CFMNP What's New

(For more "What's New" news, please consult our General archive.)

March 6, 2010: VISION HAMPTON ROADS NOW OFFICIALLY LISTS FORT MONROE AS AN IMPORTANT OPPORTUNITY, NOT JUST AS A JOB-LOSS "GLASS HALF-EMPTY." When this Hampton Roads Partnership vision-defining enterprise asked for public comments, we encouraged friends of Fort Monroe to respond. (Feb. 2 entry below.) Today online, Vision Hampton Roads announced that more than one in five respondents called for a self-sustaining Fort Monroe National Park. The reports also emphasized that "according to more than one citizen, Fort Monroe could qualify as a World Heritage Site ... and as a potential addition to the Historic Triangle, i.e., the Historic Quadrangle, to add Civil War stories, thereby completing the full story of America's formation." Great stuff!

March 5, 2010: NATIONAL PARK STATUS, YES -- BUT FOR WHAT? Tonight on the WHRO Channel 15 civic-affairs TV show "What Matters," host Cathy Lewis reported that in November, the Fort Monroe Authority "voted unanimously to pursue national park status." Of course, the obvious question is: national park status for what? For a tiny, token national park surrounded by financially unnecessary overdevelopment on the rest of the Old Point Comfort national historic landmark? For something more? At the Vision Hampton Roads Web site, public comments reveal no support for Fort Monroe merely as a "village" containing a tiny, token national park. Instead, the comments reveal a pervasive public expectation of a Grand Public Place containing a village. What shines through is that Fort Monroe's actual owners -- citizens -- want a robust, substantial national park unit that knits all of Old Point Comfort together as a one unified Grand Public Place.

Feb. 25, 2010: The Web site National Parks Traveler has invited and posted online a commentary on the history, natural resources, and contested future of Fort Monroe by CFMNP's Scott Butler and Mark Perreault. National Parks Traveler says of itself that it "works to educate the general public about the National Park System, increase awareness and understanding of issues affecting the national parks and the National Park Service, and build a stronger advocacy for protection and sound stewardship of the parks." We're grateful to NPT for the invitation.

Feb. 2, 2010: PLEASE URGE “VISION HAMPTON ROADS” TO EMBRACE THIS VISION FOR FORT MONROE: A SELF-SUSTAINING NATIONAL PARK. The Hampton Roads Partnership’s important, regionwide “Vision Hampton Roads” effort unfortunately treats Fort Monroe mainly as a glass half empty, focusing on job losses from the Army’s 2011 departure. However, to improve their draft vision for the region overall, the drafters want your views. So please join Citizens for a Fort Monroe National Park in asking these regional leaders to see Fort Monroe instead as a glass half full—that is, as a potential self-sustaining national park that will enrich the region in multiple ways, starting with financially. You have two choices for participating: you can take the online “Public Comment Survey” and call for a self-sustaining Fort Monroe National Park in the comment box on the survey’s last page, or you can simply e-mail Contact@VisionHamptonRoads.com to call for a self-sustaining Fort Monroe National Park. The deadline is this Friday, Feb. 5. (You might want also to mention your agreement with CFMNP’s online statement on “Vision Hampton Roads,”if you do agree with our statement.) As with your recent and past e-mailed comments to the Army, every voice matters. One sentence from you is all it takes. This is another low-hassle chance to help the Fort Monroe cause. Thanks.

Jan. 11, 2010: SCOTT BUTLER (OF CFMNP) DISCUSSES ALEC GOULD'S JAN. 10 DAILY PRESS OP-ED WITH CATHY LEWIS ON "HEARSAY," the Norfolk NPR station's noontime civic affairs talk show. (More)

Jan. 10, 2010: IN A DAILY PRESS OP-ED, ALEC GOULD -- FORMER SUPERINTENDENT OF COLONIAL NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK -- SUGGESTS NEXT STEPS FOR CREATING FORT MONROE NATIONAL PARK.

