City staff urges renewed joint land-use work with Shepherd AFB under new DOD program to protect flight corridors and resilience

City planning staff and regional partners briefed Wichita Falls City Council on June 3 about the prior joint land-use study for Sheppard Air Force Base and recommended pursuing a new, needs-based project under the Department of Defense Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation (OLDCC) to protect installation resiliency and mitigate encroachment.

Staff described the 2014 JLUS process, which spanned multiple municipalities and two states and produced more than 100 implementation strategies in areas such as noise, vertical obstructions, bird and wildlife hazards, access and force protection. Staff highlighted past implementation wins, including redesign of Sheppard AFB's main gate and improved public outreach and coordination mechanisms between the base and local governments.

OLDCC, the successor to the Office of Economic Adjustment, now funds compatibility and installation-resiliency work through needs-based applications and several competitive grant programs (community-noise mitigation, defense-community infrastructure and defense-manufacturing support). Staff said a renewed application could assess current priorities such as utility redundancy, protecting airspace and mitigating encroachment from towers and wind turbines.

Staff said the application process is not competitive at the nomination stage but requires local-match planning and that timelines from nomination to an invitation to apply can range from roughly 12 to 24 months considering site visits and project directives. Council asked staff to continue coordinating with Sheppard leadership; staff said they had already held preliminary conversations and that the council could authorize the city to self-nominate the project if desired. Council did not take a formal vote but directed staff to continue discussions and return with next steps as appropriate.