Home About ACHP Six-Year Strategic Plan

Mission Statement
Long-Range Goals and Six-Year Strategic Goals
Advocate Preservation Policy
Improve Federal Preservation Programs
Protect Historic Properties
Educate Stakeholders and the Public
Enhance Organizational Capability

Mission Statement

The mission of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation is to promote the preservation, enhancement, and productive use of our Nation's historic resources, and advise the President and Congress on national historic preservation policy.
                                                             —adopted by ACHP membership May 31, 2002

ACHP was created by the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) and is the only Federal agency created solely to address historic preservation issues. To advance its fundamental mission, ACHP is authorized by NHPA to:

• advise the President and Congress on matters relating to historic preservation and recommend measures to coordinate historic preservation activities [Section 202(a)(1)];

• comment to Federal agencies on the effects of their undertakings on historic properties [Sections 106, 110(f), 110(k),and 111];

• review and make recommendations regarding the historic preservation policies and programs of Federal agencies [Section 202(a)(6)];

• encourage public interest and training in historic preservation and educate parties regarding ACHP's activities [Section 202(a)(2), (5), and (7)]; and

• recommend studies regarding historic preservation implications of tax policy and State and local legislation and assist as to guidelines for such legislation [Section 202(a)(3) and (4)].

Long-Range Goals and Six-Year Strategic Goals

ACHP’s activities fall into five basic program areas: advocate preservation policy; improve Federal preservation programs, protect historic properties, educate stakeholders and the public, and enhance organizational capability. The long-range goals and six-year strategic goals for each program are illustrated below. The following five sections of this plan discuss these goals in depth, outline the guiding principles for each, and identify specific action areas.

ADVOCATE PRESERVATION POLICY: To encourage effective public policies that promote the protection, enhancement, and use of historic properties and support and encourage historic preservation activities carried out by Federal, State, local, and tribal governments, and the private sector.

• Shape Executive and Congressional preservation policy, and maintain a formally recognized role in policy formulation and program development.

IMPROVE FEDERAL PRESERVATION PROGRAMS: To foster the development of Federal agency programs that meet the requirements of Section 110 of the National Historic Preservation Act.

• Exercise leadership in improving the effectiveness and consistency of the Federal preservation program.
• Collaborate with Federal agencies to overcome obstacles to the preservation and use of historic properties.

PROTECT HISTORIC PROPERTIES: To promote outcomes in the Federal consideration of impacts to historic properties that advance the purposes of the National Historic Preservation Act.

• Improve the regulatory framework for implementing Section 106 and actively oversee its administration, while maximizing the effectiveness of ACHP’s role in Section 106 case review.
• Develop guidance to clarify the relationship between Section 106 and various other Federal, State, local, and tribal authorities and processes.
• Enhance the capabilities of primary Section 106 participants (particularly Federal agencies, State, local and tribal governments, and Native Hawaiian organizations) to carry out their respective roles in the Section 106 process.

EDUCATE STAKEHOLDERS AND THE PUBLIC: To advise stakeholders, the public, and their governmental representatives on the value of historic preservation and the purposes, principles, and requirements of NHPA.

• Implement effective outreach programs that showcase the roles of ACHP and other members of the national historic preservation partnership in achieving successful integration of preservation with other community values.
• Educate the primary participants and other stakeholders in the Section 106 process and facilitate their use of the Section 106 regulations.
• Increase public access to information on historic preservation issues, opportunities, and resources through use of new technologies.

ENHANCE ORGANIZATIONAL CAPABILITY: To improve the effectiveness and efficiency of ACHP in meeting the needs of its customers and in carrying out its mandated responsibilities.

• Maintain adequate resources, including funding, staffing, office systems, and other support, to carry out ACHP’s responsibilities effectively.
• Enhance operational effectiveness and efficiency by improving teamwork, communication, professional development, and the office environment.

Advocate Preservation Policy

Long-Range Goal: To encourage effective public policies that promote the protection, enhancement, and use of historic properties and support and encourage historic preservation activities carried out by Federal, State, local, and tribal governments, and the private sector.

