Economic Development Policy Recommendations
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Improve the already existing Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credit with legislative changes that make it easier and more cost effective to use the credit on smaller (Main Street) projects and facilitate its use with the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) for affordable housing. Specific amendments include eliminating the basis reduction requirement when combining the rehab credit with the LIHTC, increasing the credit from 20% to 40% for projects under $2 million and allowing the 10% rehab credit for non-historic buildings over 50 years old to be used for rental housing.
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Develop a strong urban development program that provides incentives for reinvestment in older industrial cities and communities.
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Provide historic home owners, particularly those in disinvested neighborhoods located in historic districts, with an incentive for rehabilitation and energy upgrades.
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Continue the New Markets Tax Credit Program and improve its use in tandem with the Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credit. In addition, continue the process started by the last Congress to modernize the LIHTC.
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Propose legislation that would make it easier to pair state and federal historic rehabilitation tax credits.
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Issue an Executive Order that mandates federal agencies to locate in historic buildings and existing urban centers and downtowns whenever feasible to increase economic activity in these areas.
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Develop and fund a federal green jobs program that includes training workers in historic preservation and building rehabilitation skills.
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Increase fees charged by the National Park Service to review projects in order to implement historic rehab tax credits in a timely, efficient manner. A pass-through of funds to State Historic Preservation Offices should be included to facilitate the review process.
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Select political appointees at the National Park Service that have a background in and appreciation for the historic rehabilitation tax credit program and will encourage its use as a rehabilitation and community revitalization tool.
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Funding for Heritage Tourism programs (known economic engines for rural communities) should be incorporated into federal rural economic programs - including funding that will help reinvest in historic rural communities and fund and protect cultural and agricultural landscapes.
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Review the Secretary of Interior Standards (used in federal agency reviews, the historic rehabilitation tax credit program and other local, state and federal review processes) to allow increased flexibility, especially in difficult to develop areas and projects that incorporate green, energy efficient and sustainable development elements.
Submitted by Mimi at: March 2, 2009
The economic platform of the National Trust is excellent with one exception--"Review the Secretary of Interior Standards to allow increased flexibility..." Nearing the end of a long career in historic preservation, I can say with conviction that it is almost always as easy to do it right as to do it wrong--and better for the building and its current and future owners. How often I have argued over window replacement and had a property owner forego the tax credits to install new "energy conserving windows" made by the country's leading manufacturers. I have worked long enough to be able to testify to the rampant deterioration of these new windows and the clouding of their double glazing. It is greener to repair existing windows and install storm windows. Where I wholehearted support the use of cement-fiber siding for new construction, it should not be a replacement for wood siding on historic buildings for reasons far too numerous to list. Repairing the siding is greener and may use lss wood than firring out the exterior walls of a historic building to prevent rippling of cement fiber siding. I have never found the state or federal reviewers to be unreasonable except in one instance over a thirty-three year career of working with the rehabilitation tax credits. This is not the first time that the Trust has proposed weakening the standards and it concerns me very much. This was proposed long before our current national emphasis on energy conservation. The rehabilitation tax credit has been my primary tool in leveraging better quality work, which benefits buildings and itheir owners.
Submitted by loftman at: February 11, 2009
Has expansion of the tax credits to include redevelopment of historic buildings as lofts/condominiums (for sale) been dropped from the Trust's list of recommendations for the Obama administration?
Submitted by Susan Moriarty at: December 23, 2008
Through my work in small towns in southern Indiana I have visited scores of communities too small and too poor to take advantage of the Mainstreet programs the National Trust offers. These recommendations will contribute greatly to the efforts to save these dying rural places and the cultural and social resources they hold. Thank you.
Submitted by libbyballard at: December 22, 2008
One of the most significant federally mandated programs in our city (the Housing Authority) is currently doing an adaptive reuse project within our most economically distressed Main Street area in order to relocate it's Administrative Offices and Client Services Center and this is building excitment and bringing workers and their clients to the shopping district. This is exactly the type of project that should happen in all Main Street Districts and we are fortunate that our Housing Authority Director shared our vision.