NEWS FROM GETTYSBURG

News from Gettysburg

So what's going on with the proposed new Gettysburg private enterprise/government partnership and the plan to launch a new mega-sized visitors' center on the Levan property, south and east of the current center. The answer is simply, controversy, superceded by more controversy and wrapped in a package of controversy. Dr. John Latschar, National Park Service superintendent, has stormed into Gettysburg and instead of working with citizens, local government, business people, historical preservationists, environmentalists and others, he has pushed on relentlessly with his personal agenda in spite of his many detractors. It is as if he were on a holy mission. If this new commercialized center becomes a reality, then he, like his predecessors, will most likely move on to another location, leaving us the mess he will have perpetrated on this community...as he did in Steamtown, Pennsylvania, an NPS boondoggle he orchestrated a few years ago.

If this $43,000,000+ project becomes a reality, studies show it will negatively affect the local business community and the community at large. It will drastically reduce the local tax base and force many local businesses to face extinction. The tax base of the Borough of Gettysburg will be transferred to Cumberland Township, where the new center will be located. It will move the current tourist business community from Steinwehr Avenue to Baltimore Pike toward the bypass. Much of this land has been untouched, except for small homes and farms. Inasmuch as a new outlet center and two golf courses are also being planned in this same general location, it will cause a traffic nightmare, at this point, has not even been addressed.

A recent position paper, commissioned by local concerned citizens of Gettysburg, through Mark Gruin of Greenpoint, Ltd. shows how we have been pushed, shoved and manhandled by our government, who always seems to know so much more about what is good for us than we ourselves know. Here are the brief summary points appearing in the Gruin Report for all of you to see:

GRUIN REPORT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Concerned citizens for Gettysburg, an ad hoc coalition of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania area residents, business people, preservationists and others has commissioned an independent review of the Gettysburg National Military Park Draft General Management Plan/Environmental Impact Statement. This review was commissioned to assist the concerned citizens in complying with the Park's 60-day public comment period -- the time allotted for making meaningful and considered public comments on the Plan.

SUMMARY COMMENT

This intensive and comprehensive review has resulted in a significant number of troubling and disturbing findings. There is general agreement that the General Management Plan (GMP) for Gettysburg National Military Park (GNMP; the Park) was in need of updating.

However, the findings, taken together, constitute a substantial adverse impact on the community of Gettysburg. it residents, small businesses and critical tax base. Consequently, concerned citizens are compelled to appeal for a complete rejection of the General Management Plan and the immediate initiation of a new, community-based approach to planning that preserves and builds upon the mutually beneficial relationships that have evolved over the past 135 years.

VISITOR CENTER & COMMERCIAL SERVICES CONCERNS

Among the most pressing issues of concern is the central element of the GMP -- a proposed $40,000,000 visitor center, museum, collections storage and commercial services complex to be developed in a precedent-setting public/private partnership within the boundaries of the Park -- was completely decided upon immediately prior to the process of up-dating the GMP. No alternatives to this radical proposal were presented. This proposed complex compromises the integrity of the plan in a number ways:

• Inclusion of the proposed complex in the GMP without first allowing the GMP to establish the guidelines for development is in direct contradiction to National Park Service Director
• s Order 2: Park Planning (27 May, 1998), Section 3.3.1.2, which calls for general management planning to constitute the first phase of tiered planning and decision making.
• By allowing the previously-made decision on the proposed complex to drive the GMP process, the Park is in direct violation of NEPA, which specifically prohibits plans to be used to justify decisions already made.
• The inclusion of substantial commercial service enterprises in the complex is in direct contradiction to National Park Service management Policies. which specifically delineate a preference for out-of-park private enterprise by stating, "If adequate facilities exist or can feasibly be developed by private enterprise to serve park visitors' needs for commercial services outside park boundaries, such facilities will not be expanded or developed within parks."
• The proposed commercial services complex is contrary to and in conflict with the 1990 Gettysburg National Military Park Boundary Legislation, which was designed to preserve, conserve and protect the historic resources within the boundary area.
• The proposed development is in conflict with the findings of the Governor's 21st Century Environment Commission for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. which identifies sprawl development as the foremost issue of concern in the Commonwealth for the coming millennium.
• The failure to address the full range of alternatives for new visitor, museum, collections and commercial service facilities, by limiting the alternatives in essence to "no action" or "the proposed complex," undermines the spirit and intent of the National Environmental Policy Act and National Park Service planning guidelines.
• The plans for the complex, including its location, commercial elements and operating scheme will have devastating adverse impact on the local small business community by effectively diminishing the vital pedestrian traffic.

