The following is the public comment offered on the reuse plan for Fort Monroe:

Fort Monroe gives new meaning to the expression “If you build it, they will come”.

In April 2008, a reuse plan was presented for Fort Monroe and while it is a marked improvement over the 2006 plan, it still presents a level of development that comes at too high a cost.

The Fort Monroe Federal Area Development Authority (FADA) continues to propose residential development where the largest cost drivers are those public services that support that development. Water system improvements are estimated at $4 million. Wastewater collection systems will run $1.2 million. Stormwater quality collection and retention systems are estimated at $1.2 million. Public schools shoot up to almost $2.2 million with maximum development.

The Army estimates it spends up to $15 million a year keeping up buildings, plumbing and infrastructure. Depending on the level of redevelopment, the reuse plan estimates annual operating and maintenance costs to run between $4 and $4.7 million. Those estimates assume private ownership of most of the buildings, many of which aren’t of any historical significance, are deteriorating, and/or are likely to be razed and replaced with new construction.

Fort Monroe lies almost entirely in a designated 100-year floodplain. The Fort is a National Historic Landmark and many of the buildings have not been elevated or altered since their con¬struction, making them especially prone to flood damage. The reuse plan also takes note that there is increased flooding potential created by long term sea level rise caused by climate change. Understandably, flood protection comes in with a whopping $13.8 million price tag and no assurances that flood damage can be ultimately mitigated.

A key principle in the Fort Monroe reuse plan is that the reuse be economically self-sustaining, avoiding financial burdens on the Commonwealth of Virginia or on the City of Hampton. The rationale behind new home construction is the property tax revenue in Hampton’s coffers, for instance. Almost every revenue source suggestion (retail, office park, etc.) is however predicated on new home construction that need not be there in the first place.

The FADA reuse plan needs to focus instead on more cost effective open space development and concentrate instead on “eco-tourism” as its revenue sources for maintaining exclusively those elements of Fort Monroe that warranted its National Historic Landmark status in the first place.

Realistically, while FADA consultants are only mildly confident with regards to Fort Monroe as a potential commercial revenue source, they are glowing as to its tourism potential. The consultants predict that Fort Monroe’s history could attract 100,000 to 150,000 visitors annually and that its beachfront another 115,000 to 125,000. It’s not hard to envision a “Historic Quadrangle” instead of the now “Historic Triangle” whereby Fort Monroe appropriately joins Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown and Yorktown as major attractions.

Many groups including the Sierra Club have been calling for a Fort Monroe National Park. Doing so would lend the “National Park” brand which translates to greater marketing potential. However, the cash-strapped National Park Service, fed only the Army’s $15 million operating cost figure and a reuse plan still too high with redevelopment costs, has instead decided to wait and see.

When it comes to a site as historically significant and as environmentally vulnerable as Fort Monroe, open space development and eco-tourism is the most cost efficient and is best lending to its economic sustainability. Not only does the reuse plan not reflect that approach, but it makes absolutely no mention with regards to any type of potential partnership with the National Park Service. Creating a Fort Monroe National Park is essential to the viability of Fort Monroe. Thus, the FADA reuse plan must reflect that fact, and the National Park Service provided a seat at the planning table.

Let’s give new meaning to the expression “if you build it, they will come.” Let’s together build a Fort Monroe National Park.