Howard County's Base of Operations

Howard County's Base of Operations for Fort Meade Growth (22,000 New Jobs on Fort Meade!)

Welcome to Howard County's home "base" for Fort Meade Growth information. This growth includes four components: Federal Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC), National Security Agency, Extended Use Lease (EUL), and additional defense growth on Fort Meade not included in BRAC. This website has three primary goals:

• To keep the residents and businesses of Howard County current on all the latest Fort Meade Growth information.

• To inform and assist the many Government Service (GS) Civilians, Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and government contractors that will be coming to live and/or work in Howard County.

• To provide a communications platform between residents, prospective residents, businesses and the Howard County Government, so that we may continuously improve our support to all members of the Fort Meade Growth team. We need your participation in this process. Please send your comments and/or recommendations to the Growth Management Task Force Chairman, Kent Menser at kmenser@howardcountymd.gov or give him a call at 410-313-6521.

WHAT IS BRAC?

• It is a process with which the Department of Defense uses to reorganize its base structure or military towns so that they can more effectively support our forces.

• In 1998 the pentagon determined that it had 20-25% more installation capacity than it needed or would need in the future. They figured they could save money and improve operational effectiveness by consolidating operations.

• By Law: BRAC process started in 2005 and must be completed by September 2011.

WHY IS FORT MEADE GROWTH IMPORTANT TO HOWARD COUNTY?

Surprisingly to many people, there is much more to Fort Meade growth than just BRAC. In fact, it is the planning assumption of the Howard County Task Force that growth at Fort Meade will include 22,000 new jobs on the installation during the next 5-7 years.
Again this growth has four components, not just one. They are:

• BRAC: 5,695 New work positions
• NSA: 4,000 New work positions
• EUL: 10,000 New work positions
• Additional DOD growth: 2,000 New work positions

WHO WILL BRAC AFFECT?

Residents and businesses of Howard County and the region will benefit from the positive economic impact of BRAC. At the same time there will be challenges as we plan for potential increases in infrastructure requirements.

The families of the three BRAC organizations (Defense Information Systems Agency, Defense Media and Publications Activity and the Defense Security Clearance Activity) and others who choose to relocate to Maryland will become a welcome addition to our many communities. We must work together to make their transition as fruitful and painless as possible.

Taking a pro-active approach...

Schedule a Fort Meade Growth presentation for your organization by calling Kent Menser at 410-313-6521. This presentation takes 45 minutes and can be given during the workday or in the evening.

For the latest information on Howard County and Fort Meade Growth go to the "resources" page on this site and review the HC BRAC Power Point Presentation and/or the information paper.

WHO ARE THE MEMBERS OF THE HOWARD COUNTY BRAC TEAM?

• Howard County Executive: Mr. Ken Ulman
• Executive Director of the Howard County BRAC Office: Mr. Kent Menser
• Deputy Director: Mr. Raj Kudchadkar
  Contact Raj at: rkudchadkar@howardcountymd.gov or 410-313-6376
• Operations: Mr. Jean Friedberg
• Strategy: Mr. Sam Seymour
• Communications: Mr. Steve Sattler
• The Howard County BRAC Task Force
• Howard County residents and business leaders

BRAC Zones

The City of Aberdeen and Howard County were designated Monday as BRAC zones as part of a state program helping communities raise millions of dollars to improve its roads, rails and water systems.

Aberdeen’s BRAC zone includes nearly 1.2 million square feet of development space, including the 756,000-square-foot North Gate Business Park, a project by Columbia’s Corporate Office Properties Trust (NYSE: OFC).

The town of Aberdeen will be one of the most significantly impacted by the federal Base Realignment and Closure plan, slated to bring an estimated 25,000 new jobs to Greater Baltimore by fall 2011.

An estimated 8,200 military jobs will be moving to Aberdeen Proving Ground under the BRAC plan, bringing with them a network of about 150 defense contracting firms that do business with the incoming government agencies.

In Howard County, the 600,000-square-foot Savage Towne Center project was picked to be a BRAC Zone. The mixed-use, 13-acre development includes office, residential, retail and hotel space.

There are now seven BRAC Zones in the state.

Other BRAC Zones include Westport in Baltimore, Laurel, Odenton, Frederick and land near Andrews Air Force Base in Prince George’s County.

To help communities prepare for the influx, Gov. Martin O’Malley signed legislation in May 2008 creating BRAC Revitalization and Community Enhancement Zones. Among other things, the BRAC zones enable local governments to seek state funding for improvement projects in specific geographic areas.