Mountain Valley Pipeline filed a revised historic property treatment plan for the Greater Newport Rural Historic District on February 13.
MVP asserts that the 342-page filing includes a treatment plan that “has been substantially revised” based on feedback from FERC, Giles County, the Greater Newport Rural Historic Committee, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, Shannon Lucas, Clarence and Karolyn Givens, Jerry and Jerolyn Deplazes, and Michael Williams, who all made comments on the August 2017 and February 5, 2018 versions of the plan.
In the Proposed Mitigation Plan, MVP includes the following mitigation suggestions:
- Further reducing the visibility of the maintained permanent right-of-way from locations with potential visibility within the district including high visibility areas such as main arterial roadways
- Revegetation of the right-of-way to ensure that vegetative openings appear more natural and conform to the natural form, line, color, and texture of the existing landscape.
- Establishment of a $500,000 Newport Community Center and Park Preservation Fund dedicated to the preservation and restoration of the Newport Community Center and Park (formerly the Newport High School and Agriculture Building)
The filing includes records of communication with consulting parties and commenters to the previous plans, as well as the controversial Memorandum of Agreement dated December 22, 2017 and signed by then-Governor Terry McAuliffe regarding the “Comprehensive Mitigation of Virginia Resource Impacts of the Mountain Valley Pipeline.” Per the Agreement, the mitigation of impacts to Virginia’s historic resources will be offset by a contribution of $2.5 million; $1.5 million is “to be applied to costs incurred by MVP for implementation of the approved property-specific or site-specific Treatment Plans developed pursuant to FERC’s PA for the adversely affected historic properties,” while the remaining $1 million is payable to the Virginia Historical Society based in Richmond.
You can find the full text of the Memorandum of Agreement below:
> Virginia MVP Historic Resources Memorandum of Agreement
> Revised Historic Property Treatment Plan for the Greater Newport Rural Historic District