Joint Land Use Study Task Force

On September 11, 2007, the District Council passed CR-61-2007, which authorized the Joint Land Use Study (JLUS) in cooperation with the Department of Defense’s Office of Economic Adjustment and Joint Base Andrews (formerly Andrews Air Force Base).
Following the Office of Economic Adjustment’s JLUS guidelines, a Technical Committee and Policy Committee were formed to create the JLUS. Between September 2008 and October 2009, the 2 committees worked to develop recommendations for compatible development in the base’s Accident Potential Zones (APZ I and APZ II). Regulating land uses within these zones is a critical issue from the perspective of public health, safety, and welfare and forms the primary focus of the JLUS. The study determined that the public’s exposure to hazards may be reduced through planning for low density land uses and development patterns.
Joint Base Andrews Naval Air Facility Washington Joint Land Use Study Logo
Uses Prohibited
The JLUS basic criteria for APZ I and APZ II land use guidelines include preventing uses that:
  • Promote concentrations of large numbers of people for an extended duration
  • Specifically cater to people who may not be able to respond to an emergency situation, such as children, the elderly, handicapped citizens, and those requiring medical attention
  • Are highly labor-intensive
  • Create a hazard to the public due to the storage or use of explosive, flammable, or toxic material(s) in outdoor above-ground storage tanks
The Department of Defense defines low intensity land uses as those which limit commercial, service, or industrial buildings to an occupancy range of 25-50 people per acre. The JLUS study recommendations incorporate this approach of limiting non-residential uses by promoting uses that have a lower number of employees and customers.

Other study recommendations include strategies for mitigation of base area noise impacts, ensuring building height compatibility, promoting base area economic development, and protecting environmental and historic assets.

What is JLUS?
In 1985, the Department of Defense initiated the Joint Land Use Study Program (JLUS) to encourage cooperative planning between military installations and local governments. Joint planning initiatives should address incompatibilities that have arisen over time between military installations and surrounding communities, generally due to sustained growth. The JLUS program is a regionally coordinated effort between the Department of Defense’s Office of Economic Adjustment (OEA); state, county, and municipal officials; and local citizens and business leaders focused on addressing encroachment concerns in relation to military bases. This joint planning effort is conducted on numerous bases across the nation annually, helping to resolve existing incompatibility problems and avoid future conflicts. The main objectives of the JLUS program are to:
  • Encourage cooperative land use planning between military installations and the surrounding community.
  • Seek ways to reduce the operational impacts of the military bases on adjacent land.
The JLUS program has a broader focus than the Air Installation Compatible Use Zone Program (AICUZ) and typically relies on data generated for an AICUZ report as a basis for many of its recommendations. Whereas the Department of Defense develops AICUZ studies internally and provides them to local jurisdictions, a JLUS is a joint planning effort that builds upon AICUZ data to create local policy plans addressing unique situations for areas in the vicinity of air installations.