Senator Durbin pushes for NGA to locate near Scott Air Force Base

U.S. Senator Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, was at Scott Air Force Base Monday to voice his support for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency coming to St. Clair County.

“Land is easily available. We have access to Interstate 64 so we think it’s a strong bid,” Durbin said during a press conference at Scott Field Heritage Air Park following his tour of the proposed site.

The current NGA facilities at 3200 S. 2nd St. in St. Louis are housed in century-old buildings that pose security and safety concerns. The agency expects to move from that location by 2021. The agency, which is headquartered in Fort Belvoir, Va., plans to announce the selection of the a NGA site as early as March 2016.

The agency plans to build a state-of-the-art, 800,000 square-foot headquarters, called NGA West, with a projected price tag of $1.6 billion. The new facility will bring 3,000 jobs with an average annual salary of $75,000.

A good clue as to the identity of the winning site will be revealed in September, when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announces the results of environmental surveys conducted at each of the four candidate sites, including the one adjacent to Scott Air Force Base.

St. Clair County is one of four sites under consideration. The other sites include: the site of the demolished Pruitt-Igoe housing project in North St. Louis, the old Met Life Insurance building in south St. Louis County and the razed Chrysler car plant off of Interstate 44 in Fenton.

Durbin was joined Monday by Mark Kern, chairman of the St. Clair County Board.

The county board at its meeting Monday night approved a measure asking the Federal Aviation Administration for permission for the county to give nearly 200 acres to NGA free of charge.

“We’re hoping we can provide this to NGA to bring them here at no cost,” Kern said.

Durbin, who is a ranking member of the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, met with NGA Director Robert Cardillo Sunday in Washington to discuss the benefits of Illinois’ proposal to house the program, according to a news release.

NGA provides map-based imagery data crucial to U.S. intelligence gathering. Meanwhile, military commands based at Scott are beefing up their cyber-security and cyber-warfare capabilities, which adds another reason to bring NGA to Scott, Durbin said.

“So putting them together makes good sense,” the senator said.

For many years, the NGA specialized in making highly-detailed maps based on surveillance data that has served as a mainstay for U.S. military units and intelligence agencies.

The proposed site next-door to Scott is the only one owned free and clear by a public entity. The North St. Louis site, located in the neighborhood around the vacant Pruitt-Igoe neighborhood, would require taxpayers to buy out dozens of nearby homes and several businesses.

St. Louis’ Board of Aldermen earlier this year approved eminent domain for the north St. Louis site, a move that authorizes it to borrow up to $20 million to buy up residents’ properties and buy back land that has already been sold to developer Paul McKee.

But it’s not clear how much public support there is for such an effort. In May, a group of city residents asked the NGA to cross north St. Louis off the list of sites the agency is considering for its relocation.

The residents delivered a petition with more than 95,000 signatures to the NGA with the help of the Institute for Justice, an organization based in Arlington, Virginia, and local group Save North Side STL.

This story was originally published June 29, 2015 at 12:03 PM with the headline "Senator Durbin pushes for NGA to locate near Scott Air Force Base."