Jan. 2, 2010: VIRGINIAN-PILOT EDITORS CALL FOR FORT MONROE NATIONAL PARK TO INCLUDE ALL 570 ACRES. Their Jan. 2 editorial begins, "In a study last year, National Park Service historians observed that Fort Monroe is 'an exceptionally important portal' through which to view American history. The question now is whether the portal will be opened fully -- or partially obscured, possibly forever." It ends, "Congress and the National Park Service should begin planning now for a national park encompassing all 570 acres of Fort Monroe. Its story is too important -- its educational and economic development potential too powerful -- to be presented in a scaled-down version. This portal to history should be opened wide and to all Americans."

Dec. 6, 2009: CITIZEN PETITIONERS CONTINUE SEEKING TO IMPROVE HAMPTON'S FORT MONROE PLANNING ORDINANCE. According to Committee of Petitioners Chairman Sam Martin -- also of Citizens for a Fort Monroe National Park -- it's great that Hampton City Council passed a positive-minded resolution. (Please see the Sept. 24 entry below.) It's also great, Sam says, that the Fort Monroe Authority is asking for a national park unit of a size to be determined (Nov. 20 entry). Nevertheless Sam and his committee believe that much work remains to be done to ensure that post-Army Fort Monroe becomes all that it should become -- and as both the resolution and the national-park-unit request illustrate, the right kind of work can get done when the public sends clear signals to leaders. Moreover, Virginia is about to inaugurate a new governor, who will surely be watching what happens in Hampton -- and who has extraordinary power over Fort Monroe's future. All of this is why it's more important than ever for Hampton's registered voters to press for improving Hampton's Fort Monroe planning ordinance, elevating it so that it calls (insofar as applicable laws allow) for Hampton actively to seek:
* a Grand Public Place encompassing all of Fort Monroe,
* prohibition of any sales of precious Fort Monroe land,
* a truly substantial national park unit,
* Fort Monroe's economic self-sufficiency, and
* avoidance of any Fort Monroe tax burden for Hampton taxpayers.

On election day, over three thousand signatures were gathered. That's well more than half the number needed. When enough signatures are gathered, the committee will ask the circuit court to place the question on a citywide ballot. Then Hampton's voters will decide it directly. So Hampton registered voters, please watch for signature-gatherers in public places this month and this winter. (For more information about this citizens' initiative, please see also Mike Gooding's two-minute-long Channel 13 TV news overview.)

Dec. 6, 2009: "CREATE FORT MONROE NATIONAL PARK" T-SHIRTS ARE NOW AVAILABLE, thanks to Adrian Whitcomb of Citizens for a Fort Monroe National Park. They make great gifts! (More)

Nov. 20, 2009: NOV. 19 WAS A RED-LETTER DAY IN THE HISTORY OF POST-ARMY FORT MONROE. THE FORT MONROE AUTHORITY IS ASKING VIRGINIA'S CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION TO TAKE ACTION TO CREATE FORT MONROE NATIONAL PARK. For this enormous step in the right direction, we applaud the authority's chairman, Preston Bryant, his colleagues John Quarstein and Bill Armbruster, and many others. At a minimum, the proposed national park would comprise the moated fortress and some additional sites nearby. The full arrangements still need to be worked out. As Williamsburg Mayor Zeidler observed, "It really means the work is just beginning." Friends of Fort Monroe will want not to ease up. Some national parks are mostly history. Some are mostly land and nature. Fort Monroe ought to be both, of course -- but the danger still remains that this national treasure could be mediocritized. WE'LL BE POSTING MORE INFORMATION ON THIS RED-LETTER DAY IN POST-ARMY FORT MONROE'S HISTORY.

Nov. 1, 2009: AN ARTICLE THAT'S HIGHLIGHTED ON THE DAILY PRESS HOME PAGE REPORTS THAT THE "Chesapeake Bay Foundation is lending its support to efforts to turn historic Fort Monroe into a national park." The article -- apparently slated for the Nov. 2 print version of the paper -- quotes Christy Everett, CBF's Hampton Roads director: "If this isn't an open space opportunity, I don't know what is." On Oct. 29, Ms. Everett submitted a CBF response to the Army's Draft Environmental Impact Statement (the "DEIS," which was discussed earlier on this page). That response leads with the statement "CBF believes the DEIS underestimates the potential of a significant national park unit operating in partnership with the Commonwealth at Fort Monroe." That CBF document also draws attention to a new executive order that emphasizes "landscapes and ecosystems in the Chesapeake Bay watershed that merit recognition for their historical, cultural, ecological, or scientific values." (Please see also the Jan. 20, 2009, entry at the bottom of this "What's New" page.)

