§460l–14 Facilities or Project Modifications to Be Provided Without Written Indication of Intent

Summary

You cannot add recreation or fish and wildlife facilities to a project unless there is a written intent, except two times: if the work serves other project goals and is justified on that basis, or if it is a small, necessary facility for public health and safety at an access point on roads that already exist or were built to manage the project. When benefits for recreation or wildlife are counted in these cases, they must be calculated using the number of visitor-days expected if those recreation or wildlife facilities were not built and the value per visitor-day of the project without them. Any project costs allocated to recreation or fish and wildlife this way must be nonreimbursable. Land can still be set aside to save recreation or wildlife potential even without the written intent. If a non-Federal public body signs an agreement after the project starts, it must run the land under an agency-approved plan and pay at least one-half of recreation land/facility costs, one-quarter of fish and wildlife enhancement costs, at least one-half of planning study costs, and its share of operation, maintenance, and replacement costs; the rest of the costs will be nonreimbursable. If no such agreement is signed within ten years after the project starts, the agency head may reuse the land for lawful agency purposes, offer it for sale to the prior owner or heirs at appraised fair market value, and if not bought within ninety days, transfer custody to another federal agency, lease it to a public body, or send it to the General Services Administrator for disposal. The land must never be used in a way that conflicts with the project's purposes, and except for selling to the prior owner, priority should go to uses that preserve or promote, or at least do not harm, the project's recreation and wildlife potential. Recreation facilities can be expanded if they are inadequate and a non-Federal public body agrees to manage them under an approved plan and pay at least one-half of planning and capital costs and at least one-half of the added operation, maintenance, and replacement costs; the federal share cannot be more than 50 percent of the expansion cost.