Presidio Historical Association v. Presidio

The Presidio of San Francisco was a former military base that became a national park and national historic landmark. The Presidio Trust (trust) (defendant), a government corporation, managed the Presidio. The trust proposed a project to construct a new lodge development (lodge). The original proposed design for the lodge consisted of one enormous building. The final adopted design consisted of 12 smaller buildings, each in the style of the historic, Civil War-era barracks previously located there. After several rounds of consultation with interested parties, including the National Park Service (NPS), and public comment, the trust documented its decision-making process and formally adopted the final plan for the lodge. During the process, the trust had given extensive consideration to three lodging alternatives that would not involve any new construction and concluded that these alternatives were not sufficient for the purpose of the project. The NPS disagreed with that conclusion. The trust incorporated the majority of recommendations from the NPS’s report and offered reasoned explanations for deviations from the NPS’s preferred result. After the trust adopted the final plan, the Presidio Historical Association (association) (plaintiff) filed suit in federal district court against the trust for violating § 110(f) of the National Historic Preservation Act (act). The district court granted summary judgment to the trust. The association appealed.