Areas of Practice

Question 1

What piece of federal legislation created the National Register of Historic Places?

Answer 1

National Historic Preservation Act of 1966. Signed into law of Lyndon Johnson. In addition to National Register status, the legislation also established tax credits to help property owners rehabilitate historic homes, authorized the creation of state historic preservation offices, and established a mechanism certify local historic preservation programs.

Question 2

What are the perceived benefits of historic preservation /cultural resource planning?

Answer 2

1. Cultural and social benefits - maintaining a tangible connection to the past and celebrating distinct local architectural styles.
2. Increasingly, communities are leveraging preservation planning for economic development and environmental purposes. Adaptive reuse, denser urban environments that emerged pre-zoning, walkability.
3. Stabilization of older neighborhoods. Revitalization of historic downtowns. Reduction of environmental impacts of new development.

Question 3

List the typical steps in creating a historic resource survey/inventory.

Answer 3

1. Conduct background research on potentially significant historic resources.
2. Conduct a field survey to document the distribution and condition of resources across the study area using an evaluation process to determine the historic significance of each resource.
3. Include a mix of trained preservationist but also a diverse group of non-professionals to ensure diverse cultural histories are represented.

Note: some communities opt to skip surveying and leverage community engagement activities that identify local values that then drive the preservation effort.

Question 4

What are the most common strategies local governments use to pursue their historic preservation

Answer 4

1. Historic preservation ordinances - establish legal protections for historic resources and always enable a process for officially designating local historic resources. Require owners obtain permission to modify the structure (certificate of appropriateness). Establish criteria and a review board.
2. Public Education
3. Technical or direct financial assistance for preservation actions. Many states have tax incentives modeled on the federal tax credit program (20% income tax credit for rehabilitation work on National Register properties). Some offer additional income or sales tax relief. Others freeze property taxes and some have publicly or privately funded grant or loan programs to help maintain or rehab landmarks.

Question 5

What types of development incentives can communities use to pursue historic resource objectives?

Answer 5

1. Relief from off-street parking requirements.
2. Establish local financial assistance programs (local tax incentives).
3. Transfer of development rights.

Question 6

Which federal agency administers the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966?

Answer 6

U.S. National Parks Service within the U.S. Department of Interior.

Question 7

List a different types of historic preservation resources that are commonly protected today.

Answer 7

The scope has been increasing to include various types of resources: 1. Historic Districts
2. Buildings
3. Structures
4. Sites
5. Public Works
6. Transportation Corridors
7. Archaeological Sites
8. Heritage Areas and Corridors
9. Cultural Landscapes
10. Objects and related build forms.

Question 8

List some threats to historic resources according to the 1997 APA Policy Guide on Historic and Cultural Resources.

Answer 8

1. Diminished funding for preservation at the federal and state level
2. Impact of transportation projects
3. Preemption laws
4. Private property rights movement.
5. Demolition of all but the exterior façade
6. Ignorance of archeological resources
7. Subordination of historic preservation to other design concerns.

Question 9

List some opportunities that planners can leverage to grow the constituency of historic preservation advocates (per 1997 APA Policy Guide).

Answer 9

1. Increased interest in preservation in rural revitalization/economic development efforts.
2. Greater programming of Intermodal Surface Transportation Act (ISTEA) funds for enhancements that build on the foundations of neighborhood conservation and preservation planning.
3. Renewed commitment to the principal of adaptive reuse

Question 10

What does CLG stand for in the context of historic resource planning?

Answer 10

Certified Local Government program - it’s a federal program (National Parks Service) that is administered by state Historic Preservation Offices.

Local governments must meet certain qualifications to become “certified” and thereby qualify to received federal grants and technical assistance through their state office.

Question 11

What are the five housing policy positions of the APA? (2019) Housing Policy Guide.

