GPRA Annual Products Report for CLGs

OMB Control Number: 1024-0038

Expiration Date: MM/DD/YYYY

National Park Service

Heritage Preservation Assistance Programs

Historic Preservation Grants Division

GPRA Annual Products Report for CLGs

CLG NAME: ____________________ STATE: ______________________

CONTACT FOR THIS FORM: ____________________ TELEPHONE: ____________________

FEDERAL E-MAIL: ______________________

FISCAL YEAR: 2007 (October 1, 2006, – September 30, 2007)

Please read “Guidance for Completing the GPRA Annual Products Report for CLGs.” This guidance defines terms, explains what to count, etc. For the blanks below, please enter “N.P.” (No Program) if the CLG does not have that kind of local program. Please enter the number of historic properties that, during Federal fiscal year 2007 (October 1, 2006, through September 30, 2007), your local government:

1. Added to your CLG inventory _______

2. Added to your local register (or similar list created by local law) _______

3. Assisted through your local government’s historic preservation tax

incentives program _______

4. Assisted through a local government historic preservation grant or loan _______

5. Reviewed for compliance with your local government’s historic preservation

regulatory law(s) (e.g., an ordinance requiring Commission review of changes

to or impacts on properties within a historic district) _______

6. Acquired (or helped to acquire) in whole or in part through purchase,

donation, or other means _______

Thank you for filling out this form. Please send it, no later than December 31, 2008, to:

Historic Preservation Grants Division Attention: John Renaud

Heritage Preservation Assistance Programs

National Park Service

1849 C Street, NW (Organization Code 2256)

Washington, DC 20240

Alternatively, feel free to send the report to John Renaud by fax at 202-371-1794 or at [email protected] by e-mail. If you plan to use Federal Express or a similar service, use the following street address: 1201 Eye Street NW (Organization Code 2256), Washington, DC 20005. If you want an electronic (Word) version of this format and accompanying guidance, please contact John by e-mail. Because of its long-term uses, it will never be too late to provide this report’s information. If you have any questions, please contact John by telephone at 202-354-2066, by fax, or by e-mail.

National Park Service

Heritage Preservation Assistance Programs

Historic Preservation Grants Division

GUIDANCE FOR COMPLETING

THE GPRA ANNUAL PRODUCTS REPORT FOR CLGs

1. What is the purpose of this report?

The report data that you provide each year contribute to documenting those achievements of the national historic preservation partnership that CLGs accomplish. The data that we request all relate to key program elements for every CLG; i.e., the designation and protection of historic and prehistoric properties. Except for the CLG inventory (which is a Federal requirement), this report focuses on CLG accomplishments under local laws and programs. We have information from other sources concerning CLG contributions to historic preservation under Federal and State law and programs. This report's data provide critical information and documentation for the Administration’s and the Congress’ budgetary decision-making process under the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA). On a long-term basis, we plan to post on the web the results of the report. For your use and perusal, we have posted on our web site (http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/clg/index.htm) results from FY 1997 through FY 2006. We will post this year's results as soon as possible. In this way, we can share information about your program and achievements with your colleagues and with the public. We also expect that this information will be useful to you and to your colleagues in your State Historic Preservation Office. This information can be helpful in explaining to your local and State government decision-makers what you have accomplished for historic preservation during the year.

2. Are there any definitions or special instructions that I need to know to properly complete this form?

“Historic Property” means a property that, regardless of government action (i.e., whether it is listed or not), meets the eligibility criteria for listing in your local register or for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. A historic property can include archeological as well as above-ground resources. Other properties are outside the purview of this questionnaire. In some communities, this term is equivalent to “historic resource,” “historic landmark,” or some other similar term.

“Designation” as used in this document means that the local government has officially identified the property as historic. Most CLGs have two levels of designation. That is, one level of designation is an evaluation of significance that carries no consequences. CLGs often refer to this as “the inventory” or “the survey.” The other level of designation carries consequences such as eligibility for benefits or being subject to design review for proposed changes. CLGs often refer to this level of designation as “the local register,” “the landmarks list,” etc.

“Protection” as used in this document means that because of government action, a historic property retains those elements that make the property historic.

The “Federal fiscal year” begins on October 1 and ends the following September 30. For example, Federal Fiscal Year 2007 began on October 1, 2006, and ended on September 30, 2007. If your local government operates on a different time frame for its fiscal year, please convert your yearly product totals to the Federal time frame. If your yearly product totals do not lend themselves to conversion to the Federal fiscal year, please provide your best estimates based on prorating the product totals or using another method. For example, if your government’s Fiscal Year 2007 began on July 1, 2006, and ended on June 30, 2007, three months (or 25 percent) of the year fall in Federal Fiscal Year 2006 and 9 months (or 75 percent) fall in Federal Fiscal Year 2007. Consequently, you would report 25 percent of your local FY 2007 totals as a part of the FY 2006 GPRA Annual Report and 75 percent in the FY 2007 GPRA Annual Report.

