Superior Court Judge Edward Burke has ordered Maricopa County to follow a 2004 state law and severely restrict new development around Luke Air Force Base. This ruling is a huge victory for state Attorney General Terry Goddard, and will test a commitment of the county Board of Supervisors to protect the air base vs. preserving its local power.
Goddard sued the county in August 2008 after state officials learned the county was still issuing building permits to landowners in areas that the state law designated as a safety hazard because of Air Force take-offs and landings at Luke. The county countersued on the same day, so it appeared the county was aggressively protecting its zoning power and the rights of those landowners. But county officials said they weren’t upset with Goddard and in fact they welcomed the opportunity to get a judge to clarify some tricky legal issues.
Well, Burke offered that clarification in spades as he ruled the county didn’t have a single issue to stand on and it should have been following the law all along.
The question now is will the Board of Supervisors accept the judge’s ruling or will there be an appeal? Accepting the decision means enforcing the state law and addressing the concerns of landowners who worry they have been stripped of their property rights. If the county chases an appeal, it will imply that county leaders are less interested in the future of Luke Air Force Base than they claim.
It’s a critical question because Luke is in the running to become a home base for the F-35 Lightning, originally known as the Joint Strike Fighter, which is slated to replace the F-16 in the next decade. Landing that fighter would guarantee that Luke would remain open for some time to come. But Air Force is likely to look elsewhere if it has to worry about a growing number of buildings within the flight paths and loud-noise contours of Luke and its auxiliary fields.
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