KB sings favorite old tune with a whole new meaning – “Home, home on the range.” After Southridge was designated a million dollar, #1 US Army Corps of Engineers priority clean up site KB continued to build and sell home. We as taxpayers need to ask elected official, HUD and VA how KB Home was allowed to continue building and selling 600 homes on the bomb-ridden land despite extensive public exposure. Please write your elected officials and request answers as to why the opportunistic KB Home was allowed to continue to build. Truly it can be said that KB made a Lemonade Empire out of Lemons, that gave a “BOOM” to the homebuilding industry like creative Corporate America has never done before. Corporate Welfare is alive and well in America . US Army Corp of Engineers - Southridge Report - News 8 Video: Don Wall reports - See additional Fact Sheet - Southridge Hills subdivision. FACT SHEET SOUTHRIDGE HILLS SUBDIVISIONWatch the actual 20/20 report
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYe-OTKe6FI
History: KB Home built the Southridge Hills subdivision on a former Military Bombing Range
The Dallas Naval Air Station used a site that was known as the Five Points Outlying Field in the 1940’s and 1950’s as a practice bombing range, located in Arlington , Texas.
In 1956 the federal government sold the property with a "Certificate of Clearance" attached to the deed, which stated the land could be used for “above-surface use to which the land is suited.” Source: Letter to Corps of Engineers, US Army 1954 – Subject: Report of Clearance of Navy… Certification of Clearance 1954 states: “The 25.6 impact area as outlined in the attached sketch is recommended for any above surface to which the land is suited.”
In 1986 Congress established the Formerly Used Defense Sites (FUDS) Program to clean up properties used by the Army or Navy, etc. As mandated by Congress the US Army Corps of Engineers designated the property as a FUDS clean up site in 1996.
A US Army Corps of Engineers field report written on February 17, 1998 , was the result of a meeting at the Five Points property with the owner/developer (Southridge) advising them to hire an “unexploded ordnance contractor if they had intentions of developing the site.”
A Phase One report prepared by GEE Consultants, Inc. dated February 16, 1998 concluded: “This does not preclude the possibility that some hazardous material is buried or located below grade somewhere within the site.”
Five Points Outlying Field was given a RAC 2 priority rating for clean up by the US Army Corps of Engineers. The rating system (RAC) prioritizes cleanup sites with a scale of from 1 to 5, one being the highest priority.
The Five Points project had a RAC 2 rating in 2000 when KB Home began to build and sell homes on the land (Southridge Hills) omitting the “above-surface use restriction” that was originally placed on the property by the US Government.
In 2000 KB Home began building and selling homes on the property without first hiring an unexploded ordnance contractor to clear the land of the remaining bombs.
In mid 2001 Southridge Hills homeowners first became aware of the former practice bombing range when a dog and children began to find practice bombs.
US Congressman Joe Barton who represents the Arlington district and his chief of staff Ron Wright, also an Arlington City Councilman, were instrumental in the US Army Corps of Engineer’s decision to change the RAC 2 designation of the Southridge Hills Subdivision to the current highest priority RAC 1 rated cleanup. In 2002 Congress approved an appropriations bill and the US Army Corps of Engineers approved a one million budget to cleanup the site.
Throughout the past three years the City of Arlington continued to approve and issue building permits that allowed KB Home to continue building houses on the land without hiring an unexploded ordnance contractor to clear the land before construction or to certify the clearance of the remaining military ordnance.
The US Army Corps of Engineers needed to obtain written permission from each homeowner to excavate their property as part of the planned cleanup operation at a cost of $1.9 million.
KB Home continued to build, sell and finance homes under taxpayer federally insured loan programs in the Southridge Hills subdivision.
