Agency products and services are a closely interwoven and inter-dependent set of tools used to identify, evaluate, protect and recognize historic resources.  Other programs guide and support a wide variety of stakeholders as they ensure that Virginia's rich history continues to play a role in building an economically and environmentally strong future for the Commonwealth, its citizens, and its communities. The agency’s mission-critical services include:

·       Surveys to identify and share information on a growing inventory of more than 225,000 historic buildings, sites, districts, objects and structures

·       State and National registers of historic places, the Historical Highway Markers Program which recognize historic places and educate the public about their significance.

·       An archive available to the public for purposes of research, and an online cultural resource inventory providing mapping and geographic information about individual properties, sites, and historic districts, and evaluative information about their significance.

·       Review of proposed historic rehabilitation projects and technical assistance to property owners to ensure the work conducted meets the program requirements in order to qualify for tax credits. Potential changes to the state and federal tax credit programs may impact the volume of new tax credit applications; staffing changes within the National Park Service office that administers the federal program may also affect how applications are processed.  DHR’s aging IT infrastructure may significantly affect the ability to collect, analyze, and distribute data on the program and projects; accessibility and accuracy of this data is critical to providing the Executive Branch agencies, General Assembly, and public with information on the program.

·       Protection of historically significant properties (including buildings, structures, archaeological sites, battlefields, and cultural landscapes) through perpetual historic preservation and conservation easements, and partnership with owners in the stewardship of such properties to ensure compliance with easement and appropriate treatment of historic resources.   If state and/or federal grant funding increases, DHR would be challenged to meet higher demand for new easements that are required as a condition of the grant with current staffing levels.  DHR’s ability to execute new easements would also be impacted if staffing levels at the Office of the Attorney General are reduced. So too, DHR’s stewardship and monitoring responsibilities increases as the portfolio of protected properties expands each year. 

·       Environmental review of major state and federally funded, permitted, or licensed projects that may affect significant historic resources. The Federal administration’s $1 trillion infrastructure plan may result in an exponential increase in the number of projects reviewed by DHR as proposed projects spawn further development.  Highly controversial public utility projects, including gas pipelines and electric transmission lines, dramatically expand the demands on review staff.  Such projects significantly increase the volume of cultural resource studies that must be professionally reviewed, generate high public interest resulting in a rise of general inquiries and information requests under the Freedom of Information Act, and require DHR to take a leadership role in complex mitigation plans developed to address historic resource impacts.  Rising costs and imminent termination of support for DHR’s digital project review system, ePIX, threaten the viability of this critical application, as detailed in the Information Technology section below. 

·       Technical assistance to localities in the review of projects subject to local ordinances and other projects that may affect significant historic resources.

·       Grants to preserve historically significant battlefield lands and the graves of Confederate and Revolutionary War soldiers and those of certain African Americans. If the current 1 million dollars allocated by the General Assembly to the Virginia Battlefields Preservation Fund (VBPF) continues at level funding or increases, more applicants for funding from various organizations devoted to battlefield preservation will increase and more preservation easements will be required, impacting DHR’s Easement Program staff and the DHR’s management of the VBPF.  Funding for maintenance of Confederate and Revolutionary War soldiers’ graves as well as new funding for African American cemeteries may also be expected to increase, affecting current staff workloads to manage those programs.    

·       A federally mandated program to certify and provide grants to local government preservation programs. Each year the federal government provides DHR with funding for preservation, development, and planning projects to be awarded competitively to Virginia’s 35 Certified Local Governments (CLGs). Qualified local governments continue to apply for CLG status each year and, if successful, will expect to compete for CLG funding that may deplete the CLG funding sooner and result in fewer projects awarded statewide.       

·       Archaeological field research to document sites, especially those that are threatened with destruction, and to bring the lessons learned from those sites to the public through research reports, public lectures, exhibits, partnerships, and through diligent management and stewardship of the state’s collection of several million artifacts.

·       Emergency response guidance and assistance to property owners, localities, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the Virginia Department of Emergency Management when historic places are impacted.

·       Education and technical assistance to help public and private property owners understand and preserve historic places in a 21st century world.

