Foreign-Trade Zone 137Washington Dulles International Airport, Virginia Area; Application for Expansion

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

Foreign-Trade Zones Board

[Docket 44-98]

Foreign-Trade Zone 137--Washington Dulles International Airport,

Virginia Area; Application for Expansion

An application has been submitted to the Foreign-Trade Zones (FTZ)

Board (the Board) by Washington Dulles Foreign Trade Zone, Inc.,

grantee of FTZ 137 (Fairfax/Loudoun Counties, Virginia), requesting

authority to expand its zone to include sites in Virginia's Eastern

Shore region, adjacent to the Cambridge, Maryland and Norfolk-Newport

News, Virginia, Customs ports of entry. The application was submitted

pursuant to the provisions of the Foreign-Trade Zones Act, as amended

(19 U.S.C. 81a-81u), and the regulations of the Board (15 CFR Part

400). It was formally filed on September 15, 1998.

FTZ 137 was approved on April 17, 1987 (Board Order 350, 52 F.R.

13489, 4/23/87). The zone project currently consists of the following

sites (250 acres): Site 1--within the Washington Dulles International

Airport complex, Fairfax and Loudoun Counties; and, Site 2--warehouse

facility, 110 Terminal Drive, Sterling. An application is currently

pending with the Board for an additional site in Loudoun County, two

miles west of the airport (Doc. 40-97).

This application is requesting authority to expand the general-

purpose zone to include 3 new sites (6,788 acres) in the Eastern Shore

region of Virginia (Proposed Sites 4-6): Proposed Site 4 (6,187 acres,

2 parcels)--the Goddard Space Flight Center-Wallops Flight Facility

(Accomack County), owned by NASA--Parcel 1 (1,856 acres)--NASA Wallop

Flight Facility-Main Base (a former U.S. naval air station), Accomack

County; and, Parcel 2 (4,331 acres)--NASA Wallop Flight Facility,

Wallops Island, Chincoteague (Accomack County); Proposed Site 5 (449

acres)--Accomack Airport Industrial Park, U.S. Highway 13 & Parkway

Road, Melfa (Accomack County); and, Proposed Site 6 (130 acres)--within

the 579-acre Port of Cape Charles Sustainable Technologies Industrial

Park, two miles from U.S. 13 on SR 1108, Bayshore Drive, Northampton

County, Virginia. NASA has signed an agreement with the Virginia

Commercial Space Flight Authority (VCSFA) that allows VCSFA to develop

proposed Site 4 as a center for commercial space launch services. The

Wallops Flight Facility includes orbital tracking stations, research

facilities, and facilities for testing, assembly and preparation of

rockets and payloads, as well as several launch platforms suitable for

military and commercial rocket launches. Proposed Site 5 is owned by

Accomack County, Virginia, and the Accomack Industrial Development

Authority. Proposed Site 6 is owned by Northampton County, Virginia. No

specific manufacturing requests are being made at this time. Such

requests would be made to the Board on a case-by-case basis.

In accordance with the Board's regulations, a member of the FTZ

Staff has been designated examiner to investigate the application and

report to the Board.

Public comment on the application is invited from interested

parties. Submissions (original and 3 copies) shall be addressed to the

Board's Executive Secretary at the address below. The closing period

for their receipt is November 24, 1998. Rebuttal comments in response

to material submitted during the foregoing period may be submitted

during the subsequent 15-day period to December 9, 1998.

A copy of the application and accompanying exhibits will be

available for public inspection at each of the following locations:

Eastern Shore of Virginia Economic, Development Commission, 23372 Front

Street, Accomac, VA 23301,

Office of the Executive Secretary, Foreign-Trade Zones Board, Room

3716, U.S. Department of Commerce, 14th & Pennsylvania Avenue, NW,

Washington, DC 20230

Dated: September 17, 1998.

Dennis Puccinelli,

Acting Executive Secretary.

[FR Doc. 98-25725 Filed 9-24-98; 8:45 am]

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