SBCT Final EIS - Govsupport.us

Chapter 3 ⎯ Affected EnvironmentFTC has on-post housing units for both unaccompanied and accompanied personnel. There are currently2,664 family housing units of various types contained in numerous clusters or “villages”, withapproximately 400 more units under construction. According to a recent Housing Market Analysis(Niehaus 2005), there is a serious housing deficiency on post that will grow over the next 5 years. Becauseof the severe shortfall in barracks spaces, a number of projects are planned or underway to providemore billeting for unaccompanied Soldiers. By 2011, 2,618 additional barracks spaces should beavailable (USACE 2007a).SchoolsThere are 22 school districts in the ROI with a total combined student membership in 2005 of nearly139,300 (Colorado Department of Education 2006).Three elementary schools and one middle school located on Fort Carson are part of the Fountain-FortCarson School District 8. Most of the enrollment in the on-post schools comes from on-post and offpostmilitary dependents, with a small percentage of non-military children (USACE 2007a). Highschool students residing on post are bused to the nearby Fountain-Fort Carson High School.Personnel assigned to FTC reside throughout the ROI, and their children make up sizeable portions ofthe student membership in some school districts (National Association of Federally Impacted Schools2006). There can be substantial fiscal implications for school districts that have a high proportion oftheir student members residing on military installations. The major installations in the region, reflectedin the number of “federally connected” students, include FTC, Peterson AFB, and SchrieverAFB.School districts rely on a number of funding sources, especially local property tax assessments, fundsfrom the state, and federal funds. Military installations are exempt from local taxes and, thus, localschool districts are eligible for Federal Impact Aid funds. These payments are designed to offset thepotential loss of property tax payments to affected school districts. The impact aid received is highlyweighted in proportion to the students who reside on the military installations, not in the communities.The number of federally connected students, attended primarily by children of military and appropriatedfund civilian personnel in this area, is highly concentrated in Fountain-Fort Carson School District8 adjacent to FTC, which also operates the four on-post schools. For this school district, morethan half of the average daily attendance (ADA) consists of federally connected students, and they directlyaccount for 30 percent of the budget, through impact aid.Smaller, yet noticeable, concentrations are evident in the Academy School District (24 percent ofADA and 5 percent of budget), Widefield School District 3 (18 percent of ADA and 2 percent ofbudget), and Falcon School District (14 percent of ADA and 3 percent of budget).Although the share of ADA comprised by federally connected students is high, the impact aid contributionto the budget in these three school districts is smaller. This is explained by the fact that thegreat majority of the students do not reside on the military installation; therefore, less impact aid is directedto these school districts. Their contribution to the school district budgets is through propertytax payments associated with their places of residence in the community.Environmental JusticeBecause the impacts of construction are more likely to affect nearby populations adversely than otheraspects of the Proposed Action, it is necessary to examine an area smaller than the ROI. CensusFebruary 2008 3–163 2/25th SBCT Final EIS