Civil Projects Support Branch provides civil real estate support within the borders of both the Baltimore and Philadelphia Districts, as well as interagency and international real estate support (IIS) worldwide. This support encompasses a variety of "traditional" real estate functions, such as management of federal lands under Corps jurisdiction as well as involvement with non-federal sponsors in local cooperation projects. Our IIS functions may include support to such agencies as Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), or agencies with Department of Defense (DOD) to support as well as other international agencies requiring real estate support within the United States. This support involves real estate services in the general categories of real property planning, acquisition, relocations, management, and disposal.
Read moreReal Estate Planning: We develop necessary Real Estate Plans (REP) for cost shared projects and Real Estate Design Memorandums for other Corps projects to establish the necessary real estate and costs required. These are often integrated with larger project reports to go up for approval. In conjunction with these project studies, we are often called upon to acquire Rights-of-Entry (ROE) for Survey and Exploration, to provide team access to prospective project properties for the purposes of the studies. We also conduct Utilization inspections and reports on existing Corps and agency property to determine future use and potential excess property.
Real Estate Acquisition: The real estate acquisition services provided for Civil and IIS include coordinating title, appraisal, and mapping work in order to perform negotiations for purchase, lease, exchange, donation, or transfer. These actions may involve acquisition of fee title or lesser easement interests as well as leasing office space or real property for government use, as defined in the approved planning documents. We may acquire for the Corps as well as on behalf of other non-federal sponsors, federal agencies, or other international agencies, based on prearranged real estate service agreements.
Relocations: In conjunction with acquisition, we may also have to process Relocation Assistance and requests for payment of benefits applications for residents or businesses, coordinating such relocations under policies as provided under P.L. 91-646.
Management: We administer the management of real property under Corps jurisdiction as well as that required under service agreements for IIS. This may involve outgrants, such as granting leases, easements, licenses, permits and consents, as well as resolving encroachments and boundary line disputes. This also involves performing outgrant Compliance inspections and reports that measure a grantees compliance with the terms of the outgrant. We administer oil and gas leasing activities on Corps property through the Bureau of Land Management.
We also request assignment of GSA-controlled space (both leased and Government-owned) for civil use as well as administer such space and request its release when no longer needed.
Disposal: We administer the disposal and sale of timber, sand, gravel, and dredged material through public solicitation to the general public and contract for removal. We also process the sale of Corps civil lands or assignment of easements. This involves coordinating the necessary appraisal, mapping, environmental and cultural studies, screening for potential homeless, federal, state or local use, in order to prepare Reports Excess for approval. Depending on the excess property value threshold, we either report such land to GSA for final disposal, or dispose of the property ourselves through sale or auction. We also monitor Government-owned improvements under Corps jurisdiction, determine what is surplus and process them for sale, salvage or demolition.