The Virginian-Pilot
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It can take years - and multiple acts of Congress - to add a new national park to the lineup that includes Yosemite and the Grand Canyon.
A legislative effort to create a park honoring Harriet Tubman, for instance, began in 2000 and only now is nearing completion. Even asking the National Park Service to study a potential addition requires congressional approval, and those studies often take years to complete.
None of that scares Bill Armbruster, executive director of the Fort Monroe Federal Area Development Authority.
Armbruster is leading the effort to have at least part of the Army base - including its moated stone fort - designated as a unit of the national park system when the state assumes control of the 570-acre property in late 2011.
He has been busy since Nov. 19, when the authority's board voted unanimously to pursue national park status.
In December, Armbruster went to Washington to talk to local legislators about sponsoring a resolution supporting that goal.
Clark Pettig, a spokesman for Rep. Glenn Nye, whose district includes Fort Monroe, said Nye plans to introduce a resolution within a month supporting park service involvement.
Armbruster got Gov. Timothy M. Kaine to invite Jonathan Jarvis, director of the Park Service, to tour Fort Monroe, and hopes to host a meeting with Jarvis and members of the congressional delegation in the coming months.
Armbruster envisions negotiations later this year among the park service, the state and the state-appointed authority. His timeline calls for having Congress implement the legislation in the first half of 2011.
"We have moved rapidly, and I think it took some folks by surprise," Armbruster said Thursday. "We wanted to keep that momentum going, particularly before the Kaine administration left."
In the meantime, he has worked to brief Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell's team and said he's confident that McDonnell supports a park service role.
He noted that as attorney general, McDonnell has overseen the legal ramifications of the base's pending transfer to state ownership.
The transfer date - Sept. 30, 2011 - is a major motivator.
"We want to have this thing done by the time the Army leaves, and have the National Park Service ready to take on that management responsibility," Armbruster said.
To help achieve that goal, he has the assistance of a three-member task force that includes John Reynolds, former deputy director of the park service.
Reynolds spent time as interim director of the Presidio, a former Army base in San Francisco that's jointly managed by the park service and The Presidio Trust.
He thinks the Presidio is a good model for Fort Monroe. With the money generated from renting out its buildings, it is on track to become a self-sustaining entity.
Reynolds said the current leaders of the park service embrace forming partnerships with other entities and finding new ways to manage historic assets.
"I call it the new National Park Service, or the 21st-century National Park Service," Reynolds said.
He's confident the service will embrace a role at Fort Monroe.
"They believe very deeply that this is a very important part of America's story," Reynolds said.
Kate Wiltrout, (757) 446-2629, kate.wiltrout@pilotonline.com
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Ft. Monroe
. Virginia is for lovers!!!
Lovers of History, Lovers of The Beach, Lovers of Boating, Lovers of Fishing, Lovers of Green, Lovers of A National Park. We have it all right here at Ft. Monroe, it will pay for itself. Now we need the Government to make this happen.
Nat'l park means _more_, not less, enrichment
Anonymous "Entice" is right that locals shouldn't pay to start a Grand Public Place at Fort Monroe, but "Entice" and other commenters fail to understand that a revenue-generating, self-sustaining, pays-its-own-way, innovatively structured national park will bring _more_, not less, financial enrichment. And that's without even talking about other kinds of enrichment, like recreational. A hybrid national park will generate revenue via the marina, the campus-like buildings, residences, recreation, and recreational and heritage tourism. Tourism officials are excited. Please see CFMNP.org (Citizens for a Fort Monroe National Park).
hmmm
It is hard to say what to do with this land. If you sell it to real estate developers, who will buy the houses or condos? I do not see anyone waiting in line to move to Hampton. If you sell it to retail developers, is it going to attract any customers? The idea of making it into a national park is nice, but no one wants to pay for it and would anyone come to visit? So what do you do with it? I say sell it to private industry and let them turn it into an office park, that way the city can get tax revenue from it without having to have the responsibility of keeping up the grounds.
Hope you don't mind higher taxes
Anyone who lives in Hampton should take a look at their city budget and their home values. Creating a high-end housing development and /or mixed use community is one of the only chances that Hampton has to transform their city from a fast-declining municipality. What they don't need is a huge piece of land that pays no taxes nor creates any jobs (or very few).
Bars & Hookers
Entice has a point: Why not make it the way it might have been back in the 1800's? Give it a good Hollywood Blvd. type feel! Red lights, dark alleyways, transients, homeless people, druggies and dope dealers.
Shouldn't be hard to find those people willing to "play" the role in the area. It's called type casting. Best of all, we could also have that little boat that Blackwater (Xe) needs to get rid of and have fine River boat gambling with dinner option!
We could even install a statue or two of "man of the year" Bernanke and 'Let There Be Change' Obama on the grounds tall enough to be seen from I64!
Win!Win!
Paying for the Park
So basically these geniuses have been studying the problem for two years and their solution is to dump the place on the taxpayer rather than attracting private industry to make the Fort self sufficient. Isabell did over 40 million in damage - where's that in the local budgets. Do you think that the Park service has reserves like that to spend on one litle hole in the wall. We're not California with a major city and great weather to attract tourists to Phoebus - in fact the last attractions (bars and hookers) left in the late 50's. Commercialize it and save the locals from having to pay for it.
shorter version of attempted previous posting
Mr. Armbruster and the Fort Monroe FADA have moved the Fort Monroe planning process in the direction of real success, but there are still steps that need to be taken if Fort Monroe is to achieve its full potential as a national and international historic destination, recreational gem, and draw to businesses that seek to locate in areas with an enhanced quality of life. Alec Gould, retired superintendent of the Colonial National Historical Park, has outlined those steps in an "Other Voices" editorial in today's Daily Press, available on-line. His comments also reflect the vision of Citizens for a Fort Monroe National Park, which can be found at CFMNP.org.
Volunteers needed?
Sign me up, I will help out for free, whatever it takes to keep this historical fort from being over run and destroyed by developers. They are already doing it to Buckroe Beach, leave Ft. Monroe alone.
Fort Monroe
Mr. Armbruster and the Fort Monroe FADA have moved the Fort Monroe planning process in the direction of real success, but there are still steps that need to be taken if Fort Monroe is to achieve its full potential as a national and international historic destination, recreational gem, and draw to businesses that seek to locate in areas with an enhanced quality of life. Alec Gould, retired superintendent of the Colonial National Historical Park, has outlined those steps in an "Other Voices" editorial in today's Daily Press, available on-line. Mr. Gould calls for a clear vision statement that emphasizes historic ambience and open space, an expanded role for the National Park Service including management of the natural resources, and adequate seed money from the federal government, which will depend on Virginia's willingness, at a minimum, to involve the NPS and the federal government as equal partners. Mr. Gould's comments also echo the vision of Citizens for a Fort Monroe National Park, which can be found at CFMNP.org. Scott Butler, Newport News