Note: A revised draft of the proposed Program Comment, as of November 15, 2024, and consultation meeting information is posted below. The title, previously the Program Comment on Accessible, Climate Resilient, and Connected Communities, has been updated.
The ACHP is developing a Program Comment on Certain Housing, Building, and Transportation Activities that aims to provide federal agencies with an alternate way to comply with their responsibilities under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. Drawing from recently adopted ACHP policy statements and guided in part by the mechanisms, provisions, and approaches in prior program alternatives and by preliminary public feedback, the draft Program Comment addresses federal undertakings related to three interrelated sectors: housing, building rehabilitation, and alternative transportation. The ACHP has entered a period of consultation with Indian Tribes, Native Hawaiian organizations, and members of the public, and invites interested parties to participate in relevant opportunities, as further provided below.
Background
This Program Comment aims to promote actions that, consistent with the National Historic Preservation Act, 54 U.S.C. § 300101(1), “foster conditions under which our modern society and our historic property can exist in productive harmony and fulfill the social, economic, and other requirements of present and future generations.” Accordingly, it has been drafted to advance historic preservation goals including the reuse of historic materials and buildings and the upgrading of infrastructure in historic neighborhoods, and to harmonize them with the nation’s pressing needs to produce and rehabilitate affordable, accessible, energy-efficient, and hazard-free housing; to reduce its energy use and associated costs, improve resilience against natural hazards; and to provide alternate transportation options—needs that have received high levels of attention from Congress, as well as state, local, and Tribal governments and private parties.
In 2023, the ACHP adopted its Housing and Historic Preservation Policy Statement and its Climate Change and Historic Preservation Policy Statement, which reflected increasing public awareness that historic preservation strategies–and historic properties themselves–can play an important role in addressing the three interrelated sectors covered in the draft Program Comment.
A program comment is one of five types of program alternatives available in the Section 106 regulations to tailor approaches to achieve the requirements of Section 106. A program comment allows the ACHP to comment on certain categories of undertakings in lieu of commenting on a case-by-case basis. Program comments can help federal agencies more efficiently handle repetitive actions across large inventories and on a nationwide basis, and they can provide clarity for the specific treatment of undertakings.
Proposed Program Comment on Certain Housing, Building, and Transportation Activities
The proposed Program Comment would help accelerate the review of federal agency actions to rehabilitate existing housing or create new housing in existing buildings, to maintain and update buildings and their immediate environs in response to natural hazards, and to rehabilitate or develop new alternative transportation infrastructure. A brief rationale for the inclusion of each of these topics in the Program Comment, and an overview of its treatment in the Program Comment and potential effect, follows.
Housing: The United States has an aging housing stock, with half of existing housing units built before 1979. Rehabilitations, including energy retrofits, ensure older and historic homes meet modern needs. At the same time, conversions of nonresidential historic buildings for housing create new homes for people who need them. The proposed Program Comment would encourage the efficient, effective, environmentally sustainable, and continued use of historic properties to satisfy the nation’s housing needs by addressing Section 106 review requirements for housing-related activities such as routine maintenance and repair, interior renovations, mechanical upgrades, and environmental hazard remediation. The Program Comment could benefit many of the 1 million households living in 190,000 public housing buildings in the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s portfolio, and the people housed in housing units supported by the Department of Defense, Department of Agriculture, and many other federal agencies.
Building Rehabilitation: In the United States, more than a third of greenhouse emissions comes from the building sector, and buildings use 75 percent of the electricity generated annually. At the same time, buildings–including the approximately 40 percent of America’s building stock that is at least 50 years old – are at risk from a broad range of potential climate change impacts, including sea level rise, flooding, extreme weather events, increased wildfires, drought, melting permafrost, erosion, and extreme heat. The proposed Program Comment aims to facilitate building rehabilitation processes in two ways. First, it would streamline review processes for certain projects that reduce the energy use of buildings, while also smoothing delivery of energy efficiency projects receiving federal funding. Second, it aims to promote resiliency measures that protect buildings and communities from the effects of extreme weather.
