The press release from the Northern Neck Planning District Commission details the purpose of the meetings:
Northern Neck National Heritage Area Hosts Public Meetings in March
Warsaw-The public is invited to participate and provide input as planning for the future of the Northern Neck National Heritage Area begins with two public meetings. The first public input meeting will be held at A.T. Johnson High School Museum at 18849 Kings Highway in Montross on Monday, March 4, at 5pm. The second public input meeting will be held at the Northumberland Public Library at 7204 Northumberland Highway in Heathsville on Wednesday, March 6, at 12:30pm.
“The Northern Neck National Heritage Area was designated by Congress in December of 2022 in recognition of the Northern Neck’s nationally significant history,” said Jerry W. Davis, Executive Director of the Northern Neck Planning District Commission (NNPDC), which oversees the Northern Neck Tourism Commission. The Northern Neck Tourism Commission is the local coordinating entity for the Northern Neck National Heritage Area.
“The goal of a National Heritage Area is to create a community-driven network to support historic preservation, natural resource conservation, recreation, heritage tourism, and educational projects,” Davis said. “These two meetings will begin a process to develop a management plan that will reflect the interests of our communities in guiding the National Heritage Area’s work.”
The Northern Neck National Heritage Area boundary includes King George, Lancaster, Northumberland, Richmond, and Westmoreland Counties. The National Heritage Area works in partnership with the National Park Service which will provide technical assistance and funding.
The management plan will be developed by a team led by Point Heritage Development Consulting, LLC (PointHDC), which includes some of the country’s top experts in working with National Heritage Areas. The consultant team will work with the Northern Neck Tourism Commission, NNPDC staff, and the public to develop the plan which will be approved by the National Park Service and the Secretary of the Interior. Once approved, the Northern Neck National Heritage Area will be eligible to receive federal funds to support implementation of programs and projects included in the management plan.
The public meeting will include a presentation on the process and timeline for development of the management plan, examples of success stories from other National Heritage Areas, and a discussion session with participants to share what they consider important opportunities to develop and sustain the area’s heritage and culture.
Learn more about the Northern Neck National Heritage Area
By federal law, the Northern Neck National Heritage Area is made up of five counties ― King George, Lancaster, Northumberland, Richmond, and Westmoreland ― between the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers.
The official process to designate the area a national heritage area took 13 years, from 2009 to 2022, but the entire process was more like two decades in the making. Learn more about the history of the national heritage area determination on the Northern Neck National Heritage Area page on the Northern Neck Planning District Commission website. Additional information is on the National Park Service page Northern Neck National Heritage Area - All Documents and Projects. The NPS site has a link to the nearly 200-page feasibility study published in June 2020.
What is a National Heritage Area?
According to the National Park Service, a national heritage area has historical significance shaped by geography. In Northern Neck Feasibillity Study Process, NPS answers the question:
A place designated by Congress where natural, cultural, historic, and recreational resources combine to form a cohesive, nationally distinctive landscape arising from patterns of human activity shaped by geography.