As the State Historic Preservation Office for the Commonwealth, this agency serves as the primary coordinating agency for historic preservation in Virginia. DHR administers a complex menu of interrelated state and federal programs managed by a highly qualified staff that must meet prescribed professional qualifications.

Evaluating and documenting the historical significance of resources is paramount for ensuring the protections mandated for their preservation by state and federal law. It is also essential for determining eligibility for access to state and federal grants and other financial incentives designed to benefit preservation and economic development. Prior to making such determinations, historic properties must be surveyed and data must be reviewed, inventoried and stewarded so that management decisions can be made relative to them. In this regard the Agency has invested in the development, maintenance and enhancement of a data inventory system known as the Virginia Cultural Resource Information System (VCRIS), which is widely acknowledged as one of the most advanced in the nation. VCRIS serves an audience primarily composed of private sector cultural resource management professionals who are contracted by federal, state and private sector entities to assess impacts to them from construction and other forms of economic development activity and ensure that mitigation balanced in the best interest of the public, the economy and historic resources takes place. Similarly, the Agency invests in professional staff who employ established criteria in order to make evaluations of historic significance about properties as part of that process. During state fiscal year 2016, the Agency added records for 6,210 historic properties to VCRIS, evaluated 3,947 properties for eligibility for listing in the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places, and ultimately listed 43 historic properties in them – a process that typically takes nine months or more to achieve. At present, VCRIS contains records on 242,598 historic resources.

The Agency also administers, in partnership with VDOT, the Historical Highway Markers program. As the nation’s first program of its type, which will be 90 years old in 2017, DHR is committed to maintaining the iconic role the program has played in presenting Virginia’s history to travelers along the Commonwealth’s byways. To-date, more than 2,600 markers have been place on Virginia’s roads. The challenge is to maintain them, place them in safe locations, and as new information is known, update them so that they remain relevant to current and future generations. DHR’s portion of the program is managed by a single FTE who has very specific expertise in Virginia history, with volunteer assistance from an editorial committee composed of experts in Virginia history and the Board of Historic Resources which ultimately approves marker topics for addition to the program. In order to make the rich content of the program applicable to students of all ages, as well as to tourists, DHR has utilized markers to develop itineraries (in print form) that complement the education, tourism and economic development goals of other State agencies. The next opportunity is to adapt the markers’ content to a digital delivery format, which will increase access to the program content. Funding to develop a pilot program has been obtained by the Agency and is currently in development.  Investment in the program is reliant upon private sponsorship of new markers which covers the cost to have them produced. The commonwealth has not directly funded the program since the 1970s, however VDOT has recently been able to fund a program to methodically review the existing condition of markers so that DHR can make recommendations to the Board of Historic Resources about retiring or replacing damaged or deficient markers. Replacement, when it occurs, requires that marker texts be re-evaluated for accuracy and updated to incorporate the results of new scholarship.

Just as historic places provide the foundation for Virginia's $21.5 billion tourism industry and the nearly $4 million film industry, adaptive reuse of historic buildings using rehabilitation tax incentives has proven to be the single most effective tool in successful urban revitalization. A 2014 report on the economic benefits of historic preservation by Virginia Commonwealth University documents the long-term economic impact and performance of one of the Department of Historic Resources’ most critical program services—technical assistance and certification of private historic rehabilitation projects that qualify for state and/or federal tax credits.  As noted in a press release from Preservation Virginia, “During the 17-year period [covered by the study], nearly $1 billion in tax credits leveraged almost $3 billion in private investment, resulting in the rehabilitation of 2,375 buildings—ranging from warehouses, hotels, theaters and even part of a prison complex to private residences. Expenses of $3.97 billion for these rehabilitation projects serves as a catalyst on sectors of the economy to stimulate an additional estimated $3.9 billion in activity, adding to the state’s overall economic well being, according to the study”—producing reliable investments even through the Great Recession of 2007-2009.  Annual performance for the Department of Historic Resources is summarized in the bullets and table below. As of January 2017, those figures had grown to more than $4.6 billion in private investment.

Highlighted outcomes of other agency programs and services include:

·       During state fiscal year 2016, DHR worked with developers to bring 179 rehabilitation projects to successful completion for a total of $358 million in private investment.

·       DHR archives served 4,861 researchers either on site or through its research services.

