ACHP Progress Report Over the last three years, the ACHP has taken a variety of actions including reports, resolutions, and establishing task forces to strengthen and inform the government’s stewardship capabilities in alignment with the five findings in the ACHP’s 2021 Section 3 report (2021 Section 3 Report). These findings, each addressing aspects of the federal government’s stewardship of historic properties, included the following: 1. Leasing historic federal buildings to nonfederal partners promotes their productive use and contribution to local economies, often increasing public access and even transferring maintenance and capital improvement costs to partners in certain circumstances. However, outleasing programs remain small due to inconsistencies among federal agencies in their scope and application, conflicting policies and priorities, limited awareness of these programs, and local economic conditions affecting the availability of partners. 2. Agencies are advancing in the use of digital tools to better inform real property management, but further improvement is needed to fully integrate historic property information and realize all potential benefits from increased review efficiency for federal and nonfederal project planning. 3. While the primary benefit of partnerships is to leverage limited federal resources and assist federal agencies in the identification, protection, and use of historic properties, partnerships also contribute important community and educational benefits, including those that enable job training. 4. Agencies have effectively used Section 106 program alternatives to tailor Section 106 project reviews for multiple land- and property-managing agency benefits, including focusing limited resources on preservation priorities and contributing to comprehensive historic property management strategies. Program alternatives have also improved efficiency and effectiveness of project reviews for infrastructure projects affecting historic properties on federal lands. 5. Agencies should ensure timely involvement of and active collaboration with Tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations (NHOs) in property management activities and infrastructure planning.
The ACHP’s response to the 2021 Section 3 report builds on these efforts. Currently, the ACHP and the National Park Service (NPS) are collaborating on the development of a “Report on Historic Leasing as a Preservation Stewardship Solution for the National Park Service” to advance leasing of NPS historic property, often in remote locations or in poor condition. NPS successfully leases historic property via its Business Services Directorate and can lease property under various authorities (e.g., 54 USC § 102101 (“Part 18”) and 54 USC § 306121). The report will provide market insights and recommendations on historic leasing at NPS, including via public-private partnerships, and is anticipated to be completed in the spring of 2024.
FINDING #2
The ACHP recommended that federal agencies increase and improve the use of digital tools in their efforts to identify and protect historic properties. When federal agencies (along with their Tribal, state, and local counterparts), applicants, and consultants have ready access to accurate, current data about the location and nature of historic properties, they can make project siting and design decisions that take historic properties into account earlier and more effectively. In April 2020, the Digital Information Task Force presented its recommendations and action plan to the chairman of the ACHP. The report outlines five major recommendations: • Make the Administration, Congress, agency officials, and the public aware of how digital information, including geographic information systems (GIS), increases the effectiveness and efficiency of project planning and helps avoid harm to historic properties. • Identify opportunities for funding and resource enhancement. • Enable cultural resources GIS data exchange between states, Tribes, local governments, and federal agencies. • Address data management impediments to increase GIS availability. • Properly manage access and secure sensitive data. The ACHP continues its efforts to carry out these tasks to implement the report’s recommendations in cooperation with federal and preservation partners. The importance of digital tools and online access to data about historic properties was placed in sharp relief with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to a shift to telework and took many consultation processes online. The ACHP expanded the use of its e 106 Documentation Submittal System and processed all correspondence in electronic format. The ACHP also responded to questions from federal agencies, states, Tribes, and other stakeholders about how to navigate new challenges in federal historic preservation reviews generated by these unprecedented circumstances by posting a suite of frequently asked questions, links, and other advice on its website.
FINDING #1
Outleasing is defined as the leasing and use, by nonfederal partners, of federal historic buildings (or portions thereof) that are not needed in the near-term by federal agencies. The legal authority to outlease historic properties is available to property managing federal agencies under Section 111 of the NHPA, 54 USC § 306121, and other agency-specific authorities. The ACHP’s 2018 Section 3 Report recommended the ACHP convene a group to help the agency assess the status of outleasing and develop recommendations for overcoming obstacles to advance utilization of the nation’s historic federal buildings. In 2019, the ACHP assembled the Leveraging Federal Historic Buildings Working Group, which in spring 2021 produced the Leveraging Federal Historic Buildings Final Report. The strategies and successes presented in the Leveraging Report are a direct result of federal agencies identifying their preservation challenges through the Section 3 reporting process and then working together with the ACHP in exploring solutions.
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IN A SPIRIT OF STEWARDSHIP: A Report on Federal Historic Properties • 2024 | 11
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