Final Finding of No Significant Impact for Military Housing Privatization Initiative at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana

Abstract : The purpose of the Proposed Action is to provide access to safe, quality, well-maintained housing in a community where Air Force members and their families will choose to live. Determining the specific need for required housing at MAFB involved estimating the number of appropriate private sector housing units available to military families within 20 miles, or a 60-minute commute. The need associated with housing on MAFB is the result of a Housing Requirements and Market Analysis (HRMA) conducted for MAFB in 2005 to identify the housing units available to military members in the private community and determine the number of military family housing (MFH) units that the Air Force needs to provide at MAFB for its personnel by calendar year 2010. The total MFH requirement for MAFB factored in shortfalls in the available private sector housing, resulting in a housing requirement on MAFB of 1,405 units. The HRMA was updated in 2007, and the Air Force has identified the maximum requirement for housing units at MAFB as 1,224. Prior to 2005, and ongoing currently, MAFB began a Military Construction (MILCON) process to demolish and construct new homes within the MFH areas. This MILCON process is separate from the MHPI and has been evaluated in previous NEPA documentation. At the conclusion of this MILCON process, MAFB will have a total of 1,420 housing units (via a combination of older units and newly constructed units) distributed throughout six parcels of land located on MAFB, resulting in a surplus of 196 units.