Oct. 29, 2009: CFMNP's COMMENTS ON THE DRAFT ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT -- prepared by Mark Perreaut with contributions from Sam Martin -- thank Army staff members for hard work and register important ideas for improving the DEIS and for ensuring the right future for Fort Monroe. (More) This will supplement the many DEIS comments kindly submitted by friends of Fort Monroe at our request. Thanks for submitting those e-mail messages to the Army. They matter.

Oct. 28, 2009: VIRGINIA SENATOR WEBB -- AN OFFICIAL WHO COULD BE VITAL TO THE EFFORT TO SAVE FORT MONROE FROM INAPPROPRIATE OVERDEVELOPMENT -- welcomed the news that a "$9 million funding request for [Civil War] battlefield preservation was accepted in the Interior Appropriations bill." He added, "As America prepares for the 150th anniversary commemoration of the Civil War, it is more important than ever that we preserve these landmarks for future generations to learn about the history of our nation." We continue to hope and respectfully to ask, as the years go by, that we may someday explain to Sen. Webb our vision for the Civil War landmark that is Fort Monroe. We know we speak for most of Fort Monroe's actual owners. We'd like to bring our colleague Alec Gould, a Virginian whose 42 years in the National Park Service culminated in service as superintendent of the Historic Triangle's Colonial National Historical Park. (Sen. Webb and Sen. Warner are seeking national park status for the D-Day Memorial in Bedford. The Civil War Preservation Trust annually lists Fort Monroe "at risk.")

Oct. 28, 2009: DAILY PRESS POLL: 88.2% OF NEARLY A THOUSAND WANT A NATIONAL PARK! (More.)

Oct. 27, 2009: FRONT-PAGE, ABOVE-THE-FOLD DAILY PRESS ARTICLE REPORTS ON GOVERNOR CANDIDATES' FORT MONROE VIEWS.

Oct. 27, 2009: "HISTORY GUYS" DISCUSS FORT MONROE ON CATHY LEWIS'S "HEARSAY." The whole show is interesting, but the Fort Monroe part lasts a bit over eight minutes and starts at time 41:30 on the audio timeline. (Listen)

Oct. 21, 2009: FORT MONROE NATIONAL PARK WOULD HELP DIVERSIFY REGION'S ECONOMY. According to the latest ODU economic forecasting project, 45% of the Hampton Roads economy now comes from defense spending, up from 28% twenty years ago. James Koch, ODU's Board of Visitors Professor of Economics and the university's president emeritus, says (in this week's Inside Business) that we are increasingly vulnerable to changes in defense spending. Of course, a Grand Public Place with a national park unit at Old Point Comfort -- the land that makes up all of Fort Monroe -- can serve to increase the region's appeal to nondefense businesses with high-paying jobs and to generate new tourism, thereby serving to diversify our too narrowly based economy.

Oct. 9, 2009: CFMNP PRESIDENT MARK PERREAULT APPOINTED TO SPECIAL COMMITTEE TO INVESTIGATE PROSPECTS FOR A NATIONAL PARK AT FORT MONROE! Hampton Roads public historian John Quarstein, a Fort Monroe Authority member, will chair the committee. We look forward with great hope to its progress. We'll report opportunities for citizens to observe the meetings and to offer comments.

Oct. 2, 2009: KEN BURNS NATIONAL PARK SERIES OFFERS LESSONS FOR FORT MONROE. With the subtitle "America's Best Idea," the series began on PBS on Sept. 27. It's full of gems like this one from Frederick Law Olmstead: "It is the will of the Nation as embodied in the act of Congress that this scenery shall never be private property, but that like certain defensive points upon our coast be held solely for public purposes." CFMNP's Scott Butler has prepared a brief writeup on six lessons from Burns directly applicable to Fort Monroe:

* The national parks are an extension of American democracy.
* It isn't unheard of for a state to cede precious land to the federal government.
* States aren't very good at managing national treasures.
* Like state governments, city governments tend to take the narrow view.
* There are those working behind the scenes who put their own narrow interests above the common good.
* It takes the hard work and persistence of all sorts of Americans to bring a national park into being.

