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Construction of single-family homes near Luke Air Force Base in Glendale Arizona is null and so should any plans you might have to move to this city because you will rights to own property and do with it as you wish as been limited in Arizona after a battle between the state, county, municipalities and United States Air Force. The battle will end under a settlement negotiated Tuesday among state and county officials thanks to Arizona's Attorney General Terry Goddard who is also a candidate for Governor of Arizona on the Democratic ticket and that means a lot because as you continue reading things have changed in America...we no longer have the three branches of government…not in Arizona that is any longer!
This agreement ends more than a year of fighting between the Attorney General Terry Goddard and the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors over residential encroachment. The Board of Supervisors is expected to approve the settlement at the direction of the Attorney General.
The settlement requires county officials to prohibit single-family development in high-accident and high-noise areas around Luke base, Luke Aux 1 and Gila Bend Air Force Auxiliary Field.
Goddard sued the county in August 2008 to stop it from issuing building permits for new homes in Luke's restricted areas. The county counter-sued, asking the courts to strike down as unconstitutional the law that prevented building in those areas. Terry Goddard is also a Democratic Candidate for Governor in Arizona this coming election year.
Maricopa County had maintained that landowner property rights prevented the denial of building permits in the restricted zones.
In February, the court ruled in favor of the state, but a fight over a narrow strip of land prolonged the battle.
The "potential crash" "sound zones" "direct pattern flight zones" etc. that are listed extending away from Luke Aux. 1 did not exist until recently. Between 2004 and 2007 the Air Force created these zones where people already live. For them they are left helpless without any compensation should their home burn to the ground (they have a mortgage) but no rebuilding permits will be issued. They can't get simple building permits to upgrade the homes they already own under to what is understood with this agreement. They did not move next to the Air Force Base Runway they were in some cases as far as thirty miles away from it when they built ten, twenty or thirty years ago.
In the "Agreements" second paragraph of the "Conditions" sections remarks refer to the "Noise Corridor" and a that home owner cannot make improvements without first getting a permit from the county which has to be approved according to the "Conditions" by the county supervisors and the Military Airport Officials. The Attorney General Terry Goddard appears to have through this "Agreement" installed the military with governing powers over the people of Arizona by making them the final decider on who can or cannot construct buildings, fences, sidewalks, etc. on their privately owned property.
Until this Goddard's "Agreement" the military was not part of the three branch governing system the U.S. Constitution requires. Since no one in the Military is elected nor appointed by the President of the United States and Confirmed by The Legislative Body. This makes Goddard's 'settlement' sound...well...communistic! Nowhere does is it mentioned that the zones will not be expanded at the will of the Military. Arizona's Attorney General and Democratic Candidate for Governor has through the "Agreement" granted the United States Air Force Commanders and their appointees to now have zoning and building approval privileges!
Don't worry this is not an isolated discriminate party going on. The Army, Air Force, Navy & Marines under Goddard's guidance can place your home under military necessity and place you in the same position as homeowners in the flight path which didn't even exist until the Luke finalized its outline in 2007 the initial survey began in 2004 and that is when the land use issues first originated only it didn't make the papers because it only affected a few, now it affects thousands and tomorrow maybe you since it has worked out so well in Arizona!
In all fairness it must be mentioned that if one does have a valid permit stamped prior to Jan.1 2010 by the military...they can continue to build their project. The military air base officials will allow a Wal Mart, Target, Fry's or Industrial Park to be built in these zones loaded during the daytime with shoppers and workers…it's just homeowners can't occupy houses not completed by today. Property owners and investors are stuck with land now unable to sell because nothing can be done to the land until Surprise, AZ decides to Annex and build a hotel or sports complex on it, the flying jets are no threat to those types of settings and there are no state or county or city restrictions that bar such businesses from being placed within the direct flight paths in fact you could walk into the Maricopa County Building Permit Office tomorrow with your specs and a check book and get to work right away if it was a Wal Mart or Sam's Club you wanted to build within these zones.
The Air Force created these zones after the fact that people had made homes in the area I am referring to. If you are located next to Luke A.F.B. itself…I can understand reasonably why they would have limitations on building close to the runways being used. But I can't reason with the other. We have enjoyed watching the F16's fly over for years and have accepted them as an adopted piece of scenery to the rural deserts. But for the state to abandon homeowners like they have with no regard to helping relocate or balance the offset the recently created zones have caused the homes to devalue is ludicrous!
The Air Force Base is where one should go seeking a building permit for a sidewalk or fence not any county offices since they have been over thrown by a political folly and made legal by a piece of paper the Attorney General sternly encouraged Governor Jan Brewer to sign which grants the military these privileges and governing powers.
Goddard has led the Military to governing powers and granted them something usually only voters do, or the Legislative Body does when it confirms an appointment.
