PROBLEM: With the Pentagon's blessing, some political, civic and business leaders want Fort Monroe “redeveloped” merely as an “economic engine” by and for a single city, Hampton—which is mobilizing for this “redevelopment.”

Hampton has appointed a “Federal Area Development Authority” to serve as Fort Monroe’s “Local Redevelopment Authority,” as the Pentagon calls it. There’s also a steering committee—no private citizens appointed unless they live in Hampton—that will hold public meetings where anyone can voice opinions.

In fairness, everyone agrees that Hampton has a unique stake, and that economic considerations matter crucially. But whether Hampton can indeed control Fort Monroe’s future remains to be seen. The political and legal situation is complex.

Even though Virginia will have a fundamental say in what actually happens, however, few Virginia leaders have objected—so far, anyway—about simply handing a national treasure to one city. We hope that changes.  

So we were glad recently that a spokesman for Governor Kaine cautioned against rushing "into press conferences with scale models of condo projects."

And we were glad to see Tidewater's daily newspapers take editorial stands in favor of finding higher-level governmental stewards of Fort Monroe's future. (Please see the Articles & op-eds page.)

Meanwhile Hampton is off and running. You can read newspaper op-ed commentaries giving further views about this overall problem. And you can find out about Hampton’s way of shaping Fort Monroe on Hampton’s Web pages called Fort Monroe, Virginia, Reuse Process.

For a better way, though, please see our SOLUTION page.

 

 

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