Sept. 30, 2009: NATIONAL PARKS ARE BREAKING ATTENDANCE RECORDS THIS YEAR. According to press reports, nearly 232 million people have already visited national park sites, with recreational visits up almost 5% compared to the same period in 2008. If trends continue, the parks could see more than 288 million visitors for 2009, topping the previous records of more than 287 million visitors in 1987 and 1999. But we won't have the benefit of this kind of thing at Fort Monroe if the planning really does turn out to "mediocritize" it as merely the setting for an upscale bayside condo development in the shadow of the moated fortress.

Sept. 24, 2009: DAILY PRESS ARTICLE: "Fort Monroe park effort gets boost" -- a boost from Hampton City Council and from the public. What the article doesn't say is that people nearly filled the council chamber for the public hearing -- and every last speaker, and apparently every attendee, favored the ordinance improvements that would establish the needed higher vision for Fort Monroe. Though the council adopted only a resolution, and though this statement contained only a partial echo of the proposed ordinance improvements, and though the drawbacks will require serious attention, something important happened. For the first time, a collection of Virginia politicians really acknowledged that citizens overwhelmingly reject the initial 2005 framing of the Fort Monroe opportunity. Politicians are finally beginning to understand that people don't want to see Old Point Comfort as merely a chance for Hampton's developers to mediocritize a national treasure. (Read the background materials we used in preparation -- and please also see additional related materials on this "What's New" page.)

Sept. 20, 2009: "DECISION TIME AT FORT MONROE MEANS IT'S TIME TO SPEAK UP" -- an op-ed piece about this autumn's opportunities for citizens to help ensure the right future for Fort Monroe. It fits right in with the upcoming Ken Burns PBS series "The National Parks: America's Best Idea."

Sept. 19, 2009: Speaking at a recent Hampton leadership meeting, former Hampton city manager Bob O'Neill, a leader in his profession nationally, called Fort Monroe "a generational once-in-a-lifetime opportunity" that "could be something that could transform not only Hampton but the region if it's done right." Amen, Mr. O'Neill!

Sept. 12, 2009: IN A TWO-MINUTE VIDEO, CHANNEL 13'S MIKE GOODING EXPLAINS THE CITIZENS' INITIATIVE TO GET HAMPTON'S FORT MONROE ORDINANCE IMPROVED. In December 2008, Mr. Gooding was the first journalist to realize that Hampton citizens are making something important happen. After years of Fort Monroe planning that has produced a few good things -- but remains hobbled by unwise original assumptions -- Hampton citizens are using city charter provisions to take matters officially into their own hands. By seeking to improve the city's ordinance about Fort Monroe, they seek to move that national treasure toward what almost everybody knows it ought to become: a revenue-generating, self-sustaining Grand Public Place for everybody, ideally a new kind of national park -- with no special tax liabilities to Hampton taxpayers! That's as opposed to the financially counterproductive, narrowly envisioned overdevelopment that still threatens Fort Monroe -- including what Hampton's present ordinance calls "industrial." (No kidding; that word's in there!) This two-minute video from last December is a must-see for all true friends of Fort Monroe.

Aug. 31, 2009: THE NORFOLK PBS STATION'S FORT MONROE DOCUMENTARY "Kingdom by the Sea" is easily accessed and viewed online. It's a moving, 27-minute masterpiece about the stakes in the planning of post-Army Fort Monroe. WHRO received a "Best Television Documentary" award for the film, which WHRO's Center for Regional Citizenship produced.

Aug. 17, 2009 FEDERAL PARTNERSHIP TO PRODUCE EVEN MORE PARKLAND IN NORTHERN VIRGINIA -- BUT WHAT ABOUT IN HAMPTON ROADS? Ever wonder why the Washington D.C. region enjoys so much public open space, including miles of immensely valuable riverfront on both sides of the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers? Residents of D.C., Maryland and northern Virginia have partnerships with the federal government to thank for this abundance and are now working to expand upon them. Surely Hampton Roads and Virginia should embrace a similar federal partnership at Fort Monroe for the open-space-deprived citizenry of this region. (More)

