I
106TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 5493
To improve the ability of local communities to participate in Federal land
management planning conducted by the Forest Service and agencies
of the Department of the Interior and to respond to the local impacts
of the heavy public use of the Federal lands administered by these
agencies.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
OCTOBER 18, 2000
Mr. RADANOVICH introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Resources, and in addition to the Committee on Agri-
culture, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in
each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdic-
tion of the committee concerned
A BILL
To improve the ability of local communities to participate
in Federal land management planning conducted by the
Forest Service and agencies of the Department of the
Interior and to respond to the local impacts of the heavy
public use of the Federal lands administered by these
agencies.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Gateway Communities
Cooperation Act of 2000’’.
SEC. 2. IMPROVED RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FEDERAL
LAND MANAGERS AND GATEWAY COMMU-
NITIES 
TO 
SUPPORT 
COMPATIBLE 
LAND
MANAGEMENT OF BOTH FEDERAL AND ADJA-
CENT LANDS.
(a) FINDINGS.—The Congress finds the following:
(1) Communities that are adjacent to or near
significant parcels of the Federal lands, such as
units of the National Park System, units of the Na-
tional Wildlife Refuge System, units of the National
Forest System, and lands administered by the Bu-
reau of Land Management, are often affected by the
management and public use of these Federal lands.
(2) These nearby communities, commonly
known as gateway communities, have social and eco-
nomic links to these Federal lands and can also af-
fect the activities occurring on these Federal lands.
(3) Gateway communities often serve as a start-
ing point for persons who visit these Federal lands
and are an ideal place for establishment of visitor
services, including lodging, food service, fuel, and
auto repairs.
(4) Development in these gateway communities
can benefit or adversely affect the management and
protection of these Federal lands, depending on the
extent to which advance planning for the local devel-
opment is coordinated between the communities and
Federal land managers.
(5) The management decisions of Federal land
managers can have unintended consequences for
gateway communities, when the decisions are not
adequately communicated to, or coordinated with,
the elected officials and residents of gateway com-
munities.
(6) Experts in land management planning are
available to Federal land managers, but persons with
technical planning skills are often not readily avail-
able to gateway communities, particularly small
gateway communities.
(b) POLICY.—It is the policy of the Federal Govern-
ment that Federal land managers should make every ef-
fort to support, and communicate, coordinate, and cooper-
ate with, gateway communities in order to—
(1) improve the relationship between Federal
land managers and elected officials and residents of
gateway communities;
(2) enhance the facilities and services in gate-
way communities that, while compatible with the
management of Federal lands, are available to visi-
tors to Federal lands; and
(3) result in better land use decisions.
(c) DEFINITIONS.—In this Act:
(1) FEDERAL
LAND
MANAGER.—The term
‘‘Federal land manager’’ means the superintendent
of a unit of the National Park System, the manager
of a national wildlife refuge, the resource area man-
ager of a Bureau of Land Management area, or the
supervisor of a unit of the National Forest System.
(2) GATEWAY COMMUNITY.—The term ‘‘gate-
way community’’ means a community that—
(A) is located adjacent to or near Federal
lands administered by a Federal land manager;
(B) provides identifiable visitor services to
persons using these Federal lands;
(C) has identifiable social and economic
links to these Federal lands; and
(D) contains lands, the use of which could
either benefit or adversely affect lands, waters,
or other resources of these Federal lands.
(3) CERTIFIED
GATEWAY
COMMUNITY.—The
term ‘‘certified gateway community’’ means a gate-
for the Federal land manager to be involved in land man-
agement planning conducted by the certified gateway com-
munity.
(f) GRANTS TO ASSIST CERTIFIED GATEWAY COM-
MUNITIES.—Using funds appropriated or otherwise made
available to a Federal land manager to carry out this sec-
tion, the Federal land manager may make grants to a cer-
tified gateway community—
(1) to enable persons referred to in subsection
(d)(1) to participate in the Federal land use plan-
ning process;
(2) to enable the local government of a certified
gateway community to obtain professional land use
planning assistance;
(3) to address public infrastructure impacts
that are identified through this process as a likely
result of the Federal land management decisions and
for which sufficient funds are not otherwise avail-
able; and
(4) to address other aspects of local economic
development that may affect land use decisions, in-
cluding programs to educate visitors to the Federal
lands about these lands or about the gateway com-
munity.
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