The Harlem City Council approved a memorandum of understanding with Fort Gordon during its meeting on Monday, May 22.
The item had been tabled from the April meeting, so city attorney Barry Fleming could look further into some questions council. But, by the May, meeting those concerns had been addressed. Harlem Mayor Roxanne Whitaker asked if Fort Gordon would be involved an advisory capacity, and the answer was yes.
At the April work session, City Manager Debra Moore told council members her interpretation of it was that there is an area on the southside of Harlem that, if development were to go there, plans would be presented to Fort Gordon for comment.
“This is really no different than, we’ve had a couple of things with the county recently where someone went for zoning on items that were near the city property lines asking us for comments,” Moore said.
In April, Fleming told council members he believed the origin of it comes from Georgia code 36-66-6, which has to do with planning development with land near military installations. He said during the latest round of base closures, Georgia bases did pretty well with remaining open, but the federal government and military put out a list of items they would like states and communities to do.
“One of the things I remember they wanted to do was, for example, Warner Robin when you take off the jets down there, there is an area you fly over,” Fleming said. “The most dangerous part of taking off a jet is right when it takes off; if the engine fails it’s going straight down. There’s a safety run at the end of the runway, but it’s much better if there’s no development going straight out for a certain amount (of distance). That was the kind of thing they wanted notifications off. It you’re about to build an elementary school at the end of the runway, let us know and so I think this is where all of that comes from.”
