Term

#1 - The proposal satisfies completely the park's four main goals for (a) preservation of the artifact and archival collections, (b) preservation of the Cyclorama painting, (c) substantially enhanced interpretation of the Gettysburg campaign for the benefit of park visitors, and (d) complete restoration of the Union battle lines upon which these two buildings currently sit.

#2 - The proposal provides an excellent site for the new facilities, on privately-owned land inside the park boundary.
This site will:

• - have no impact upon significant historic resources. The site lies in an area that was behind the Union battle lines. It lies between the Union positions on Cemetery Ridge and Culp's Hill, and was used exclusively by the Army of the Potomac as a staging and resting area. There were no battle lines upon this land, no fighting took place there, and no blood was spilled there.
• - provide easy access for park visitors to prime interpretive areas of the park, such as the High water Mark and the National Cemetery.
• - will have little, if any, impact upon current traffic patterns and few, if any, impacts upon local business activities and patterns.

#4 - An appropriate range of related facilities is proposed, to provide service for visitors. The facilities will be very similar to those found in other leading museums, such as the Smithsonian.

What's Next?

Today's announcement is a significant step in a long process, which is not yet over. Two things will now happen simultaneously:

- The NPS will enter into negotiations with the non-profit to be formed by Kinsley Equities, leading towards a long term cooperative agreement for the funding, design, construction, operations and maintenance of the facilities. If we can reach a successful conclusion to those negotiations, the agreement will be signed, but not until after the current General Management Plan process has been completed.

- That's because we will "fold" the 1996 development concept plan and environmental assessment for the "Collections Storage, Visitor Center & Museum Facilities" into the General Management Plan and Environmental Impact Statement which is currently underway. We will present to the public the major components of this proposal, along with any potential environmental and/or socioeconomic impacts. The public will have at least three opportunities to comment upon the proposal and its impacts (if any) before the GMP is complete:

• - November 20, Advisory Commission meeting
• - December 17, GMP alternatives workshop
• - Spring 1998, Draft GMP/EIS on 60-day public review.
• - The NPS will not enter into the cooperative agreement until the GMP is complete. We anticipate this process to take approximately 8 months.