EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Williams Air Force Base was closed by the Department of Defense in 1993. The East Valley Think Tank (EVTT), a consortium of elementary, secondary and postsecondary educational institutions serving the region, developed and implemented an "educational mall" of programs and services to replace
the military activities at the base.
"Willie", as it was called by local residents, had a half-century of experience as a training site for pilots. Its closure marked a community crisis for the East Valley. A group of community representatives was appointed to develop a plan for the reuse of the base. While a group of local municipalities was developing
a collaborative model for reusing the base's three runways, the EVTT began developing a plan for the reuse of the remainder of the base land and buildings for educational purposes.
The result of this EVTT collaboration was a plan to redevelop the base as an education, research and training complex, and a larger ad hoc collaboration was formed by the EVTT to include other educational partners interested in implementing this vision and the Williams Education Research and Training (ERT)
Consortium. Arizona State University (ASU) anchored this consortium, with plans for a branch campus to eventually serve 2o,ooo students. The other educational institutions in the East Valley planned a rich mix of educational programs to complement the ASU branch campus and serve students of all ages. Five
of the Maricopa Community Colleges planned to offer a variety of occupational programs and provide the lower division General Education for ASU students. In addition, an Aviation Campus was designed, representing degree and training programs in aviation and aerospace from University of North Dakota, Lewis
University, Embry Riddle Aeronautical University as well as Chandler Gilbert Community College and ASU.
Ultimately the partners decided that the non-flight-line land and buildings at Willie should be requested by ASU and the Maricopa Colleges, and would then be made available for the other partners in the Williams ERT Consortium to offer their programs in this "educational mall." A new "airport authority" applied for the airport properties and the flightline
buildings. Through the process of base closure, several subsequent challenges arose to this local community reuse plan. The Gila River Indian Community sought portions of the base as their ancestral homeland, agencies that served the homeless sought to take advantage of their priority status in the reuse
process by requesting property, and the US Army also applied competitively for a significant portion of the base for Arizona National Guard programs. All of these competing applications were eventually negotiated through the local partnerships representing the airside and landside partnerships.
This educational partnership is now flourishing at the Williams Campus offering elementary, secondary and postsecondary programs anchored by ASU and the Maricopa Colleges. The Department of Defense cited the reuse of Williams as a national model for how a local community can collaboratively redesign a
closed base for education and training purposes.
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