It Wasn’t J-Lo, It Was JLUS — So Turnout a Bit Low

Not to be confused with J-Lo, J-Loose arrived last month in Lexington Park, Maryland, anxious to meet the neighbors.

There were 46 neighbors on hand Sept. 30 to discover the JLUS acronym for the Joint Land Use Study at Pax is pronounced barely a vowel off Jennifer Lopez’s nickname. Their answers about how PAX:NAS impacts their homes become a piece in a huge endeavor to assess and mitigate conflicts between military bases and the communities which harbor them. They were mostly government officials and representatives, including local representatives to this JLUS effort, and a few business interests.

The turnout perhaps suggests that the JLUS, like most land-use planning outreach efforts, needs a bit more J-Lo pizazz to get the attention deserved.

Public input from similar meetings in communities throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed is being sought as well. A single installation’s impacts can reach a radius of hundreds of miles, encompassing many communities in many different ways. Even radius is too limiting of a word here. There is “imaginary” air space, too, which must be mapped and sound waves captured as well.

The  18-month study is funded by DoD’s Office of Economic Adjustment in collaboration with Tri-County Council for Southern Maryland, the council of governments representing St. Mary’s, Charles and Calvert counties.

These details, as well as the progress and underpinnings of the JLUS can be found on the paxjlus.com website here. There will be more opportunities to voice your thoughts at upcoming events that will be announced on the website.

A few clips of the scale of the effort are captured in video from the first JLUS Workshop in Lexington Park, Maryland held Sept. 30, 2013 at the Bay District Volunteer Fire Department.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgYvTcff8dk&feature=youtu.be]