Alternative Transportation: The transportation sector is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, responsible for about one-third of all emissions. Historic neighborhoods benefit from walking, biking, micromobility, and transit infrastructure, because this “alternative” transportation infrastructure supports vibrant and accessible neighborhoods, while reducing harmful greenhouse gas emissions and pollution when compared to other means of transportation. The proposed Program Comment is tailored to facilitate alternative transportation infrastructure that can help reduce the energy use and costs of the transportation sector, bring economic benefits to historic neighborhoods, and meet short-term needs to accelerate the delivery of more than $10 billion of Department of Transportation funding for safe routes to schools, recreational trails, and new bicycle paths, among other activities.
The proposed Program Comment would apply to all agencies proposing to carry out, permit, license, fund, assist, or approve the covered undertakings which elect to use it. It would include safeguards to protect historic properties, such as excluding any undertakings involving highly significant properties, including National Historic Landmarks and properties of religious and cultural significance to Indian Tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations (NHOs). It would be guided by the provisions and approaches in prior program alternatives that are consistent with the ACHP’s Housing and Historic Preservation Policy Statement and Climate Change and Historic Preservation Policy Statement. The proposed Program Comment would apply these provisions and approaches more broadly than the program-specific or agency-specific program alternatives developed in the past.
November 15, 2024, Draft Proposed Program Comment (link)
Consultation with Tribes and Native Hawaiian Organizations
The ACHP invites representatives of Indian Tribes and NHOs to join in a consultation meeting on December 10, 2024, to review and discuss the revised draft of the Program Comment. Please register using the link below to receive access information:
Consultation with Tribes/NHOs, December 10, 4 PM Eastern Time. To register: https://achp.zoomgov.com/meeting/register/vJIsdu6sqzMjEhG_OHqigR53AMntg_a9JPg
In developing this Program Comment, the ACHP invited Indian Tribes to consult on a government-to-government basis and also invited consultation with NHOs. The ACHP has determined that this proposal requires compliance with Executive Order 13175: Consultation and Coordination with Indian Tribal Governments. Therefore, the ACHP developed a Tribal Consultation Plan for the proposed Program Comment on Certain Housing, Building, and Transportation Activities and hosted virtual consultation meetings with Tribal and Native Hawaiian leaders on September 9 and September 25. In accordance with the Tribal Consultation Plan, the ACHP has posted the presentation and notes from the September consultation meeting here. The ACHP has worked to incorporate comments received from Tribes and NHOs into the revised draft.
Tribal and NHO Consultation Information:
Tribal Consultation Plan developed by the ACHP for Proposed Program Comment
Tribal and NHO Consultation Presentation, September 2024
Consultation and Public Participation
The ACHP invites all consulting parties and interested members of the public to join a meeting on December 12, 2024, to review the revised draft of the Program Comment. Please use the link below to register and receive access information. Federal Preservation Officers and State Historic Preservation Officers have been invited to consult on the revised draft in dedicated meetings announced via email to these groups.
All Consulting Parties Meeting, December 12, 4 PM Eastern Time. To register: https://achp.zoomgov.com/meeting/register/vJIsdeGvqz8pHBGINOEYx3_KVglzKeEUkcc
Consultation with FPOs, December 10, 2 PM Eastern Time: Please see email for registration link
Consultation with SHPOs, December 12, 2 PM Eastern Time: Please see email for registration link
To refine the scope of this proposed program comment, the ACHP convened a series of public and Tribal engagement meetings in June and invited written feedback via its mailing lists and social media channels.
Federal Preservation Officers and State Historic Preservation Officers were invited to consult on the initial August draft of the proposed Program Comment in dedicated meetings in September. All consulting parties were invited to participate in consultation meetings to discuss the draft Program Comment on September 13 or September 16 and to submit written comments.
The ACHP invited comments on the initial August draft Program Comment through October 9. Comments received are linked below.
Tribal/THPO/Native Hawaiian Organization comments
Local and state government and agency comments
Industry and other organization comments
The ACHP used these comments, as well as input offered during consultation meetings convened in September, to revise the draft Program Comment.
The Housing and Historic Preservation Policy Statement and the Climate Change and Historic Preservation Policy Statement recognize that the accessibility of housing and a healthy environment are closely linked with other social determinants of health and environmental justice goals, and further recognize the need to take into account the views of members of disadvantaged and underserved communities, as well as members of communities with environmental justice concerns. Members of such groups are especially encouraged to participate in this process and provide feedback.
Questions or comments on the proposed Program Comment may be sent to program_alternatives@achp.gov. The ACHP will receive comments on the November 15 draft through December 15.