ECONOMIC IMPACT CONCERNS

The Economic Impact Evaluation of the GMP Alternatives. the underlying economic study used to support the decisions presented in the GMP was itself badly flawed:

• The Evaluation was not included in the GMP, but was only released by the Park to comply with a FOIA request.
• The Evaluation was presented as an economic impact evaluation of the GMP Alternatives, all of which are resource management~alternatives. In fact, the Evaluation studies only two alternatives, neither of which is related to resource management: (1) the "no action" alternative and (2) the proposed visitor center and commercial services complex.
• The Evaluation was completed without any primary research. All data was provided to the consultants by the Park and other beneficiary advocates of the "preferred" development alternative.
• The Evaluation contains numerous discrepancies and inconsistencies between the basis figures presented by the consultants and the stated operating assumptions used by the Park and its partners.
• The Evaluation did not include a specific comprehensive economic analysis of the Borough of Gettysburg. without which it cannot fully and

OTHER CONCERNS

• The GMP fails to objectively evaluate the historical and archaeological significance of the site proposed for the visitor center complex.
• The GMP fails to consider the possibility that the Cyclorama center may be eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.
• The objectivity of the GMP is compromised by a host of ethics, procedural, and review problems.
• The Park's failure to pursue appropriate and necessary collections conservation measures has admittedly put the artifact and archival collections at great risk.
• The GMP fails to recognize the impact of on-going litigation regarding the Park's deer management program.

DO COMMUNITIES MATTER?

The National Park Service has given clear direction to all of its units -- National Parks should, to the maximum extent possible, seek out and consult with local communities and other interested and impacted parties. NPS policy further mandates that public involvement will be adequate to learn about the concerns, issues, expectations and values.

Serious and significant concerns, indications of no support and calls for rejection of the GMP have emerged from Gettysburg Borough, Cumberland Township, the Gettysburg Retail Merchants Association, the Gettysburg Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Gettysburg Battlefield Preservation Association, individual citizens and businesses, and a host of others. Is the Park listening? Do communities really matter to GNMP?

CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATION FOR REJECTION

The relationship between the Park and the community has been terribly damaged by this General Management Plan and the process pursued in its creation. The process itself has been compromised, rifts in the community have emerged and been manipulated and exploited, and the future of the Park and the community put at unacceptable risk. This GMP should be rejected, and immediate efforts taken to initiate a new approach that seeks to restore the trust and confidence in the Park that has been sadly diminished.

Outside of Latchar, Kinsley (the private developer) and NPS, only the Park Advisory Board, a local board made up of a contingent of pro-park (no matter what) growth minded members, (including some ex-NPS employees), along with the officers of the Friends of the Gettysburg Park are for the new visitor center. The Friends administered a survey indicating its members were for the new center. First, most of the members do not know all of the ramifications of the plan and the questions were leading and vague. Only 23% responded, and many of those with reservations. The Friends officers refuse to reveal the detailed results of the poll, giving as their excuse that they will not publicize their private survey to non-Friends members.

Who is against it? The Gettysburg Preservation Association, The Gettysburg Retail Merchants Association, The Gettysburg Visitors and Convention Bureau, Concerned Citizens of Gettysburg and the Borough of Gettysburg are all opposed to the new plan, many feeling they have been totally ignored in this ram rodded process.

The Park will tell you they have discussed all the details and given options to the community in 23 meetings. Wrong. Most questions are yet to be addressed, have been deliberately delayed, postponed or have been ignored altogether. Their attitude has always been correlative to the old phrase, "Don't confuse us with the facts, we've already made up our minds!"

I will, as will many others, continue to fight this plan to the bitter end. It will now be fought in the media and in the halls of congress. Trying to point out the many defects to Dr. Latschar and his compatriots is no longer useful. I am hopeful the full Gruin report will be available on the Internet. Its not only we from Gettysburg who are concerned. Many, from all areas of the country are deeply affected. The Gruin Report will tell you why. Stay tuned.