the Service; and the Service provides no acquisition 
funding. During fiscal year 1976, 137,077 acres and 
75 miles of trails, valued at over $25 million, were 
acquired pursuant to the acquisitional assistance 
method. 
e Federal Property and Administrative Service 
Act of 1949 [63 Stat. 385, 40 U.S.C. 484] in Con- 
junction With the Heritage Conservation and Recre- 
ation Service Surplus Property for Parks Program. 
This statute is administered by the Administrator of 
the General Services Administration (GSA). The 
parks program is administered by the Service. The 
law authorizes GSA to dispose of surplus Federal 
real property to State or local governments at dis- 
counts of up to 100 percent. Disposal for public 
park and recreational purposes specifically is author- 
ized. Under the program the Service actually handles 
conveyance of any such property to a State or local 
government. 
After GSA has declared a parcel of Federal real 
property to be surplus, both GSA and the Service 
send a “Notice of Availability” of the property to 
appropriate State and local governments. Upon re- 
ceipt of an acceptable application from the State or 
local government, the Service will convey it to the 
applicant. To be eligible, the applicant must, among 
other things, establish that the property is suitable 
for public park or recreation purposes and that, 
when developed, it will meet the recreational needs 
identified in its Statewide recreation plan. Any re- 
cipient is bound by the deed of conveyance to main- 
tain the property in perpetuity for park or recrea- 
tional purposes on pain of its reverting to the United 
States. The Service provides no funds for acquisi- 
tion. Operation and maintenance of the property is 
the responsibility of the recipient government. 
As of mid-July 1977, about 85,000 acres valued at 
$265 million had been transferred to State and local 
governments under the program. 
® Recreation and Public Purposes Act as 
Amended [44 Stat. 741 (1954), 43 U.S.C. 869]. This 
statute is administered by the Secretary of the In- 
terior (Bureau of Land Management, BLM). The 
Secretary may dispose of specified amounts of public 
land by sale or lease to any State, any political sub- 
division of a State, or to any nonprofit corporation 
or association for public recreational purposes. A re- 
cipient must make prior application to the Secretary 
for such land, demonstrating in the application (to 
the satisfaction of the Secretary) that the land is to 
be used for “an established or definitely proposed 
project.” 
BLM holds little, if any, land in the original 13 
States, Hawaii, Kentucky, Tennessee, Texas, and 
West Virginia. It holds most of its land in the west- 
ern noncoastal and non-Great Lakes States (although 
it engages in some coastal recreational activity, e.g., 
in the King Range National Conservation Area in 
California). Hence, very little land has been made 
available to coastal States; the exact amount is 
unknown. 
e National Park Service Act, as amended [39 
Stat. 435 (1916), 16 U.S.C. 1]. This statute is ad- 
ministered by the Secretary of the Interior (National 
Park Service, NPS). The Secretary may establish 
seashore or lakeshore areas as national’ recreational 
areas in the National Park System if the Congress 
authorizes the money for the purchase of the land in 
each individual instance. Historically, the areas ac- 
quired have been large and relatively undeveloped. 
They are open to the public, subject to certain re- 
strictions on use. 
The Park Service has designated ten national sea- 
shores and four national lakeshores. (See table 4—8). 
In addition, there are the Gateway and Golden Gate 
National Recreation Areas established in the New 
York and San Francisco metropolitan areas. 
© Sections 305(b) and 315(2) of the Coastal Zone 
Management Act of 1972 as Amended [86 Stat. 
1280, 16 U.S.C. 1451]. This statute is administered 
by the Secretary of Commerce through NOAA’s 
Office of Coastal Zone Management. 
Section 305(b)(7) of the CZMA requires that a 
State’s coastal zone management plan include, 
among other things: 
“A definition of the term ‘beach’ and a 
planning process for the protection of, and 
access to, public beaches . . .” (emphasis 
supplied) 
Section 315(2) of the CZMA authorizes the Secre- 
tary to make grants to coastal States on a 50-50 
matching basis for the purpose of “acquiring lands 
to provide for access to public beaches . . .” (em- 
phasis supplied). No funding has been available to 
implement this provision. 
@ Other General Purpose Statutes. There are 
other Federal laws which, ancillary to their principal 
purposes, affect coastal access acquisition in varying 
degrees. Thus, under its Flood Insurance Program, 
the Department of Housing and Urban Development 
may purchase properties “damaged substantially 
beyond repair” by a flood disaster—including a hur- 
ricane—rather than pay the insured to reconstruct 
it, and then may sell, lease, or donate the property 
to a State or local government for at least 40 years 
for any use by that government, “consistent with 
sound management use.” In this fashion, States and 
local governments could come into possession of 
coastal properties. 
Under the River and Harbor Act [46 Stat. 945 
(1960), 33 U.S.C. 426], the Corps of Engineers is 
authorized to help States and local governments con-. 
trol public coastal beach erosion through projects 
IV-55 