June 21, 2009: CFMNP PRESIDENT ASKS FORT MONROE AUTHORITY TO SUPPORT PLANNING FOR NATIONAL PARK UNIT -- and debunks three misconceptions. (More)

June 19, 2009: VIRGINIA OFFICIAL FORCEFULLY DEFENDS IMPORTANCE OF "VIEWSHED" AT CIVIL WAR BATTLEFIELD "THE WILDERNESS" near Fredericksburg, which is threatened by a big-box retail store much as Gettysburg was threatened by planned casinos -- and much as Fort Monroe's viewshed is threatened by financially unnecessary overdevelopment. (More)

June 1, 2009: ORGANIZATIONS EXPRESS RESERVATIONS ABOUT ARMY'S "PROGRAMMATIC AGREEMENT," created under federal historic preservation law, ideally to protect the historic resources. (More)

May 11, 2009: SHEPHERDSTOWN BATTLEFIELD SITE OFFERS EXAMPLE FOR VIRGINIA AND FORT MONROE. Congressional action -- of the kind that the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot has advocated from Virginia's congressional delegation concerning Fort Monroe -- has succeeded again in advancing protection for an important American historical site, this time in West Virginia. And in fact, with all due respect for Shepherdstown and the soldiers who fought and died there, it lacks Fort Monroe's historic importance, multifaceted visitor appeal, stunning location and views, architecture, and ability to be economically self-sustaining. We wish Shepherdstown well, but the message we take from the accompanying press release is, yet again, that a determined effort by Virginia's congressional delegation to obtain a national park unit at Fort Monroe will not fail.

March 26, 2009: CONGRESS OVERRULES NATIONAL PARK SERVICE, MANDATES NATIONAL PARK IN NEW JERSEY. A March 25 Associated Press report begins "New Jersey may soon have a new national park. A bill designating Paterson's Great Falls as a national park was passed by the U.S. House on Wednesday. It ... overrules a 2006 decision by the National Park Service, which did not recommend that status. It was introduced by Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. and Sen. Frank Lautenberg." The Fort Monroe situation is different in that the National Park Service has not directly recommended against national park status for Fort Monroe -- but it's also different in that Virginia's congressional delegation has not yet followed their New Jersey colleagues' example, or the advice of the Virginian-Pilot editorial board. (Please see also our Jan. 25, 2009, "What's New" entry.) We hope that Rep. Nye, Sen. Webb, and Sen. Warner will take notice: a state gets a national park when its leadership goes out and makes it happen, just as the Pilot's editors have been saying.

March 26, 2009: The Hampton Roads Association for Commercial Real Estate, with Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc., as sponsors, scheduled and advertised a luncheon for today in Hampton with Joshua Gillespie, Project Manager, Fort Monroe Authority, presenting a program on "Development Considerations & Opportunities at Fort Monroe."

March 22, 2009: VIRGINIAN-PILOT EDITORIAL BOARD CALLS FOR BRINGING THE SLAVERY MUSEUM TO FORT MONROE from its originally envisioned location in Fredericksburg -- an idea that CFMNP's Scott Butler originally suggested in a July 3, 2008, Pilot op-ed. The two editorials: "Slavery museum fits at Fort Monroe" from March 2 and "Fort has strong claim to host museum" from March 15. The first of those editorials begins, "A sprawling commercial development in Fredericksburg known as Celebrate Virginia was never an appropriate setting for a national museum devoted to telling the story of slavery. Now that those ill-conceived plans appear to be foundering, it's time to turn attention to a more fitting location -- Fort Monroe ... which played a prominent role in the beginning and end of slavery in America."

March 22, 2009: CFMNP PRESIDENT MARK PERREAULT APPEARED MARCH 6 ON "WHAT MATTERS," Cathy Lewis's Friday evening talk show on Norfolk's Channel 15 PBS station. The half-hour show, easily available to watch online, began with some setup footage, focused mainly on a lively discussion among Cathy, Mark, and the Fort Monroe Authority's Bill Armbruster, and ended with some thoughts by Cathy, in which she promoted CFMNP's Scott Butler's idea that he first made public in a July 3, 2008, Virginian-Pilot op-ed: moving the envisioned slavery museum from Fredericksburg to Fort Monroe.