Please fill in every blank with a number or a “NP.” In this document, please do not use a check mark, “yes,” “no,” “unknown”, or similar ways to fill in the blanks. Insert “0” if the subject matter applies, but there was no activity during the last completed Federal fiscal year. Insert “NP” (i.e., “No Program”) if the subject matter does not apply to your local government’s historic preservation programs. For example, you should enter “NP” for question 3 if your government does not have a local government preservation tax incentives program. For every local program for which you entered a “NO” in the Baseline Questionnaire, we would expect to see a “NP” in the following year’s Annual Report unless you began the program during the year covered by the Annual Report. In that case, a notation on the Annual Report would be helpful.

3. How do I report on historic properties whose protection is not carried out or monitored by my office?

You don’t have to. For the purposes of this inquiry, report only those historic properties whose designation or protection has involved your local government’s historic preservation office/commission in some way; e.g., through review, approval, project administration, covenant or easement oversight, etc. or for which your office has the data.

4. How should I count historic districts?

Do not count a district as a single property. Count the total number of buildings, structures, sites, or objects that contribute to the significance of the district. If you do not know the number of contributing properties, please provide your best estimate of the number.

5. We don’t use the same terminology that appears on the form and in this guidance. Do we have to change how we refer to things?

That decision is between you and your State Historic Preservation Office. A national report needs to use national terms that follow Federal statutes and policy. For your own purposes, you should use terms that make sense to you. All we ask is that you know how your terms relate to the national terms because we won’t understand the relationship. Therefore, for this report please make the conversion from your terminology to the national terminology.

6. What is the difference between a “CLG inventory” and a “local register”?

As a CLG, under Federal law, you already have a CLG inventory, but you might not have a local register. You have a “local register” only if your State’s CLG procedures require it and/or your local government has created a registration/designation process under local law. Your community may have given your local register some other name that means a list of locally registered historic properties. In most situations, you can think of historic properties that are listed on your local register as a subset of the historic properties that are included in your CLG inventory. Because of the consequences under local law that usually attend being added to the local register, normally a CLG will have more historic properties in its CLG inventory than it has on its local register. The annual additions to each will vary.

A CLG inventory encompasses everything that you know about the resources within the jurisdiction of the local government regardless of how you got the information. It doesn’t matter, for example, if the inventory information was gathered as a part of a State or federally-funded survey. For question 1 on the form, we are interested in the number of CLG inventory properties that are historic properties. Under Federal law, there are no legal consequences when you add property to your CLG inventory. Your local register (or whatever name you give it), on the other hand, usually has consequences under local law. In fact, if your State’s CLG procedures require a local registration/designation ordinance, there must be consequences under local law for properties newly added to the local register. Usually, when a historic property is added to a local register, the property becomes subject to some kind of review process and/or becomes eligible for some kind of local benefits. In other words, every historic property that is on the local register is also on the CLG inventory, but not every historic property on the CLG inventory is on the local register.

7. We don’t have anything called a “local inventory” or a “local register,” but we do have other lists and overlay zones that indicate historic properties. Should I count those?

Yes, as long as you can count the number of historic properties that those lists or overlays include. Don’t worry about the titles given to the information that you have about historic properties. Use the guidance in the answer to question 6 above, to help you determine where in the report to include the number of historic properties. In some cases, you should report the number in both the blanks for question 1 and question 2 on the form and in some cases just in the blank for question 1 about CLG inventories.

8. Last year, due to demolition, we had to remove some properties from both our CLG inventory and our local register. Do you want us to adjust our annual figures for the CLG inventory and local register to reflect those losses?

No. Just report the number of historic properties newly added to your CLG inventory and/or local register. We don't want to have your successes obscured by your losses. However, if you have readily available an estimate of the number of properties removed during the year, please give us that information in a footnote or parentheses. In such a situation, it would also be helpful to provide updated cumulative baseline figures in the following year. For example, the impact of properties demolished during FY 2007 would be reflected in adjusted cumulative baseline figures in the FY 2007 Cumulative Baseline Questionnaire.

9. Why do you have separate blanks for the number of “designated” and “protected” historic properties throughout this report? Why not just ask for the number of properties in our CLG inventory? In that way, with one question, you could account for all historic properties that have been designated and protected. All of our locally “listed” properties are included on our CLG inventory. All of our properties that have been “protected” in one way or another are also “designated” properties.

