
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, May 10, 1994                   TAG: 9405100151
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

PARK SERVICE DIRECTOR PROMISES FREEZE ON FUTURE PROPERTY DEALS

Stung by criticism of a land swap gone sour at Gettysburg National Military Park, the director of the National Park Service Monday promised to freeze future property deals while writing stringent new guidelines to protect other federal sites.

Roger Kennedy made the promise at a congressional hearing about a 1990 property exchange in which the park service gave 7.5 acres of federal land to Gettysburg College so it could relocate a private railroad to the edge of its campus. In exchange, the school agreed not to build on 46 acres of adjoining land it was using for athletic fields.

Problems arose, however, when the railroad construction so eroded a section of Seminary Ridge - the site of early fighting during the 1863 Gettysburg battle - that a 12-foot-thick retaining wall had to be built to prevent the ridge from collapsing. Rep. Michael Andrews, D-Texas, a Civil War buff, Monday described the damage as ``historic vandalism.''

Monday's hearing was called by Rep. Mike Synar, D-Okla., chairman of the House Government Operations Subcommittee on Environment, Energy and Natural Resources.

The subcommittee has looked into several federal land deals. It has held hearings on problems with land swaps in Grand Teton National Park, the Santa Monica Mountains Recreation Area and is looking into a proposal involving Bureau of Land Management property in Idaho.

In a land exchange the government turns over parts of a national parks, wildlife refuges or other federal recreation areas for various reasons: from straightening out boundary lines to acquiring a scenic easement to prevent neighboring land from being developed.

Congress oversees interstate exchanges of federal property, but lawmakers give only general approval of intrastate exchanges. The number of land swaps is increasing as federal officials try to find ways around tightening budgets.

Land swaps must comply with federal laws on historic preservation and other issues, but the National Park Service has no written guidelines to provide consistency and include public input, Synar said.

Kennedy told Synar that the park service erred in letting the Gettysburg land swap go through without more detailed review. The park service chief said the agency will write new rules ``so we can make it less likely that there will be recurring tragedies of this sort.''

He promised to freeze all non-urgent land swaps ``until we get an assent from you that we're doing it right.''

Synar said the park service's draft guidelines on proposed exchanges appear to include public disclosure of key details, cultural and archaeological surveys, and environmental impact statements.

Monday's hearing on the Gettysburg swap was the result of persistent lobbying by Civil War preservation groups and historians. College officials defended the swap and said they never hid anything. President Gordon Haaland said the school ``felt all along that the exchange was in the best interests of the American public and the college.''

The park service held public meetings on the proposal to swap its land in exchange for the college's promise not to build on the 46 acres.

by CNB