Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park is going to implement entrance fees in November/NPS, Tom Wilson
On November 13, Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park in Georgia will implement a vehicle entrance fee program at its parking lots to raise funds to help improve park facilities and infrastructure and provide additional services.
“The park received a largely favorable response from visitors during the public commenting period," said Nancy Walther, the park's superintendent. "We believe visitors will generally understand our need to enhance the park’s recreational and battlefield experiences. Once funds from this program are in place, we will add a public restroom to the south end of the park and purchase an additional shuttle bus to transport more visitors up the mountain.”
Funds generated through implementation of the vehicle entrance fee program may be also be used for earthwork stabilization, visitor safety, trail stabilization and repair, cannon restoration at outdoor cannon displays, youth programs, historical exhibits, and internship opportunities. The park has had no means of generating revenue since its inception in 1935.
A public comment period for the proposal of a fee program at the park occurred in the fall of 2017, and the requisite Federal Registry comment time was completed in February 2019.
Kennesaw Mountain preserves a nearly 3,000-acre Civil War battlefield that saw action as part of the Atlanta Campaign. Opposing forces maneuvered and fought there from June 19, 1864, until July 2, 1864.
How The New Vehicle Entrance Fee Program Will Work:
To gain entrance into the park, visitors must either have a park-specific $5 daily or $40 annual pass, or an America the Beautiful™ interagency pass. Passes can be purchased at recreation.gov or at the park’s visitor center, located at 900 Kennesaw Mountain Drive, NW, Kennesaw, GA 30152.
Credit and debit cards will be the only accepted terms of payment online and at the park’s visitor center. Payment of an entrance fee does not guarantee a parking space. During busy periods, park visitors are strongly encouraged to find a parking space before purchasing a daily pass online.
The park, which counted more than 2.5 million visitors in 2018, will conduct compliance checks at all of its parking lots at various times throughout the day and evening. Park staff will check for hard copy passes on dashboards of cars (for those with physical passes) or for valid vehicle license plate number registrations on recreation.gov registrations for visitors completing online pass purchases.
Park visitor parking is available at:
* The Visitor Center lot (GPS Coordinates: 33.983216, -84.578771),
* Mountain Top lot (GPS Coordinates: 33.978042, -84.577639),
* Old 41 (Overflow) lot (GPS Coordinates: 33.985047, -84.582952),
* Gilbert Road lot (GPS Coordinates: 33.976017, -84.599580),
* Burnt Hickory Road lot (GPS Coordinates: 33.963276, -84.594391),
* Cheatham Hill Road lot (GPS Coordinates: 33.933020, -84.604780),
* Cheatham Hill Drive/Illinois Monument lot (GPS Coordinates: 33.936937, -84.596903),
* Kolb Farm lot (GPS Coordinates: 33.910438, -84.596796), and the
* Horse Trailer lot (GPS Coordinates: 33.913270, -84.597761).
During the week, visitors to the park will have the opportunity to drive their personal vehicle to the top of Kennesaw Mountain. Visitors to the park on the weekends may not drive their personal vehicle, but will have the opportunity to take the shuttle bus, based on space and availability, to the mountaintop as part of their entrance charge.
Comments
So you're telling me that the majority of park respondents favored a fee? BS.
FOIA the comments, someone.
SB--
I'll bet against your pronouncement of BS.
The key is to look at what was asked. It almost certainly wasn't just fee or no fee. It would have been no fee (no action), versus the fee revenue funding specific improvements for visitors: additional restrooms & wayside displays & ranger programs, possibly even shuttles. Given that choice, I can see a majority of responses and comments favoring a fee.
You shouldn't have to FOIA to get a copy of the alternatives put out for public comment, and the set of written comments provided by the public. [In person comment sessions tend to have very low turnout, whether for fee increases or for proposed management changes to parks.]
Yes the NPS website "Content [sic] Management System" sucks (speaking just for myself), but I took it as a challenge and found the park planning documents page https://parkplanning.nps.gov/planningHome.cfm . It has documents by park, where you can find https://parkplanning.nps.gov/projectHome.cfm?projectID=74662
They only posted the powerpoint and proposal document, not the rest of the planning file. They might not have someone on park staff skilled enough to post everything to the CMS (I can't post to the CMS), or anyone with CMS as part of their official duties. But if you email their park contact, I'd bet they'll send you a pdf of the public comments.
So, from the documents posted, the proposal was to institute a $5 entrance fee with no toll booths or cost of collection, then use that revenue to expand shuttle service to the top of the mountain to 7 days a week, not just on the weekend, and remove the separate fee for the shuttle. That lets them close the narrow, winding, steep road to the top to private motor vehicles, increasing safety, and likely allowing more visitors the view of most of Atlanta from the top. Also, closing the road to cars allows more hikers, bikers, and local exercisers to use that road safely. They also state they'll spend revenue on trail & deferred maintenence, and living history programs.
I don't know if that's a good tradeoff or not, but it seems quite likely that a majority of the small number of folks who commented might support that fee. Even a cynic can see that locals who regularly run the hill might be motivated to provide official comments in support of closing the road to cars, whether or not they'll need to purchase passes to run the hill. And, they would be much more motivated to comment than the average visitor who won't be comig back.
Note that Kurt's article is verbatim what the park put out announcing the start of the fee. The scant details on where the fee revenue will go is due to their PIO, not Kurt.