What You Can Do in Your Community
to Promote Preservation Planning

Learn about planning in your community.

• Check out information on who does planning and how to find your local planning office from the American Planning Association.


• Learn how your community plans for growth, land use, housing, the environment, transportation, tourism, and other efforts that shape your community’s future.


• Learn how historic preservation issues and concerns can be integrated into those planning efforts.


• Get to know staff in city hall and in the planning department, and learn how the planning, zoning, and development review processes work.

Get involved in the planning process.

• Attend planning meetings and workshops to share information about historic and cultural resources that are important to the community and how they can be preserved.


• Remember that planning is just one component of the preservation process.


• Always consider planning’s effect on historic buildings, landscapes, landmarks, archaeological sites, and other cultural resources in your community.

Encourage others to get involved.

• Sponsor a neighborhood meeting to discuss and learn about preservation and planning topics.


• Invite community officials and staff to share information about their activities.


• Develop networks among neighbors, preservation organizations, and your local government planning office.

Inventory the special places in your community.

• Understand that it is difficult to preserve historic resources if their existence and importance are unknown.


• Identify the places and characteristics that make your community special.


• Volunteer with your local or state historic preservation office to conduct a survey of the important historic and cultural resources in your community.


• Collect photos, maps, and other historic records to document the changes that have taken place in your community.


• Help your community planners incorporate the results of your surveys into local planning efforts.

Know and educate your elected and appointed officials.

• Recognize that these are the folks who ultimately make the decisions about whether or not historic and cultural resources are preserved.


• Get to know the staff who recommend how these officials should decide certain issues.


• Explain to staff and local officials why it is important to protect your community’s heritage.

Serve on boards and commissions.

• Learn about the process by which members of boards and commissions are appointed by local elected officials.


• Understand how these bodies make a valuable contribution to the local decision-making process by providing opportunities for the public to share their views and by evaluating public and staff information to develop recommendations for action.


• Volunteer to serve on your local preservation review board, planning commission, or other similar body to make sure that preservation issues are addressed effectively in the decision-making process.

Understand the trends affecting your community.

• Learn how changes in economic conditions and demographic trends influence your community’s character and vitality.


• Understand how preservation can help meet the goals of other efforts, such as:


• tourism,


• economic development,


• affordable housing, and


• open space protection
• Explain these relationships to community leaders, elected and appointed officials, and planners.

Develop community leadership.

• Look for leadership programs offered by local colleges, chambers of commerce, and other organizations.


• Participate in these programs, and encourage others, especially young people, to do the same.

Get to know your local media.

• Become familiar with your local newspaper, radio, and TV reporters who regularly cover:


• history


• archaeology


• historic preservation


• land use


• comprehensive planning


• the environment


• and other related topics
• Provide them with accurate and interesting stories about your community’s heritage and efforts to protect it.


• Write articles for newspaper, radio, or TV programs.

Celebrate successes.

• Celebrate your community’s heritage and preservation by organizing and participating in special events, such as:


• a history fair


• an award ceremony


• a public lecture series


• school poster contest


• other activities that get people involved

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