McChord moves down privatized housing road Published March 14, 2008 By Carrie Bernard 62nd Airlift Wing Public Affairs MCCHORD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash. -- The Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Installations, Environment and Logistics recently gave Air Mobility Command and McChord the go-ahead to negotiate with the Army and its local housing privatization developer, Equity Residential, for a new McChord family housing community. As the first step in the process, the 62nd Civil Engineer Squadron has begun working with Equity Residential to develop a comprehensive family housing development and management plan for the base. "The plan is essential because we're basically laying the ground work for revitalizing McChord family housing through the construction of new homes for all ranks, as well as potentially renovating a portion of the existing homes and retaining the homes in Olympic Grove," said Col. Frank Rechner, 62nd Mission Support Group commander. "The process is very deliberate and we're ensuring we look at our housing needs from all angles." Those "angles" include specific Air Force housing requirements and items such as determining where housing can't be built because of environmental exclusion zones and force protection concerns; these concerns have forced the original CDMP to be reworked. "We're working closely with Equity to revise the first draft of the CDMP," said Colonel Rechner. "Our ultimate goal in this process is to provide the best housing for Mc- Chord families." According to the colonel, the CDMP needs to meet all the Air Force requirements and provide comparable housing as compared to bases such as Scott, Dover and McGuire Air Force Bases before Mc- Chord will finalize the agreement. According to McChord's housing office, these are exciting times for families on McChord and as the privatization process moves along, the house team will be pushing out regular updates.