WVEC

[[Hampton ponders it? Actually, it's Virginia that's doing the pondering -- as Hampton Mayor Ross Kearney himself confirms below. Hampton will not own Fort Monroe unless Virginians choose to donate the post to the city.]]

Friday, December 8, 2006

Reported by: Mike Gooding

The future of Fort Monroe is a hot topic in Hampton. [[True but incomplete. It's a hot topic for Virginia, not just Hampton.]]

The BRAC Commission voted last year to close the fort by 2011. Fort Monroe played a major role in the Army's history, [[Just the Army's history? Professor Robert Engs of the University of Pennsylvania says that early in the Civil War, when African-Americans began seizing their own freedom by escaping enslavement and making their way to Fort Monroe, the post became the place where freedom began for the rest of America. That places Fort Monroe squarely at the center of what Thomas Jefferson and others began and what Abraham Lincoln and others furthered -- furthered with help from enterprising African-Americans at Fort Monroe.]] but now that the post will close, the question remains, how should the prime waterfront property be used in the future?

There are three different plans. [[Only three different plans exist? Don't tell that to Dr. H. O. Malone, president of Citizens for a Fort Monroe National Park, or to Louis Guy, president of the Norfolk Historical Society, or Mark Perreault, president of the Norfolk Preservation Alliance -- and don't tell the Civil War Preservation Trust, which also has endorsed a Fort Monroe National Park. In fact, it is only Hampton that has three different plans. And those are really just three versions of one plan: Hampton's plan to sacrifice prime public green space that, if left public, could benefit all of us. Virginia Delegate Tom Gear, whose district includes Fort Monroe, plans to introduce legislation in January 2007 in Richmond whereby Virginia -- post-Army Fort Monroe's actual owner -- would begin making the actual plans for the post. More about this below.]] All preserve the historic fort itself, but offer different levels of development.

The key point is preservation of the two centuries-old moated fort. That's a given. The bone of contention remains how much of the rest of the 570-acre property should remain green space, and how much should be developed.

Hampton Mayor Ross Kearney grew up in nearby Phoebus, and says if anybody wants to protect Fort Monroe, it's him.

"The history inside this moat will never change," said the mayor. [[Wait -- we were talking about protecting the green space. Of course all contenders what to protect the moated fortress. What about Fort Monroe's magnificent bayfront green space in an urban area that has too little?]]

The 570 acre post has been the subject of an inch-thick consultant report on re-use, paid for by the city. [[In fact, the city used about a half-million federal dollars for this study and for lawyers' fees that presumably have to do with Hampton's attempt to take this national treasure for itself.]] The plan looks at three different scenarios, all of which preserve the actual fort and nearby wetlands and beach.

But the plans offer differing views on the amount and concentration of new development in the remaining 50 or so acres, just north of the stone fort. [[In fact, page 4.15 in that out-of-state consultant report says it's nearly 100 acres. That's the heart of what could be the green space of a national park.]]

"We are at a very important crossroad," said Kearney. [[Amen.]]

One citizens' group is unhappy with some of the proposals for the fort. "They want to take the heart of the potential green space for a Fort Monroe National Park and give it to people who are fortunate enough to afford upscale residences," said Steve Corneliussen, vice president of Citizens for a Fort Monroe National Park.

"What we hope is that Hampton will come to its senses and realize that this is a national treasure and they ought to treat it that way. ... It shouldn't be decided by the interest-conflicted people in Hampton. It should be decided by a national-level steward for this national treasure."

Mayor Kearney says it's all ultimately up to the General Assembly and the governor. [[Amen. Hampton does not own Fort Monroe -- and won't, unless Virginians donate it.]]

"What we have learned in this whole process is the only way to preserve historic property is to use it. When you lock it up and leave it vacant, that's when it deteriorates. So we have to find some way to use it and protect it," said Kearney. [[This closing to the interview may imply that a Fort Monroe National Park would involve making the post merely into a dull museum. In fact, however, a Fort Monroe National Park could be an innovative, vibrant, living, working, entrepreneurial, Hampton-prosperity-enhancing, regional-prosperity-enhancing, region-transforming, financially self-sustaining, hybrid national park -- a grand, green public place for everybody, rather than merely an economic plum for one city's exploitation.]]

The consultant's report is just a draft at this point. Remaining to be worked out is precisely how the city and state will work together to plan for the post's re-use, how much authority the state will give to the city, and which entity will make the final decisions. [[But that's not necessarily what's actually remaining to be worked out. In fact, many Virginia leaders, including Del. Gear and Congresswoman Drake -- whose congressional district includes Fort Monroe -- are actively studying the national park option, for example. That would mean a national-level entity making decisions, likely together with the state. The editorial boards of both Tidewater dailies have called for a serious look at this option.]]

And then there's another issue. Will current governor Tim Kaine even have the final say? The land won't revert from the Army to the state until 2011, one year after he's out of office. [[And in fact, it can be added that the General Assembly can -- and very well might -- simply assert itself to have the final say regardless of the desires of the present or future governor.]]