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with Section 106 ACHP
Case Digest Spring
2003 North Carolina: Transfer of Military
Housing Out of Federal Management, Fort Bragg
Closed Case:
North
Carolina: Transfer of Military Housing Out of Federal Management,
Fort Bragg
Agency: U.S. Army
As part of a
program to privatize housing on defense installations, the management
of housing at the Fort Bragg Army base in North Carolina will be
turned over to a private developer. Fort Bragg’s housing includes
a National Register-eligible district known as the Old Post, which
features an early 20th-century Beaux Arts landscape plan.
An agreement
was recently executed to ensure that the Army continues to meet
its responsibilities under Section 106 of the National Historic
Preservation Act to consider the effects of actions on its historic
properties. The Army has agreed that, while management of housing
is not within its mission, stewardship of its historic housing does
remain within its mission.
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In response to a 1996 bill that provides the military with alternative
authorities for construction and improvement of its housing, the U.S.
Department of Defense introduced a program to privatize housing on defense
installations. Under the program, the U.S. Army has called for the construction
of approximately 3,050 new or replacement housing units and the renovation
of 1,815 housing units at the Fort Bragg Army base in North Carolina.
A Spanish Eclectic-style house in the Bastogne Gables Housing Area, Old Post, Fort Bragg, NC (photo courtesy of U.S. Army)
Fort Bragg features an area known as the Old Post District, which contains
more than 300 historic resources eligible for listing in the National
Register of Historic Places, including family housing on a Beaux Arts
landscape plan with Spanish Eclectic and Georgian Revival-style buildings.
The historic housing required safeguards to ensure that, in turning over
management of its housing to a private developer, who may demolish, rehabilitate,
or construct new housing, the Army nonetheless would continue to meet
its responsibilities to consider effects of these actions to historic
properties.
In February 2003, following initial consultation with the North Carolina
State Historic Preservation Officer (SHPO) and the ACHP, the Army recognized
the need for ongoing tribal consultation as the privatization programknown
as the Residential Communities Initiative (RCI)is implemented over
the next 50 to 75 years.
The Army began a dialogue with federally recognized tribes with potential
concerns for properties of religious and cultural significance in the
Fort Bragg area, including the Catawba, Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, Eastern
Band of Cherokee Indians, and United Keetowah Band of Cherokee Indians.
In March 2003, the Army, the North Carolina SHPO, and the ACHP executed
an agreement that ensures that historic properties will be considered
throughout the RCIs implementation. The agreement also offers opportunities
for continuing public involvement and affords interested tribes an opportunity
to develop specific consultation procedures with the Army for projects
that result from RCI.
The agreement overcomes potential incompatibilities with Section 106
by including historic preservation as an area of accountability that the
private partner will be expected to uphold. Thus, while the Army has determined
that management of housing is not within the Armys mission, it has
confirmed that stewardship of its historic housing does remain within
its mission.
The agreement may serve as a model for RCIs for other Army bases, but
is not expected to serve as a prototype agreement pursuant to the regulations
implementing Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. Therefore,
each agreement would be developed among the Army installation, the SHPO,
Indian tribes, and the interested public, taking into account the specific
nature of each installations historic properties and RCI.
The Army will work with the ACHP on issuing guidance that draws upon
the Fort Bragg model so that other installations will have a useful starting
point for consultation with SHPOs, Indian tribes, and others as they plan
for privatization of base housing.
Staff contact: Martha
Catlin
Posted
August 15, 2003
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