·       Sponsored or cosponsored training and educational activities reached 18,409 adults and students through workshops, field schools, lectures, and other educational activities ranging from Archaeological Resource Kits used in school classrooms to major conferences and training in cemetery preservation and state and federal review processes.

·       Exhibits using Department archaeological artifacts around the state reached an audience totaling approximately 635,483 people of all ages.

·       In fiscal year 2016, eight properties were protected by historic preservation easements, bringing the total number of properties protected to 600; staff visited more than 30% of the total easement properties to ensure compliance with existing easements.

·       The review of state and Federal projects is a major part of DHR’s mandated role as the State Historic Preservation Office.  During state fiscal year 2016, DHR responded to 4,456 review requests, which represents an approximately 7% increase over the two previous fiscal years, yet maintained a response rate of 95% within the mandated 30 days.  DHR recently filed the 2017 Biennial Report on the State Stewardship of Historic Properties which identifies preservation priorities for state-owned resources and highlights preservation successes reached through public-private partnerships.  The Biennial Report also features a section of sea-level rise and the imminent threat to state-owned historic properties.  DHR continues to collaborate with state agencies to develop preservation measures for historic properties under state control.

1. Changing Demographic Pressures on Historic Resources:  There are several population and related trends that strongly impact historic assets in communities throughout Virginia.

A.     A movement out of suburbs and back into city cores provides both an opportunity to rehabilitate urban residential neighborhoods and adaptively reuse older commercial and industrial buildings (as has been done with great success in Richmond, Roanoke and Arlington for example), but can also pose threat if less visionary development leads to large-scale demolition of historic assets.

B.     Growing transportation and energy needs put pressure on historic communities, landscapes, battlefields, and archaeological sites with new roads, widening of existing roads, and the construction of major power lines to support a growing digital economy. Such large projects often need detailed studies and must balance competing social and economic priorities. Impacts to historic resources are best considered early in the planning process to avoid or minimize unexpected consequences and potentially damaging conflict.

C.    Deterioration of rural and agricultural resources when people and industry move away from communities (particularly in Southside and Southwest Virginia) can be nearly as damaging to historic places as rapid development—including the trend of clearing land for industrial parks in the hopes that someone will come to the region to use those cleared areas in the future.

2. Climate Change/Rising Sea Level/Catastrophic Storm Surges: From prehistoric and colonial archaeological sites to Historic Jamestowne, Tangier Island, and Fort Monroe, virtually all historic resources in Virginia’s Atlantic and Chesapeake coastal areas are extremely vulnerable to changing weather patterns and rising waters.  Regardless of the causes, increased flooding, changing shorelines, and potential loss of historic fabric in hundreds of coastal communities are realities that need careful and meaningful study, preparation and response. Based on data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and DHR’s Archives, the overall number of state-owned historic resources that are threatened from sea-level rise is 547, including 237 archaeological resources and 310 architectural resources of which 24 are currently listed in the VLR. Recent surveys of the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic shorelines have indicated devastating losses and continued threats to both archaeological and architectural historic resources.  With a knowledge of known sites coupled a threat analysis, a comprehensive action plan needs to be developed to recover data before it is lost forever. 

3. Revenues: The future of federal funds is unclear and has been flat at best for more than a decade. Special fund revenues have been steadily declining across the board.

4. IT Costs and Demands: While the agency’s greatest IT risk was once the rising cost of basic services, the larger issues are now the need to expand the agency IT portfolio and the ongoing costs of electronic storage space. Having completed overhauling the agency’s online historic resources inventory (VCRIS) and developing the nation’s first on-line project review/data-sharing system (ePIX), the agency needs both to maintain and continue to enhance these systems amid rising costs. Further, new systems need to be developed to integrate related program records and management. Paper records on more than 600 easements, hundreds of rehabilitation projects, and thousands of publically-funded or licensed projects, and over 242,000 historic places need to be digitized.  As DHR’s digital data store increases, so does the ongoing cost of storage.

5. Workforce Capacity and Continuity: Primary factors affecting the work force are the high volume of demand and complexity of the work, the changing nature of historic preservation services, and the market competition from other agencies and the private sector. In addition, 19% of the agency staff are eligible for retirement beginning in this biennium and into the next.