[[A "leg up"? Does that mean that the Daily Press headline writer approves of the plan to transform the
potential Fort Monroe green space into a gated community without the gate?]]
By Jim Hodges
247-4633
May 15, 2007
HAMPTON -- The Fort Monroe Federal Area Development Authority, which springs into being with its first meeting May
21, will do so $1 million in debt if Hampton has its way.
Hampton City Manager Jesse Wallace said Monday the city wants the state to reimburse it for work already done on the
future of Fort Monroe. The post will cease operations as an Army facility in September 2011 because of Base
Realignment and Closure action.
Wallace said he expects the state to repay the city "based on what's right."
Rick Siger, the state's deputy secretary for commerce and trade and the point man on Fort Monroe for the
administration of Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, said, "It's in the hands of the lawyers."
[[Mr. Siger has gone
to work on the presidential campaign of Sen. Obama. It's not clear as of May 20 who will be the new Fort Monroe point
person for the Kaine administration.]]
The agreement will be between the city, state and the new authority.
[[There it is: the Hampton-owns-it
presumption, discredited in recent months, still influences -- and unfortunately might even still dominate -- the
planning.]]
The new board will replace a Hampton Federal Area Development Authority, which has been at work for two years. The
Hampton group met for the first time Monday with its new mission, which is to deal with other federal facilities,
including Langley Air Force Base, NASA Langley Research Center and the VA Hospital.
But before its association with Fort Monroe was put to rest, the Hampton group decided to offer its re-use plan to
its successors to meet a Sept. 9 deadline.
That plan, which has drawn fire from historians and conservationists, calls for development of the fort to include
offices and houses. The Hampton group stressed that it is a draft and subject to piecemeal change or complete
alteration.
[[The plan has also drawn fire from citizens who expected a powerful handful of people from the city
of Hampton not to misrepresent the public will by claiming -- as Hampton claimed as recently as May 15, 2007, at a
"Section 106" meeting at Fort Monroe -- that the public actually wants to pave the heart of Old Point
Comfort with upscale houses that could benefit only the few.]]
Its chief value for now is that it meets a deadline.
[[This bureaucratic deadline must not be allowed to cause
bad planning for Fort Monroe's future. As Congresswoman
Drake says, we must get the planning right the first time.]]
"We're out front at this point," said John Ishon, the Hampton group's chairman. "This will allow us to
continue in that position."
At risk, he said, is an ever-dwindling pile of federal dollars dedicated to closing or re-aligning military bases.
The Hampton group has channeled about $500,000 in federal funds to various studies and plans for Fort Monroe's future
in addition to the $1 million spent by the city.
[[It would be useful for someone to document and summarize that
million dollars, and not only because it is an example of Hampton's leaders risking Hampton taxpayers' money in an
effort to gain control of a national treasure that belongs to all of us.]]
Demands to pay for the war in Iraq are cutting into what the federal government spends to fund BRAC.
"What we're doing is a suggestion," said Whiting Chisman, vice chairman of the city's group, of offering
the re-use plan. "They have to approve the plan and also approve sending it to the Department of Defense."
It's one idea.
"The re-use plan is a starting point," said Siger. "It has a lot of usable information. It should be
put before the (new) authority as one option."
Another is a national park, and the legislation creating the new authority already calls for a study to create one at
Fort Monroe.
Wallace said Hampton is working to cut its ties to the Fort Monroe process, except for contributing seven people to
the new 18-member authority. The city has canceled five contracts for consultants who have worked on Fort Monroe.
[[The
Hampton-contributed seven are the same seven from the old panel. Because of the Kaine-Williams law, the new panel
contains no other private-citizen Virginians except these seven.]]
"I have withdrawn city staff support as of May 31," Wallace said. "That's important because city staff
has developed relationships with necessary parts of the process. The new Fort Monroe (authority) will have to develop
their own relationships."