March 22, 2009: CIVIL WAR PRESERVATION TRUST DECLARES FORT MONROE "AT RISK" FOR THE THIRD YEAR IN A ROW. In Clint Schemmer's March 19 Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star article "Endangered Civil War sites noted," the "lede" sentence talks about the 25 Civil War battlefields that the trust declared endangered at a March 18 National Press Club event. In a sidebar that the Daily Press omitted when it reprinted the article on March 21, Mr. Schemmer listed the ten most endangered sites by name, mentioned that 15 additional "at risk" sites had also been designated, and made sure to cite Fort Monroe in particular as being among them. (Apparently as of Sunday, March 22, the Daily Press -- unlike the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot -- has not yet told its readers this news.) On October 9, 2006, the Civil War Preservation Trust issued a resolution in support of a Fort Monroe National Park.

March 22, 2009: CONGRESSMAN GLENN NYE HAS CONTINUED EXPRESSING SUPPORT FOR A NATIONAL PARK AT FORT MONROE, which is in his district. Back on April 30, 2008, Rep. Rob Wittman, on Cathy Lewis's "HearSay," had said, "I'd like to see us make sure that Fort Monroe is preserved in a way that the public can enjoy the entire property." That may have been the first congressional-level affirmation that all of Fort Monroe is a National Historic Landmark belonging to everybody. Shortly later, then-candidate Nye wrote in a political blog, "I understand that a full study of the feasibility of making Fort Monroe a national park has not yet been commissioned. I think a special resource study is a good idea." On "HearSay" on Feb. 23, 2009, now-Congressman Nye made a point of reiterating that view, saying "I'm going to keep pushing on that." (See a brief transcript.) We hope that citizens will encourage him not only to take the lead on that pushing, but to recruit Virginia's two senators to the cause as well. As the Virginian-Pilot editorial board regularly points out, the Fort Monroe opportunity requires the active involvement of the commonwealth's congressional delegation.

Jan. 25, 2009: THE NORFOLK VIRGINIAN-PILOT EDITORIAL BOARD HAS REITERATED ITS CALL FOR CREATING FORT MONROE NATIONAL PARK in yet another editorial like the one from June 8, 2008, that asked "local, state and federal leaders [to] unite in the obvious -- creating Fort Monroe National Park." The editors recognize that a self-sustaining, revenue-generating, innovatively structured national park is the best way to capitalize on the opportunity that post-Army Fort Monroe represents. The newest editorial, from Jan. 16, also endorses the Trust for Public Land report described in the Jan. 20 entry below on this "What's New" page. (Read three Pilot editorials: June 8, 2008; Aug. 25, 2008; Jan. 16, 2009.)

Jan. 24, 2009: LEGISLATORS PONDER FORT MONROE LAND SELL-OFFS. That's the very worst thing that can happen at post-Army Fort Monroe, because once the land is gone from public ownership, it's gone forever. Here's an excerpt from the Daily Press: "Cash-strapped state lawmakers eyed a post-military Fort Monroe on Friday, wondering why Hampton's historic Army site can't be turned into a moneymaker immediately. 'There's a lot of land that you could sell to developers,' said Del. Johnny Joannou, D-Portsmouth. 'They'd be banging down your door.'" It's too bad that some people see public financial enrichment as the only kind of public enrichment to be extracted from post-Army Fort Monroe. And it's also too bad that many of those who focus only on financial enrichment fail to recognize that the best way to gain it is to transform Fort Monroe -- all of it, not just the moated fortress -- into some sort of Grand Public Place. Please see the online Daily Press article about this, and please consider joining the online discussion that's linked to it. (Copy of our initial response in that online discussion.)

Jan. 20, 2009: TRUST FOR PUBLIC LAND REPORT DECLARES THAT FORT MONROE'S "CONVERSION TO PARKLAND would help reduce the parkland deficit of the entire Hampton Roads area and would also have significant positive spin-offs -- economic and otherwise -- for the entire region." The TPL's Peter Harnik presented the report to the Fort Monroe Authority on Jan. 6. The report was commissioned by the nonprofit Fort Monroe National Park Foundation and paid for by many generous friends of Fort Monroe. (Full report) (Key excerpt)