page_title: Commemorative Works Act
section_title: Provisions
hierarchical_section_title: Commemorative Works Act / Commemorative Works Act of 1986 / Provisions
caption_attribution_description: English: Map Number 869/86501 of Washington, D.C., and its environs produced by the National Park Service of the U.S. Department of the Interior. This map shows the three areas used by the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, U.S. National Capital Memorial Advisory Commission, U.S. National Capital Planning Commission, and U.S. National Park Service to site commemorative works in the D.C. metropolitan area. The map is referenced by the "National Capital Memorials and Commemorative Works Act" (past of the "Act to revise, codify, and enact without substantive change certain general and permanent laws, related to public buildings, property, and works, as title 40, United States Code, 'Public Buildings, Property, and Works'", 2001, P.L. 107-217) and the "Commemorative Works Clarification and Revision Act" (part of the "Vietnam Veterans Memorial Visitor Center Act of 2003", P.L. 108-126 (https://web.archive.org/web/20050226210642/http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=108_cong_public_laws&amp;docid=f%3Apubl126.108.pdf)).
context_page_description: The Commemorative Works Act of 1986 is a United States federal law which bars the construction of commemorative works on the National Mall and the National Capital Area unless they are approved by the National Capital Memorial Advisory Commission. The law also establishes criteria a memorial must meet in order to be approved the NCMAC, and establishes a seven-year deadline by which construction must begin or the memorial loses its congressional authorization. As of April 2014, the law has been amended five times, most notably by the Commemorative Works Clarification and Revision Act of 2003.
context_section_description: Section 2(c) of the Commemorative Works Act of 1986 defines a "commemorative work" as a garden, memorial, memorial grove, monument, sculpture, statue, or other structure or landscape feature designed to perpetuate the memory of a person, group, or event.
  Section 2(e) established specific zones within the National Capital Region to which various rules established by the Act would apply. Working with the General Services Administration and the National Park Service, Congress had on May 1, 1986, created a map (number 869/86501) of these areas, which it named Area I and Area II.  Area I roughly encompassed a zone extending from the White House to the United States Capitol; from the Capitol along Maryland Avenue SW to and along the 14th Street Bridge; the Virginia shore of the Potomac River from the 14th Street Bridge to Columbia Island; Columbia Island; the National Park Service land fronting Arlington National Cemetery (excluding Memorial Drive) north to Key Bridge; Key Bridge due east across the Potomac River to Rock Creek; Rock Creek north to 26th Street NW and L Street NW; south on 26th Street NW to I Street NW; roughly west from the intersection of I and 26th Streets NW to the National Park Service land on the D.C. shore of the Potomac River; south along the Potomac River to West Potomac Park (including the grounds of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts); east along the National Mall to The Ellipse; and north to the White House.  Area II consisted of those parts of the National Capital Area outside Area I.
  Section 3(a) of the Act barred establishment of a memorial anywhere within Area I or Area II without specific authorization by Congress.
  Section 4(a) of the Act formally established the National Capital Memorial Advisory Committee (NCMAC).  This committee had been informally established earlier by the United States Department of the Interior. The Act charged NCMAC with administering the Commemorative Works Act, and specified the membership of the committee. These were:
  Director of the National Park Service (who was also designated the committee's chair)
  Architect of the Capitol
  Chair of the American Battle Monuments Commission
  Chair of the United States Commission of Fine Arts
  Chair of the National Capital Planning Commission
  Mayor of the District of Columbia
  Commissioner of the Public Building Service of the General Services Administration
  United States Secretary of Defense
  Section 7(a)(1) required memorials to be submitted to NCMAC for siting approval. Section 7(a)(1) required memorials to be submitted to the Commission of Fine Arts and the National Capital Planning Commission for both site and design approval.
  Section 6(a) of the Commemorative Works Act established the criteria a commemorative work had to meet to be erected in Area I. Either the United States Secretary of the Interior or the Administrator of the General Services Administration could approve a memorial within Area I if and only if the person, group, or event to be commemorated was of "preeminent historical and lasting significance to the Nation." This determination could be made only after consulting with NCMAC. Even so, the affirmative determination had to be approved by Congress within 150 days, or it was considered disapproved.
  Section 6(b) of the Commemorative Works Act established the criteria a commemorative work had to meet to be erected in Area II. Section 6(b)(1) governed military commemorative works. It barred memorials for "lesser" conflicts and those commemorating only a unit of the armed forces of the United States. An individual or the last surviving member of a group to be commemorated had to have died at least 25 years ago for a memorial to be erected. Other commemorative works—those not commemorating a war, branch of the armed forces, individual, or group—were permissible in Area II only if they were "a subject of lasting historical significance."
  Section 8(a) barred the District of Columbia or Department of the Interior from issuing a construction permit for a commemorative work unless its site and design had been ap
caption: Map showing the Reserve (greyed out area), Area I (within black boundary) and Area II of the National Capital Area.
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