Washington, D.C.—As part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s all-of-government effort to accelerate project permitting and reviews to deliver on our infrastructure and clean energy future, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) is taking action on housing, climate-smart buildings, climate-friendly transportation, and clean energy that will make it faster and easier to meet the nation’s climate and housing goals while preserving historic properties. 

Today, the ACHP proposed a draft Program Comment on Accessible, Climate-Resilient, Connected Communities that would accelerate historic preservation review timelines for billions of dollars in investments across the country supported by President Biden’s Investing in America agenda by providing federal agencies with an alternate way to comply with their responsibilities under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act.

“Today’s action aims to position our historic places at the center of affordable, accessible, climate-resilient, equitable, and interconnected communities and to ensure new investment reaches people who live in, use, and enjoy our historic places,” ACHP Chair Sara C. Bronin said. “I am looking forward to engaging Indian Tribes, Native Hawaiian organizations, and the public on the best ways to ensure historic preservation strategies are a central part of our national response to the pressing needs for more housing and to address challenges related to climate change.”

If the ACHP approves the Program Comment, federal agencies would be better equipped to conduct historic preservation reviews for the frequent and recurring undertakings covered by the Program Comment across three sectors–housing, climate-smart buildings, and climate-friendly transportation, as follows: 

Housing: If adopted, the Program Comment would promote the renovation and reuse of America’s historic buildings for housing that is affordable, accessible, energy-efficient, climate resilient, and hazard-free by:
- Exempting most interior renovation projects from the review process, including renovated living spaces for existing tenants.
- Allowing sitework and façade projects to proceed with limited or no review, simplifying routine maintenance and care of existing buildings as well as speeding climate resiliency upgrades.
- Prioritizing abatement of hazardous materials, including radon, lead, and asbestos with identified processes to enable mitigation.

Such changes would benefit the more than 1 million households living in 190,000 public housing buildings in the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s portfolio, millions of housing units supported by the Departments of Defense and Agriculture, and thousands of projects funded by other federal agencies working to ensure all Americans have safe, habitable, and affordable housing.

Climate Smart Buildings: The draft Program Comment aims to accelerate emissions reductions and energy savings in buildings, which are currently responsible for more than a third of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, and improve their climate resiliency, by:
- Allowing the installation of solar panels on historic buildings involved in federal government projects, without further historic preservation review.
- Facilitating the electrification of historic buildings by exempting or streamlining reviews for mechanical and electrical system upgrades, including retrofits and installations of new all-electric energy efficient appliances and building systems, including heat pumps.
- Broadening the scope of building envelope energy efficiency improvements, including replacement windows, doors, and insulation, without further historic preservation review.

These changes would ensure a timely delivery of the Biden-Harris Administration’s goal of making zero emissions buildings common practice by 2030 and achieving a net zero emissions economy no later than 2050, while also ensuring local recipients of federal funding through the Inflation Reduction Act can implement building decarbonization projects.

Climate-Friendly Transportation: As proposed, the Program Comment aims to facilitate pedestrian, bicycle, micromobility, and public transit projects, so that more people benefit from:
- Investments in pedestrian, bicycle, and micromobility infrastructure, including new bike lanes, shared micromobility systems and accessible sidewalks
- Safety improvements and accessibility improvements across transportation modes including programs that reconnect communities separated by highway infrastructure
- Public transit projects, including bus and light rail projects.

If these reviews are made more effective and efficient, more than $10 billion of Department of Transportation funding would more quickly meet the needs of local communities to ensure safe routes to school, new recreational trails, and new bicycle paths. 

These actions complement a Program Comment that Chair Bronin amended earlier this year to support efficient and effective reviews of broadband projects. Additional action focused on transmission projects is expected to follow in the coming weeks.

The draft Program Comment now enters a period of consultation with Indian Tribes, Native Hawaiian organizations, and members of the public and industry professionals, to refine it prior to any action by ACHP members. Full details on opportunities for participation in this process can be found on the ACHP’s website.

This Program Comment follows the ACHP’s adoption of Policy Statements on Housing and Historic Preservation and Climate Change and Historic Preservation, which collectively identified the topics in the proposed Program Comment as likely benefiting from further efficiencies in review processes.

A program comment is one of several administrative tools the ACHP can use to provide greater flexibility and tailored approaches for federal agencies as they work to ensure historic preservation interests are balanced with necessary investments to fulfill government priorities and obligations.

About the ACHP: An independent federal agency, the ACHP promotes the economic, educational, environmental, sustainability, and cultural values of historic preservation and advises the President and Congress on national historic preservation policy. It also influences federal activities, programs, and policies that affect historic and cultural properties. See www.achp.gov for more information.