Reporting separately on “designated” historic properties and “protected” properties better represents the historic preservation work that you do. Each time the local government designates a property or (for example) provides financial assistance to a property, that action adds to the protection inherent in being part of your CLG inventory. We wish to give you full credit.

Also, this is the kind of information that citizens in your CLG and your colleagues in other CLGs or local governments want to know. Folks living in a CLG or thinking about moving there may want to know what kinds of historic preservation opportunities exist. Communities that are considering creating historic preservation programs want to know who else has the programs so those wheels don’t have to be re-invented. We will make this information available on the Web and upon request. For your use and perusal, we have posted on our web site (http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/clg/index.htm) the results from

FY 1997 through FY 2006. We will post this year's results as soon as possible. We are seeking this information because it is not available anywhere else on a national basis.

10. Some historic properties are protected more than once (e.g., tax benefits achieved and permits reviewed). Should I count a property only once or each time that it is reviewed, receives a grant, etc.?

Count a property each time that it is reviewed, receives a grant, etc. This approach gives you credit for all the protection that you give to a historic property, not just the initial instance. Note that for this reporting you do not have to know or provide a list of what happened to each historic property. What you need to know for this report are total figures for each category; i.e., the total number of properties listed, receiving tax benefits, etc.

11. For some of our local programs, the main purpose is not historic preservation, but the programs protect historic properties as an incidental consequence. Housing programs are a good example. Should I count historic properties that are protected by those programs?

Yes. As long as historic properties are protected and your office is involved or has the data, count the properties protected by those programs.

12. Our historic preservation financial assistance programs (grants, loans, etc.) are not funded every year. Should I report on the properties protected by the program or not?

Report on the number of properties in the “grant or loan” blank of the form, if the ordinance authorizing the financial assistance was still in effect during some portion of the reporting year. If the authorizing ordinance was not in effect at all during the reporting year, and your local government requires an authorizing statute for grant programs, enter “NP” in the “grant or loan” blank.

If no authorizing ordinance was involved in the financial assistance program, fill in the “grant or loan” blank with the number of newly protected properties if either the financial assistance program was in effect during the reporting year or if any protective agreements resulting from the program were still in effect during the year. Otherwise, enter “NP” in the “grant or loan” blank.

For the purposes of the local historic preservation grant or loan blank, count a historic property if preservation work (a.k.a. “bricks and mortar”) is involved. Report elsewhere (e.g., under Acquisition) those properties that your local grants or loans assisted in other ways (e.g., to help a nonprofit organization purchase a preservation easement).

13. We administer some grants from the State and the staff of the State Historic Preservation Office helps us with some of our locally-funded programs. How should I treat these situations in responding to question 4 on grants and loans?

Count only historic properties protected through grants supported by funds coming from local government sources. Do not count 1) grants from Federal (or matching) funds administered by State or local agencies or 2) State government grants. For example, don’t count historic properties that you protect through Historic Preservation Fund CLG subgrants. These are counted elsewhere on State or Federal Government forms. However, if the funds are local, count the benefiting historic properties in this report even if you receive technical assistance from other sources.

14. Many of our historic preservation accomplishments are achieved through the financial support of the private sector or through non-profit organizations such as the National Trust’s Main Street program. Should we include these achievements in our reporting on the number of historic properties that we protect through grants or loans?

No. Although we recognize that a large percentage of current historic preservation would not take place without the financial support of non-profit organizations and the private sector, this report is focusing on the achievements of local government historic preservation programs.

15. What should I count in the “local regulatory program” blank for question 5?

For the purposes of the “local regulatory program” blank, include only historic properties for which local laws have provided protection in a regulatory setting; e.g., through a review, permitting, or certificate of appropriateness process. This type of program is often referred to as "review and compliance." “Review and compliance” refers to the review of permits, plans, applications, etc. to help ensure compliance with local regulatory laws related to the protection of historic properties. Do not count (in this blank) historic properties that local laws have protected through financial incentives (e.g., tax laws) or financial assistance (e.g., grant programs). Report that information elsewhere on the form.

16. Sometimes we approve/review requests for demolition or make other decisions/recommendations that do not result in the protection of properties. These reviews are a legitimate part of our workload. Should we count these for question 5?

No. If it is easy for you to separate out those reviews/recommendations that are likely to result in a historic property's destruction or loss of significance, don't include them in this report. We are trying to get an estimate of the number of historic property reviews where preservation is a likely result. If it is difficult to separate your regulatory reviews by result, don't worry -- just give us your total figures.

