General Management Plan

The Lincoln Home National Historic Site preserves and interprets for the benefit of present and future generations the home of Abraham Lincoln in Springfield, Illinois.

Lincoln Home National Historic Site is developing a general management plan. As its name implies, this plan will provide a general framework to guide park management decisions over the next 15-20 years. This framework will be based in part on a vision of what people wish to see at Lincoln Home in the future.   

In November 2005, the park received comments from the public at several scoping meetings regarding what their vision of the park was in the future. These comments along with park staff suggestions were used to create four preliminary management alternatives for the park. During November 2006, the National Park Service conducted three meetings to inform the public of these preliminary alternatives and to receive their comments about the development of potential management alternatives for Lincoln Home National Historic Site’s general management plan. The public was given an opportunity to share their thoughts on which alternative they preferred, select options from any of the alternatives that they believed should be part of the park’s management strategy, or add to the list of options to be considered. This was followed by a public comment period regarding the preliminary management alternatives, which ended on December 29, 2006.

These meetings and the comments received provided members of the General Management Plan Team with the public’s view of what preliminary alternatives were acceptable and which were not.  The team then met in the Spring of 2007 to develop the National Park Service’s preferred alternative. The preferred alternative ended up being a combination (parts) of each of the four preliminary alternatives. Since then, the Team has been preparing the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), which examines the impact of each of the alternatives on the park’s resources, visitors, and the local community. The preferred alternative, once finalized and approved, becomes the vision for the national historic site’s future and defines the general framework to guide long-term management decision-making.  It is estimated that the preferred management alternative and the accompanying environmental impact statement will be distributed for public review and comment toward the end of May 2008, followed by public meetings to explain the preferred alternative, answer any questions, and receive public comments. The public will have an opportunity to comment for a 60-day period.  Public input is essential to the planning process, so it is hoped that you’ll plan to attend and contribute your thoughts, during this upcoming comment period. The park staff wishes to thank you for your continued support of Lincoln Home National Historic Site.

To view the 2005 draft preliminary alternatives click here. Select Lincoln Home NHS from the drop down list and then select General Management Plan. 

For additional information or to put your name on the mailing list to receive the newsletter before the public meeting dates, please call (217) 492-4241