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Highlands Today

Training Center project grounded, but expected to fly

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By JIM KONKOLY

Highlands Today

Published: May 29, 2009

SEBRING - By creating 250 high-wage jobs, and bringing up to 1,000 students at a time into Highlands County, the proposed Eagle National Security Training Center would provide a major boost to the local economy.

The state, though, is holding up approval for this 7,700-acre project in the Venus area, on grounds that the plans violate Florida's growth management laws.

Negotiations to settle this land-use policy dispute - between the state Department of Community Affairs, the developer and the county - are expected to be resolved by mid-June, according to Don Hanna, a county planner.

"I think a settlement (with DCA) will be reached, it just may require some more negotiations," Hanna said.

"I think everybody, including the state, realizes it (training center) is a good thing for the county."

The proposed security training center would include a 6,000-foot runway, a helipad, dormitories for 1,000 students, and 25 houses for staff. Plans call for more than 1 million square feet of operational facilities, shooting ranges, a "live-fire" urban-terrain military training area, and facilities for canine and waterborne training.

Two training towers up to 250 feet tall, and three training buildings up to five stories high, also would dot the site, off Ellie Lane, near County Road 731, in the extreme southwest corner of Highlands County.

"It could mean 250 jobs - 250 full-time, high-paying jobs with good benefits," Hanna said. "And they are proposing that they would have 1,000 students there at a time, at certain times."

Eagle Training would provide instruction for "first responders, police and firefighters, and portions of the United States military," Hanna said. "And it could also include foreign military personnel."

Some of the training would be geared for "personnel such as embassy guards and anybody who is dealing with security and with potential terrorism," he added.

The county commissioners last year created and approved a new land-use district, "Agriculture - Training Center," for the Eagle project

Florida DCA, though, has final say on local land-use plans, and has ruled that the county's rules for this new land-use district do not comply with state growth-management policy.

DCA is not objecting to the type of project, but is calling for standards and limits on development in "Agriculture - Training Center" districts different from what the county adopted.

For example, Hanna said, DCA "wants to require that a portion of the land, the Gannett Slough, which is a natural wetland, has a conservation management plan. They want some new policies for the natural resources element, for protecting the Lake Okeechobee watershed."

DCA's requests are also aimed at "making sure the amount of development is limited so that there's an adequate water supply, and meeting other infrastructure needs," Hanna said.

Most of Eagle Security's plan and the county's new regulations "are pretty much in step with" DCA's requests, Hanna said, but details of the settlement agreement remain to be finalized.

A public hearing by the county commissioners on a proposed settlement with DCA for the Eagle Security project and the new county land-use regulations is scheduled for the June 2 county commission meeting.

Hanna said that public hearing may be postponed, but, if it is, all indications are that it would be held by June 15.

Attorney Bert J. Harris, representing the landowner for the Eagle Security project, Southern Farms, could not be reached for comment.

If the number and quality of jobs proposed becomes a reality, Hanna said, "this (project) would put them (Eagle) very high on the list of the big employers in this county.

"The largest employers in Highlands County," he added, "are the school board, the two big hospitals, county government, and then just a handful of companies (with large payrolls).

"You don't get very far down the list (of the largest employers) when you're at the level of, say, a fast-food restaurant with 36 employees."

Also, Hanna said, employment in Highlands County "is heavily weighted on service-sector employment," which means many low paying and low- or no-benefits jobs.

"This would be an opportunity for high-paying, full time jobs," he said. And 1,000 visiting students would also provide a local economic shot-in-the-arm.

"It would be similar to the (Avon Park Air Force) Bombing Range," Hanna said. "The people who go there for training have a huge impact on the local economy, and this would be very similar."

Highlands Today reporter Jim Konkoly can be reached at 863-386-5855 or e-mail jkonkoly@highlandstoday.com

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