Answer 11

1. Modernize state and local laws.
2. Preserve existing housing to maintain the quality and overall supply of affordable housing.
3. Encourage environmental sustainability and resiliency as critical elements of housing availibility and affordability.
4. Ensure public and private finance keeps pace and innovates to support increased housing availibility and affordability.
5. Support funding and program flexibility to provide services, shelters, and permanent supportive housing for people experiencing homelessness, veterans, immigrants, and the formerly incarcerated.

Question 12

What are the four emerging trends in housing that APA considers important? (2019 Housing Policy Guide)

Answer 12

1. Inventory and Conditions
2. Affordability
3. Housing Location
   - Long commutes.
   - Production location vs. job location
   - Cost/Income
4. Housing Needs for All
   -Universal design and visitability principles
   - Aging community
   - Cost Burden
   - Future Home Owners
   - Impacts of Immigration
   - Sustainable Design
   - Homelessness

Question 13

Name a few measures of housing affordability?

Question 14

What are the seven APA Transportation Topic Areas (2019 Surface Transportation Policy Guide)?

Answer 14

A. Data for Equitable and Effective Decision Making (data partnerships; standardizing data ethics, processing, quality, aggregation, and use; support organizations such as Transportation Research Board, AASHTO, League of American Bicyclists, WalkScore that produce transportation data; Data literacy, digital divide, concerns about accessibility for marginalized populations, tools to overcome include FixMyStreet, StreetMix, CounterPoint, FHWA EveryDay Counts).

B. Future of Public Transportation (Transportation Network Companies; mix-of-modes technologies; regulatory responses to autonomous vehicles; paratransit; scalable and adaptive).

C. Safety and Vision Zero (Smart Growth America’s Dangerous By Design; incorporate safety considerations into all planning efforts; consistent language around safety, accident vs crash; long-term goals and interim targets; Acknowledge human fallibility; complete streets; Vision Zero; Context Sensitive Solution; Equity and disproportionate impacts of roadway crashes).

D. Rural, Suburban, and Exurban Transportation

E. Project Development and Funding Decisions

F. Energy and Transportation in the United States

G. Transportation Revenue Amid a Changing Landscape

Question 15

Describe the purpose of a Low or Zero Emissions Zone and how one might be structured.

Answer 15

Low emission zones are areas - not corridors - in an urbanized environment that disallow or discourage the presence of high emissions or particulate-heavy vehicles either through outright exclusion or through a payment scheme where the price of entry is greater depending on the efficiency/cleanliness of the vehicle. These mostly have been pioneered in Europe.

Question 16

Defined MaaS

Answer 16

MaaS stands for mobility as a service.

At its core, mobility as a service relies on a digital platform that integrates end-to-end trip planning, electronic ticketing, and trip payment services across all modes of transportation, public or private.

These types of services promise to take into consideration real-time conditions in the network and user preferences, time constraints, and willingness to pay.

APA is sensitive to the equity considerations this technology raises.

Question 17

Define MOD and how is it different from MaaS?

Answer 17

MOD stands for Mobility on Demand. It includes leveraging new technology for passenger and goods movement and incorporates principles of transportation systems management, including managing supply and demand. MaaS emphasizes mobility aggregation and subscription services that bundle multiple passenger services into a single web application.

Question 18

List examples of TNCs and CNS

Answer 18

Transportation Network Companies (Uber, Lyft) and Courier Network Services (Instacart, Uber Eats, Postmates, DoorDash).

Question 19

Define paratransit

Answer 19

Paratransit is the term used in North America for transportation services that supplement fixed-route mass transit by providing individualized rides without fixed routes or timetables. Transit agencies are required to offer paratransit services under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Broadly speaking, these services vary in terms of the service level provided. Some are demand responsive and offer on-demand call-up door-to-door service from any origin to any destination within the service area. Others may consist of a taxi or small bus that will run along a more or less defined route and then stop to pick up or discharge passengers on request. Beyond transit agencies, these services might also be operated by not-for-profit organizations. This term is rarely used outside the U.S.