Draft Resolution for City and County Commissioners and Local Groups regarding St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore

Draft Resolution for City and County Commissioners and Local Groups regarding St. Augustine National Historical Park, National Seashore and Scenic Coastal Parkway

BE IT RESOLVED, that we recognize that the National Park Service is uniquely qualified to preserve and protect our City's and our First Coast's history; and

BE IT RESOLVED, that we respectfully petition our President and 111th Congress of the United States to enact the "St. Augustine National Historical Park, National Seashore and Scenic Coastal Parkway" (SANHPSSCP) Act (SANHPSSCPA), preserving history and nature located in and around the Nation's Oldest (European-founded) City of our area's 11,000 year history of human settlements; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that we respectfully petition our Congress to hold field hearings here in St. Augustine during the first session of the 111th Congress regarding the scope and details of SANHPSSCP and SANHPSSCPA, with emphasis on suitably:
1. Honoring the Nation's Oldest city's natural and human history, including our rich diversity and Native American, African-American, Spanish, Minorcan, English, Civil War, Reconnstruction, Flagler Era, Civil Rights, environmental, economic, social, religious, naval, military, agricultural, culinary, architectural histories; after
2. Understanding and planning for the current and prospective state of archaeological, historic and environmental protection, preservation and education, including recommendations of a recent panel of experts;
3. Adopting an integrated statutory approach to funding and operating SANHPSA parks, archaeology and history investigations and research, while
4. Restoring St. Augustine's historic 1928 trolley car system into an integrated public transportation system serving the VIC/Parking Garage, Downtown, Uptown, Lincolnville, West Augustine, Davis Shores/Anastasia Island, with possible future expansion to Vilano Beach, St. Augustine Beach, Crescent Beach,Marineland, Ponte Vedra, and Palatka, and
5. Creating an "emerald necklace of parks" operated by the National Park Service in and around our Nation's Oldest City, with boundaries to be determined.