Washington Preservation Plan

Number of Pages: 40
Approval Date: December 4, 2003
Planning Cycle: 5 years

Contact Information:
     Greg Griffith, Preservation Planner
     Dept. of Archy & Historic Preservation
     P.O. Box 48343
     Olympia, Washington 98504-8343
     (360)586-3073; fax (360)586-3067
     E-mail: gregg@dahp.wa.gov
     Web site: www.dahp.wa.gov/pages/Documents/documents/PreservationPlan04.pdf

Mission/Vision Statement:
In the not too distant future, Historic Preservation will be:

• An essential strategy for maintaining a community's sense of place.
• A powerful tool for economic development and community revitalization.
• A significant generator of jobs, income, and tax revenue.
• An important way to understand how diverse cultures have come together to shape the society we know today.
A broad, inclusive movement that integrates its interests into community decision-making activities so that resources are identified, preserved, and enjoyed.

Table of Contents:

Executive Summary
The Vision
Guiding Principles of the Plan
Tangible Benefits of Preservation Action Agenda
Goal I Increase Use of Historic Preservation as an Economic
     Development and Community Revitalization Tool
Goal II Advocate to Preserve Our Heritage
Goal III Strengthen Connections Inside and Outside the
     Preservation Community
Goal IV Integrate Preservation Principles into Local Land Use
     Decisions, Regulations, and Development Processes
Goal V Expand Efforts to Identify and Preserve Cultural and
     Historic Resources
Goal VI Effectively Increase Knowledge of Historic Preservation
     and its Importance to Washington
How You Can Help Preserve Our Heritage
Implementation Strategy
Cultural and Historic Resource Overview
Trends and Issues Affecting Historic Preservation
Bibliography
Appendix
Working Agreement of the Preservation Collaborative
Agency and Organization Contact
Acronyms

PLAN DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES
Public Participation Strategies:

• Six public meetings;
• Public meeting questionnaire also accessible on OAHP web site;
• Targeted workshops for Tribal Historic Preservation Officers and other tribal representatives, local heritage organizations, and neighborhood groups;
• Questionnaire responses and comments from public meetings accessible on web site for further review and comment;
• Plan accessible on web site for public comment;
• release and e-mail and postcard announcement of draft Plan's on-line availability;
• Plan Steering Committee with members representing diverse preservation interests and geographical areas.

HISTORIC AND CULTURAL RESOURCES
Cultural and historic resources of a community that tell the story of its past; wide range of property types that represent human culture and heritage; archaeological sites, such as Native American coastal winter villages, shell middens, seasonal fishing/hunting/gathering campsites, pictographs, petroglyphs, culturally modified trees, eastern winter pithouse villages, lithic sites, stone tool quarries, rock cairns and alignments, huckleberry drying trenches, burial/cemetery sites, and resources associated with the historic period; buildings, structures, objects, districts; lumber mills; schools; sacred landscapes; rustic cabins; office towers; National Register of Historic Places, National Historic Landmark, Washington Heritage Register, and Washington State Inventory of Cultural Resources listings; rural structures and landscapes, such as farmsteads, barns, and viewsheds; industrial and manufacturing complexes, such as steam plants, steel mills, lumber mills, mine ore concentrators, shipyards, and canneries; recreational properties, such as cabins, lodges, parks, trails, gardens, and landscapes; sites along the Columbia River associated with the Lewis and Clark Expedition; transportation infrastructure, including the interstate highway system, Alaska Way Viaduct, and historic bridges; historic districts, such as the North Slope Historic District in Tacoma and the Hillyard neighborhood of Seattle; historic properties of the recent past, including roadside motels, drive-in restaurants, gas stations, auto dealerships, skyscrapers, shopping centers, suburban housing tracts; Hanford Nuclear Reservation; and properties associated with the 1962 Seattle World's Fair, such as the Monorail and Space Needle; traditional cultural places associated with various groups including Native Americans, including distinctive natural places, historic environment, sites with spiritual significance, economic and subsistence locations, and religious areas; cultural landscapes, such as formal gardens, public parks, agricultural landscapes, traditional landscapes associated with Native American tribes; maritime and submerged cultural resources.

