Robins AFB buffer project heading toward 300 property buys

ATLANTA -- Georgia agencies are getting close to nearly 300 property purchases in a years-long effort to reduce the number of homes around Robins Air Force Base.

But organizers are still looking to buy and demolish.

“We’re doing active outreach” to property owners, Dwight Davis, a member of the board of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, said Wednesday, just after the approval of another eight property buys.

Several Georgia and county agencies have agreed that they want to reduce the number of people who live in the noisiest zones around the base as well as areas most likely to be hit by a crashing plane. That’s because when the federal government evaluates a base’s ability to take on new missions, it considers encroachment of homes a problem. Federal, state and county governments have all contributed funding for home buyout and demolition.

The DNR has taken the lead on property buys west of Ga. 247.

The buys approved Wednesday cluster on the northwest side of the base. An additional one approved for demolition is as far west as Travis Street.

By the end of this year, the DNR plans to have closed on 68 properties.

That’s in addition to the 214 properties bought by the Central Georgia Joint Development Authority as of late August, according to Daniel Cummings, a senior government services specialist assigned to the project from the Middle Georgia Regional Commission. They are focusing on properties east of Ga. 247.

Spending so far on buys and demolition between the two agencies has come to about $20.5 million dollars. Their budgets together total nearly $30 million.

Most of the purchases so far have been residential properties, including a mobile home park.

The agencies will not use eminent domain, and property owners in the noise pollution zone will not be forced to sell.

Owners who may wish to sell can call the DNR’s real estate office at 404-656-5165.

To contact writer Maggie Lee, e-mail mlee@macon.com

This story was originally published August 26, 2015 at 6:25 PM with the headline "Robins AFB buffer project heading toward 300 property buys ."