities and 18,682 (7.18 percent) had incomes below povertylevel. Based on year 2000 statistics, the population of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough had a lowerpercentage of minorities and a slightly higher percentage of people living below the poverty levelcompared to Anchorage. The total 2000 population of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough was 59,322,February 2008 3–116 2/25th SBCT Final EIS