Myth 7: The Hampton FADA (Federal Area Development Authority) draft reuse plan captures most of the benefits the Citizens for a Fort Monroe National Park seek.
Reality: The draft reuse plan reflects a much smaller vision for Fort Monroe, a vision of it as an affluent new residential neighborhood for Hampton, with the principal goal of bringing some new tax revenues to the City.
It is commendable that the plan would preserve the fort and historic buildings, establish a small park, allow continued public access and employ attractive new urbanism principles, but the reuse plan offers an entirely different and diminished concept for Fort Monroe. Most fundamentally, the draft reuse plan sees Fort Monroe's potential largely as another upscale residential community, whose principal purpose is to produce tax revenues for Hampton to support local needs off the historic post. The draft reuse plan confirms this purpose: for example, on pages 4.27-4.30 the three development scenarios are evaluated based on the tax yield to Hampton for each scenario, showing $7.7 - $9.5 million in annual City of Hampton retail/sales taxes, food/beverage taxes, lodging taxes and "positive incremental' real estate taxes; the number of new dwelling units projected is very high, from 1079 to 2,059 (including 485 new so-called in-fill units), with supporting community retail of up to 60,000 sq. feet, enveloping the historic properties and remaining open space with a residential development; "[F]rom a market perspective, the redevelopment of Fort Monroe holds the potential to become a development of national importance "(p. E-19)(Home)