THE FRAMEWORK OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
(Certified Local Government Grants)
By Ed Comeau
GovernmentOversite.com
In a recent Wakefield NH Selectmen’s meeting, the Heritage Commission chair requested the acceptance of a grant through the National Park Service. The Federal National Park Service offers grants to, Certified Local Governments that financially assist towns in historic asset inventory. https://www.nps.gov/clg/
A Certified Local Government grant allows funds to support the Federal Government agreements made to the incorporate sustainable development within the United States. It is under the guise of historic preservation. The process is a gathering of historic assets. This asset inventory will be used to control development. Similar methods are used throughout planning and land use regulations. Presently it is not regulatory, but it is a framework for future regulation of land use. The other good example of this is the State development plan, the Town or City Master Plan or Regional Master Plan. All have the same Federal involvement through some sort of grant funding to incorporate Sustainable Development. Sustainable Development is the control of Land, Air, Water, Energy through the linkages of the economy and social mechanisms.
This is being presented the same way in many towns throughout the United States. The initial reason for the grant is presented, but the unintended consequences or agenda is left out.
Listen to how this grant is presented to the selectmen.
Below is an excerpt taken from the NPS website:
Community certification opens doors to funding, technical assistance, and other preservation successes.
Funding: States receive annual appropriations from the Federal Historic Preservation Fund. States are required to give at least 10% of their funding to CLGs as sub grants. These grants can fund a wide variety of projects including: surveys, National Register nominations, rehabilitation work, design guidelines, educational programs, training, structural assessments, and feasibility studies, to name a few.
Technical Assistance: As a CLG, communities have direct access to SHPO staff for assistance with their commission, building assessments, surveys and nominations, and general preservation assistance. State staff and NPS offer regular training for CLGs as well, an added benefit of the partnership. Each SHPO has a designated CLG Coordinator.
Sustainability: Historic preservation has proven economic, environmental, and social benefits. Studies show that historic districts maintain higher property values, less population decline, more walkability and greater sense of community.
Being a CLG demonstrates your community’s commitment to saving what is important from the past for future generations. As a certified community it becomes easy to demonstrate a readiness to take on successful preservation projects, making your community able to compete for new opportunities!
Why is this a concern?
This is incremental usurpation of our property rights.
No comprehensive review of federal grants. The unelected commissions are submitting applications for this funding without telling the selectmen that this is in support of international Sustainable Development planning. These grants are contracts. The very nature of a contract is the presentment of the agreement, without this the contract is void.
How?
Federal grant funds.
This inventory asset will be a required document of review for the local land use board. Coupled with the adopted Form Based Codes and international building codes everything that is built will be under tight control.