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County Discusses Plans for OLF-8 at Committee of the Whole Meeting

Published May 14, 2020
The Escambia County Board of Commissioners discussed the OLF-8 Master Plan Kickoff during the Committee of the Whole meeting Thursday, May 14. 

DPZ CoDesign, the firm selected by the commission in August 2019 to create the master plan, gave a presentation on how they plan to solicit and incorporate public opinion into their plans, engage widely with citizens and stakeholders in the planning and design process and how long the planning process will take. Marina Khoury, DPZ CoDesign lead the presentation, which also included speakers Chips Kirschenfeld, Deputy Escambia County Administrator and Director of Natural Resources, Terri Berry, Escambia County Environmental Project Coordinator and Travis Peterson, Impact Campaigns. 

The presentation highlighted three major phases, each with six key points : Phase 1, Assessment & Analysis, Phase 2, Scenario Planning and Phase 3, Implementation Strategy. View the presentation here

"I'm very proud of the work we've done to get to this point," District 1 Commissioner Jeff Bergosh said. "I'm excited to see this project kick off, and to continue the work of creating something very valuable and enjoyable for our entire community."

OLF-8 Project Timeline 2020

The OLF-8 property is a former naval training airfield adjacent to Navy Federal Credit Union's main campus in Beulah. Escambia County acquired the 640-acre property in a land swap with the Navy on April 1, 2019. The OLF-8 Master Plan will focus on creating jobs, incorporating green space and enhancing the quality of life for citizens of Escambia County. 

"This is a large parcel," Marina Khoury, DPZ CoDesign said. "We have a real opportunity to do something really special."

DPZ CoDesign stated their design process would be based heavily around public and stakeholder input, particularly through digital platforms, and estimated the process would take approximately nine months.

The Committee of the Whole meeting was held in the board chambers of the Ernie Lee Magaha Government Building, 221 Palafox Place. A rebroadcast of the meeting can be viewed live on MyEscambia.com/ectv, channel 98 for Bright House/Spectrum, Cox Cable and Mediacom (Pensacola Beach) subscribers and channel 99 for AT&T subscribers and are available on ECTV On Demand.

For a complete schedule and information regarding all county meetings, please view the calendar. For more information, please contact the Escambia County Office of Community and Media Relations at 850-595-3476 or [email protected].  

NOLF Site 8 History

NOLF Site 8 was originally constructed in 1940 as an auxiliary airfield for Pensacola NAS. At approximately 635 acres, Site 8, along with NOLFs Spencer and Pace, was one of the oldest NOLFs still in use until the land transfer with Escambia County in April 2019.

Site 8 was initially used as a fixed wing training field. The field had undergone several changes and was temporarily closed in the mid to late 1950s. In 1964, the NOLF was brought back into service as an NOLF to support NAS Whiting Field’s rotary-pilot training mission. The NOLF was used as a primary tactical training asset by TRAWING 5. The field provided facilities to support training in rotary tactics, confined area landings, platform landings, external loads missions, hot refueling and was tentatively studied to support night vision training.

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