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About 140 civilian employees are expected to arrive at the northeastern Maryland base this week, Frank Behlau, director of community planning for Lancaster County Planning Commission, said.
Those employees are the leading edge of the possible growth of the U.S. Army base's workforce by 28,000 in the next four years.
Officials expect some of those workers to seek housing in southern Lancaster County, so the planning commission wants to launch a study to determine where there is zoning and infrastructure in the southern end to support a rush of new residents.
The county commissioners today are expected to approve the planning staff's request to receive $34,000 in U.S. Department of Defense funds to commission a "land-use impact analysis" in southern Lancaster County.
James Cowhey, executive director of the county planning commission, said a consultant would be hired to begin the study within a month. It should then take about six months to complete the project, he said.
"We're not expecting a major impact in Lancaster County," Cowhey said. "But (the southern end) is the most rural part of Lancaster County, and we have to make sure that we know as much as we can about what the number is and where they intend to locate."
Congress in 2005 approved a U.S. Army plan to realign some of its bases and close others.
The 72,000-acre Aberdeen Proving Ground is expected to absorb military workers from Fort Monmouth, N.J., by 2011 as it becomes the nation's new Command Control Communications Computers Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance Center.Currently, about 4,300 military personnel are stationed at Aberdeen. Also, 7,000 civilians, more than 4,200 contractors and about 500 other employees work at the base.
By 2011, as many as 28,000 new civilian workers, contractors and support-service personnel are expected to be working at and immediately around the base, according to Steven Overbay, a regional base-realignment and closure coordinator.
Overbay said his office could neither confirm nor deny reports that new employees are arriving at the base this week.
"The federal government doesn't announce specifics like that," he said.
What Overbay could report is that 340 new civilian workers are expected to arrive at the base some time this summer.
Another 600 are expected to arrive next summer, before the big rush of new workers in 2010 and 2011.
About 5 percent of the current work force live in Pennsylvania, according to Cowhey.
"We don't have a breakdown by county on where they live, but we believe most of them live in York County," he said.
(111) (26) (25) (20) (19) (11) (10) (3) (3) (3) (2)County officials have guessed that fewer than 2,000 new workers at the base will seek housing here, although Cowhey said rising gas prices could minimize the influx.
"Most of the workers are going to be living in Harford County (Md.)," he said. "Maybe with the price of gas, it will be even more of them."
The planning commission study is expected to identify where in the southern end zoning and utilities, such as sewer, water and power stations, can support new development to accommodate those workers.
Most of the southernmost portion of the county is zoned for agriculture.
County planners have been working with townships such as Fulton, Drumore and Little Britain to make sure they have zoning in place to accommodate housing developments while controlling sprawl.
E-mail: preilly@lnpnews.com