ISSUES, THREATS, & OPPORTUNITIES

• Adaptive reuse of historic buildings and structures is a key element in the use of preservation as an economic development tool, yet this information is not reaching the economic development community;
• Heritage tourism provides significant and tangible economic and preservation benefits;
• National, state, and local designation of cultural resources helps protect those resources, including neighborhoods and downtowns, increases property values, and stimulates reinvestment;
• Preservationists need to be more proactive in raising issues, reaching for solutions, and shaping policy at all levels of government;
• Need to strengthen communication and partnerships within the preservation network, between preservationists and tribal representatives and with other groups;
• Need to raise the profile of cultural and historic resources in comprehensive plans, zoning, subdivision, shoreline management, and other land use management documents;
• Preservation community needs to demonstrate its successes;
• Preservation efforts need to better reflect the state's increasingly diverse population;
• Sprawl, redevelopment, and infill can adversely affect significant cultural and historic resources by removing historic buildings, destroying archaeological sites, or disrupting community vitality;
• Increasing urban density may unnecessarily cause demolition of historic buildings and structures;
• Several tools are available to incorporate preservation issues into economic development, such as flexible zoning, transfer of development rights, cost-sensitive design guidelines, etc.;
• Reduced public funding for state and local preservation requires preservationists to be creative in seeking alternative funding sources and in building partnerships with a wide variety of groups;
• Potential of the Internet for dissemination of preservation information;
• Increasing recognition of the value of partnerships in furthering preservation goals;
• Need for regulations and incentives to be improved and more effectively implemented;
• Washington State Inventory of Cultural Resources is a valuable and increasingly accessible database of cultural resource information;
• Large expanses of the state have been surveyed at only the most basic level, if at all;
• Much survey data is over 20 years old and needs to be updated and expanded;
• Funding for statewide survey projects is rarely available;
• Grant funding is available to Certified Local Governments and Tribal Historic Preservation Offices for survey and other preservation projects;
• Vandalism and inadvertent destruction of archaeological sites indicates the need for improved enforcement of existing federal and state archaeological site protection laws;
• Rural landscapes, especially in the Puget Sound basin, are experiencing intense development pressures;
• Rural buildings and structures are vulnerable to rot, exposure to the elements, functional obsolescence, and high maintenance costs;
• Industrial complexes are being lost due to the nation's shifting economic base, new technologies, demands for environmental accountability, and difficulties in identifying successful adaptive reuses for these buildings;
• Rising maintenance costs, vandalism, natural disasters, and shrinking budgets pose growing challenges for preservation of historic recreational facilities;
• Growing public interest in historic properties of the recent past;
• Knowledge and inventory of traditional cultural places are still in formative stages;
• Increasing recognition of the importance of cultural landscapes and worthy of protection.

I.    Increase use of historic preservation as an economic
          development and community revitalization tool.
II.   Advocate to protect our heritage.
III.  Strengthen connections inside and outside the preservation
          community.
IV.  Integrate preservation principles into local land use decisions,
          regulations, and development processes.
V.   Expand efforts to identify and preserve cultural and historic
          resources.
VI.  Effectively increase knowledge of historic preservation and
          its importance to Washington.

I. Preservation as an Economic Development Tool.
• Promote preservation as an economic development tool by conducting and disseminating an economic impact study;
• Develop cooperative projects between preservationists and the State Community, Trade and Economic Development Department;
• Promote opportunities for interaction among the State Downtown Revitalization program, SHPO, and preservationists.
• Facilitate heritage tourism by collecting information on the popularity of heritage tourism;
• Create a web-based tool kit to help jurisdictions develop heritage tourism;
• Create a web-based travel guide of heritage-related day-trips and vacation ideas;
• Expand existing and create new preservation incentives;
• Promote existing property tax incentives for owners of archaeological sites.
II. Advocacy.
• Develop a unified voice for preservation;
• Develop an annual legislative agenda at the state and federal level;
• Hire a statewide preservation advocate;
• Inform the public about relevant bills and issues during state legislative sessions;
• Develop new and improved funding sources for preservation;
• Identify stable funding sources for state and local preservation;
• Develop new and expand existing grant programs.
III. Strengthen Connections.
• Foster a more cohesive preservation community;
• Hold a preservation conference every other year;
• Expand preservation conferences, workshops, and programs to cover wider variety of topics and reach more audiences;
• Create new and strengthen existing partnerships;
• Hold regular meetings among Tribal Historic Preservation Officers, other tribal government representatives, and state agencies;
• Broaden and diversify Washington's preservation community.
IV. Integrate Preservation into Land Use Decisions.
• Promote preservation as a sustainable development and growth management tool;
• Create a planner's toolkit that emphasizes the compatibility of preservation, anti-sprawl, and sustainable development standards;
• Develop and implement a comprehensive archaeological site sensitivity model.
V. Expand Resource Identification and Preservation.
• Support and enhance survey and inventory efforts;
• Develop dedicated funding sources for surveys;
• Expand the number of communities conducting comprehensive surveys;
• Conduct an inventory of state-owned cultural and historic resources;
• Encourage the formal recognition and designation of significant cultural and historic resources;
• Develop and provide technical assistance for resource protection;
• Enhance efforts to make survey data accessible through GIS and the Internet;
• Expand the number of jurisdictions that have information sharing agreements with the SHPO.
VI. Increase Knowledge of Historic Preservation.
• Market and promote preservation to targeted audiences;
• Expand public relations campaigns to audiences that would benefit from and contribute to preservation efforts;
• Hold awards programs to recognize and honor outstanding preservation efforts;
• Celebrate our heritage through historic preservation week and archaeology month events;
• Use the Internet and media effectively;
• Develop an electronic clearinghouse of preservation information and technical assistance;
• Provide publicity for National, Washington State Register, and local register listings;
• Provide education and training to targeted audiences;
• Provide professional training for preservationists;
• Promote preservation education in schools.