Green visitor vision outlined for Fort Monroe

The plan's emphasis is museums, education, the natural environment and public transportation

By David Macaulay, dmacaulay@dailypress.com | 247-7838

9:40 p.m. EDT, May 26, 2010

HAMPTON —

The Fort Monroe experience will begin in a former post exchange building that will be converted into a visitor center and new arrivals will be shuttled on public transport to the area's attractions including its extensive beaches.

The vision for the future of the post after the Army vacates in September 2011 was outlined at a town hall meeting on Tuesday at the Bay Breeze Community Center. About 50 people came out to hear the 15-year plan for the post.

A draft of the long-range interpretive master plan has been developed by consultants Interpretive Solutions. Ann Clausen, a principal with the West Chester, Pa., firm said her company had been working with Fort Monroe on the plan for the last seven months.

She said the Fort Monroe experience would begin at the PX (post exchange) building.

"It is centrally located. It has a lot of parking around it and is spacious," Clausen said.

Clausen said the building is not historic, so it can be shaped to the needs of a visitor center.

Cars would be restricted in areas beyond the visitor center. Post visitors would be taken around on environmentally-friendly forms of transport.

"Fort Monroe needs to conform to green practices to protect this fragile environment. We don't see a lot of car traffic going inside the moat," Clausen said.

"Our priorities will be a circulation or shuttle system," she said. Walking and cycling will also be part of the equation.

Clausen said a natural history resource group has recommended that the north area of Fort Monroe remains as natural as possible. More developed beaches with lifeguard areas are to the south.

The plan also recommends the creation of an environmental education center.

"We are looking for a wide range of input and to try to tell the stories from a range of points of view," Clausen said.

Teacher institutes are also proposed for the area in the future, Clausen said.

Conover Hunt, deputy director of the Fort Monroe Federal Area Development Authority, said all development of the site would be linked to its past.

"There won't be non related themes on this site," she said.

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Developing Fort Monroe

• Phase 1: 1-3 years – Existing facilities would remain open such as the Casemate Museum
• Phase 2: - 3-5 years – New facilities such as the visitor center would be developed and the radar tower on the moat would likely open to the public
• Phase 3: - 5-10 years – Facilities such as Old Quarters One where Abraham Lincoln stayed would be renovated and opened
• Phase 4: 10-15 years – Longer term projects such as teaching institutes and satellite museums could be set up.

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