HAMPTON—The area on Fort Monroe known to some as “Dog Beach” could soon be open to the public.
Officially called North Beach/Area 4, the 50-acre area is not part of the Fort Monroe National Monument established in 2011 by presidential proclamation but is controlled by the U.S. Army. The area is considered an indigenous cultural landscape, “providing modern-day visitors a sense of what earlier people saw when they arrived in the New World.”
Sections of the area require remediation before the area can be added to the National Park system. North Beach/Area 4 was formerly used for waste disposal and contamination of the area has kept it closed to the public. The National Park Service is coordinating with the Army to clean up the contamination with the goal of transferring land to the National Park Service to be used as a recreational area.
The National Park Service is conducting a rapid assessment of potential visitor uses for North Beach/Area 4, which will be used to determine the level of cleanup needed at the site. Public input will be incorporated into discussions with the Army regarding management of the area.
Virtual forums will be held on Monday, March 14 at 5pm, and on Tuesday, March 15 at 10am. The virtual meetings will be held on the project’s website, which also links to a portal for online comments that will be open until March 31.
According to a statement released by Eola Dance, National Park Service Superintendent for Fort Monroe, these forums and portals are intended to “promote community awareness and obtain constructive community review and comment on environmental restoration actions that will accelerate the overall cleanup and subsequent community reuse of Fort Monroe.”
Written comments may also be submitted by mail to National Park Service Region 1, Park Planning and Special Studies Division, Attention: Area 4 Rapid Visitor Use Assessment (Martha Droge), 1234 Market Street, 20th Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19107.