House OKs bill to create six national heritage areas

HAGERSTOWN, Md. (AP) — The U.S. House of Representatives approved a bill yesterday that would create six new national heritage areas, including a Civil War commemorative route that crosses parts of four states.

The 175-mile route, called the Journey Through Hallowed Ground, would wind through Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia.

The measure, which now goes to the Senate, also would create national heritage areas in parts of Alabama, Arizona, Massachusetts, Illinois, New Hampshire and New York. It would extend for 15 years the authorization of nine heritage areas set to expire in 2012.

Thirty-seven such areas have been established under a program that provides federal matching grants to public-private management groups for tourism promotion.

“We’re thrilled,” by the House vote, said Cate Magennis Wyatt, president of the Journey Through Hallowed Ground partnership, based in Waterford, Va. The area would feature at least 10 Civil War battlefields between Gettysburg, Pa., and Charlottesville and include Harpers Ferry, W.Va.

The House approved the resolution 291-122. All the “no” votes were cast by Republicans, including Rep. Roscoe G. Bartlett of Maryland and Reps. Virgil H. Goode Jr. and Robert W. Goodlatte of Virginia, whose districts include parts of the Hallowed Ground area.

Mr. Bartlett supported an earlier Hallowed Ground bill but said the $15 million version approved yesterday “tramples over taxpayers’ interests and private property rights.” He also complained that his constituents’ input would be limited by a Journey management entity controlled by Virginians.

Mr. Bartlett cited a report by the conservative Heritage Foundation, which said the bill would “give a handful of Virginia environmentalists and wealthy landowners extraordinary powers over how private property can be used.”

Miss Wyatt said the legislation includes no private-property infringement, and that the Hallowed Ground partnership has broad regional representation.