CERTIFIED LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Since 1966, when Congress first established a preservation program for the United States, the national historic preservation program has operated as a decentralized partnership between the federal government and the states.  Through the National Park Service, Department of the Interior, the federal government established a program of identification, evaluation, and protection of historic properties which were implemented primarily by the states and federal agencies.

The success of that working relationship prompted Congress to expand the partnership to provide for participation by local governments.  The National Historic Preservation Act as amended (16 U.S.C. 470 et. seq.) contains the legal basis for the federal-state-local preservation partnership. The federal law directs the State Historic Preservation Officer and the Secretary of the Interior to certify local governments to participate in this partnership and specifies several requirements which the local government must meet.  Within federal parameters, each state tailors its Certified Local Government procedures to its circumstances.

The Certified Local Government (CLG) program is designed to promote the preservation of prehistoric and historic sites and districts by establishing a partnership between the local government and the Kansas State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO), a division of the Kansas Historical Society. The SHPO seeks to encourage and expand local involvement in preservation issues.

Some of the goals of the program:

1.  Historic preservation issues should be understood and addressed at the local level and then integrated into the local planning and decision making processes at the earliest possible opportunity.

2. The interests and concerns of local governments should be integrated into the identification, evaluation, nomination, and protective processes of the SHPO.

3. Information on local historic preservation issues should be provided to the Kansas SHPO and to the public.

4. Historic preservation should be facilitated at the local level through the establishment of historic preservation commissions and programs.

5. The process employed in the Kansas Inventory of Historic Sites should be used to assist local communities in identifying and defining neighborhood development and conservation areas.

Through participation in the identification, evaluation, and protection of local historic resources, each Certified Local Government can assume a leadership role in the preservation of its community’s prehistoric and historic sites, have a formal role in the National Register nomination process, participate in the establishment of state historic preservation objectives, and receive technical and advisory services from the State Historic Preservation Office.