17. What does “acquisition” include for question 6?

“Acquisition’ refers to any legally-binding, title-related interest in the historic property that the local government has obtained (or has helped others to obtain) thereby making the property subject to your local historic preservation laws and policies. The interest in the property’s title could be anything ranging from fee simple absolute to an easement. The method of acquisition is not important here. Include in the count any historic property that comes into local government ownership.

18. Where do I report publications, brochures, public education, site interpretation, historic plaques and markers, and other historic preservation accomplishments that we have achieved?

These are not part of this report. While important, for GPRA purposes we have limited the products to those that more directly affect specific historic properties. This reduces the burden in gathering and reporting this data. However, you may include your other accomplishments as part of your periodic reporting to your State Historic Preservation Office (in some States this is required) or, if you wish, directly to us.

19. What should I do if my office missed a report or we discover that we made a mistake in an earlier report?

Because of the long-term uses for this information, it will never be too late to provide this report’s information. We hope that you take advantage of opportunities to update the information that we have about your program. You have a choice as to how to accomplish this. You may either provide/correct the earlier report or you may prepare a new cumulative baseline report for a more recent year. For example, if your local government was a CLG during FY 1998 but your office has not responded to any of the subsequent requests for information, you would have the following options. Your first option is to prepare and send us a FY 1997 cumulative baseline response plus an annual report for FY 1998, FY 1999, FY 2000, FY 2001, FY 2002, FY 2003, FY 2004, FY 2005, FY 2006, and FY 2007. You can use this year’s forms by changing the dates. If you take this option, please change the dates on the current form that we have set up for the FY 2007 annual report. Your second option is to provide questionnaire answers and baseline data through FY 2006 plus a FY 2007 annual report. We have prepared the baseline form for data cumulative through FY 2006.

20. The questions that you ask relate primarily to CLG workload. Wouldn't it be better to ask how many of our historic properties are still in good condition? In the final analysis, preserving our irreplaceable resources is the true test of our success as historic preservationists.

If funding and staffing were no object, we would want both workload information and data on the condition of historic resources. One of the aims of this report is to make use of readily available information rather than to create a new workload in gathering and tracking data. Especially for larger CLGs, data on the condition of historic and prehistoric properties often are not readily available. Another purpose of this questionnaire is to gauge the contribution that CLGs make to historic preservation. In assessing a property's condition, without asking the property owner it is difficult to distinguish which parts (if any) of a property's good condition are due to local, State, and/or Federal historic preservation program efforts. CLG workload data on the other hand usually is readily available, readily assignable to CLG efforts, and can be used to draw reasonable inferences about the condition of properties.

21. In the categories that you ask about, we have done nothing (or very little). Do you want us to send you a report with such low numbers?

Your report is valuable to us no matter how little you have to report. The annual report only asks six questions. Many CLGs respond to the questions by answering "NP" (i.e., “No Program”), "0," or "1." We make no judgments of the quality of your historic preservation program based upon the numbers that you supply in your annual reports. Don't worry about not having much to report for a given year. We think that it is a big deal for any local government to commit in writing to historic preservation by enforcing appropriate laws for the designation and protection of historic and prehistoric properties. We also recognize that the categories that we ask about do not cover all of the CLG’s activities.

Small CLGs with not much action in the categories that the National Park Service asks about are just as important as big CLGs with a lot of action. Each year, approximately 600 (out of more than 1,500) CLGs respond to the annual report. We then extrapolate the figures from the reporting CLGs to produce national estimates for all CLGs. Thus, the more CLGs that report, the more accurate the projections will be. Given that there are more small CLGs than big ones, it is important that as many small CLGs as possible report; otherwise our national projections will be too high.

22. Do we have to use the form that NPS has provided?

No. We care more about the content of the data that you provide than we care about the format in which you provide it or the medium by which you transmit it to us. As long as NPS can clearly tell which data relate to which question on the form and you provide information corresponding to every blank on the form, we are satisfied. E-mail messages, spread sheets, State report pages, etc. are all acceptable.

Paperwork Reduction Act Statement: This information is being collected for the annual report to NPS on the achievements that the Certified Local Government (CLG) has achieved as an official member of the National Historic Preservation Partnership pursuant to the National Historic Preservation Act, as amended (16 U.S.C. 470 et seq.). A Federal agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a valid OMB control number.

Estimated Burden Statement: Public reporting burden for this information collection is estimated to average 20 minutes per response including the time for reviewing instructions, gathering and maintaining data, and completing and reviewing the information. Direct comments regarding this burden estimate to Chief, Historic Preservation Grants, National Park Service, 1849 “C” Street, NW (2255), Washington, DC 20240.

7