Clyde's Restaurant Group

To: Colonel Charles Fiala, Jr.

District Engineer

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

P.O. Box 1715

10 South Howard Street

Baltimore, MD 21203-1715

Re: CENABOP-RMS (Clyde's Restaurant Group)99-00914

Dear Colonel Fiala:

This responds to a verbal request made on January 5, 2001 by George Harrison of your staff to Glenn Eugster of this office regarding CENAB-OP-RMS (Clyde's Restaurant Group) 99-00914-15. Mr. Harrison requested us to provide you with: 1) additional information on the role of the National Park Service (NPS) in the Potomac American Heritage River (AHR) initiative; and 2) information on whether other floating restaurants will be permitted within or adjacent to the Georgetown Waterfront Park administered by this agency. As you are aware, we have submitted other comments on this project.

First, Mr. Harrison asked us to clarify our leadership responsibilities for the Potomac American Heritage River and our role in relation to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's (USFWS) comments on this proposal.

NPS has been established by the AHR Interagency Committee, in 1997 as the Sponsoring Federal Agency for the Potomac AHR. The AHR Interagency Committee, which was created by the President's Executive Order #13061, is represented by 12 agencies, Councils and Departments, including the Department of the Interior. Both the Department of the Interior and the AHR Interagency Committee approved the NPS leadership role. As such, we coordinate federal agency activities associated with the Potomac AHR.

It is important to note, in terms of the USFWS comments on this proposal that the AHR initiative does not create any new regulatory requirement for the applicant to meet in the Clyde's restaurant application process. There is no basis for your agency or the USFWS to use AHR as a regulatory requirement in this decision-making.

The framework that is used to guide the AHR initiative is found in the President's 1997 State of Union Address; Executive Order #13061; the September 1997 Final Federal Register Notice on AHR; and the various guidance documents approved by the American Heritage Rivers Interagency Committee.

In 1998 we entered into a formal agreement with the Friends of the Potomac, the lead-community partner organization for this initiative, to implement this effort. That agreement specifies that "this initiative will create no new regulatory requirements or rules for property owners or state and local governments". This commitment is consistent with the intent of the AHR initiative and similar language found in the following approved AHR Interagency Committee documents and the Final Federal Register Notice.

"The AHR initiative will create no new regulatory requirements or rules for property owners or state, tribal or local governments". Source: American Heritage Rivers brochure, American Heritage Rivers Interagency Committee.

"There is nothing in the AHR initiative that will alter any obligation of the federal government to comply with NEP or any other statutory or regulatory requirements. Nothing herein shall create or alter any rights duties, obligations, causes of action or defenses, implied or otherwise, of any person or entity". AHR Final Federal Register Notice September 17, 1997

Mr. Harrison also indicated that the U.S. FWS had concern that this proposal, if approved, would set a precedent and he asked us to indicate whether or not other floating restaurants can be approved within the area we administer.

We believe that there is absolutely no danger of other restaurants being proposed or approved for this area because the official NPS plan for the Georgetown Waterfront Park precludes new restaurants other than the one proposed.

Further, it contemplates rowing as the focus activity of the park with several boathouses clustered above Key Bridge. No architecture downstream of the floating restaurant will be permitted in what will be a park designed as a landscaped, strolling garden.

The enclosed plan for the Georgetown Waterfront Park, approved in 1987 by the District of Columbia, the National Capital Planning Commission, the Commission of Fine Arts, the District of Columbia Historic Preservation Office, and the National Park Service, describes a land use and land management plan for this shoreline area. The plan does recommend the Clyde's Floating restaurant. However, it does not provide for, or permit, any additional restaurants along the Potomac shoreline or on NPS property.

We appreciate the opportunity to provide you this information for your decision-making. If you have any questions, please contact John C. Parsons, Associate Regional Director for Lands, Resources & Planning at (202) 619-7025.

Sincerely,

Terry R. Carlstrom

Regional Director

National Capital Region

enclosure