The National Historic Preservation Act established a national policy to promote the protection of historic properties and their incorporation into modern communities to meet the needs of contemporary society.

Congress also directed the Federal Government, acting in partnership with State, local, and tribal governments and the private sector, to take a leadership role in carrying out this national commitment.

Today, the preservation of the Nation’s heritage and the long-term health of historic preservation in the United States depend in large part on the adoption of policies, at all levels of government, favorable to the effective protection, enhancement, and use of historic properties.

This goal is therefore at the core of ACHP’s original creation, statutory responsibility, and continuing mission.

Six-Year Strategic Goal: Shape Executive and Congressional preservation policy, and maintain a formally recognized role in policy formulation and program development.

This goal is intended to position ACHP in a proactive role in Federal preservation policy development. ACHP has a unique statutory responsibility to ensure that the Federal preservation program provides an effective framework for protecting the Nation’s significant historic and cultural resources, while balancing that protection with other national, State, and local public values.

For this reason, it is imperative that ACHP assert an active voice in the ongoing development and interpretation of Federal preservation policy.

Action Areas:

• Work with Federal agencies and other public and private partners to develop and present a consistent and powerful message that promotes historic preservation as a valid and important national priority.
• Work with the Administration and key congressional committees to influence the Federal budget and legislation as well as non-legislative policy initiatives as they relate to historic preservation.
• Review and comment on pending legislation and regulatory changes with important implications for historic preservation, including appropriations for the historic preservation program.
• Take a proactive role in promoting important policy changes in the preservation arena by identifying and pursuing key preservation-related issues that need to be addressed at the Federal level.
• Use the agency’s information technology, including its Web site, to reinforce and enhance ACHP’s role as a leader in preservation policy development.

Improve Federal Preservation Programs

Long-Range Goal: To foster the development of Federal agency programs that meet the requirements of Section 110 of the National Historic Preservation Act.

Program improvement activities of all kinds assume greater importance as governmental resources at all levels, both financial and human, decrease. Focusing on programs, plans, and practices provides a vehicle for adapting the ways of meeting legally mandated historic preservation duties to changing agency capabilities, increasing efficiency, and focusing Federal attention on important historic preservation issues.

Section 110 of NHPA requires that Federal agencies establish preservation programs that are proactive and comprehensive, and that are consistent with and further the purposes of that Act.

ACHP's expertise can be of significant benefit to agencies seeking to improve their preservation programs and enhance their consistency with the mandates of Section 110.

Six-Year Strategic Goal: Exercise leadership in improving the effectiveness and consistency of the Federal preservation program.

The purpose of this goal is to promote ACHP leadership in identifying and addressing ongoing problems and shortcomings of historic preservation programs at the Federal level. ACHP's charge in Section 202 of NHPA and other statutory authorities afford the agency a unique opportunity to advise Federal agencies on enhancing their preservation programs.

Action Areas:

• Encourage and assist Federal agencies to develop and implement tailored historic preservation planning and review systems, grounded in a preservation ethic, that balance the preservation of historic properties with agency missions to the maximum extent possible.
• Support the development of well-trained Federal Preservation Officers and staffs in positions to influence and carry out policy.
• Advance programmatic approaches to implementation of NHPA.
• Target specific agencies for comprehensive review of their historic preservation programs.
• Involve ACHP members in resolving conflicts that arise in implementing the Federal preservation program.
• Offer assistance in training and encourage improvement in agency training programs.
• Create a mechanism for identifying Federal policy and program improvement priorities and plans of action for addressing them.

Six-Year Strategic Goal: Collaborate with Federal agencies and others to overcome obstacles to the preservation and use of historic properties.

Action Areas:

• Work with the Administration and selected Federal agencies to promote policies and implementing guidance on property management, new facilities construction, and rehabilitation of existing facilities that give preference or equal weight to historic resources in management decisions.
• Work with Federal agencies to develop administrative and other incentives for proactive Federal management planning that is responsive to historic resource management needs, promotes public-private partnerships, and increases effective public involvement in stewardship planning.

Protect Historic Properties

Long-Range Goal: To promote outcomes in the Federal consideration of impacts to historic properties that advance the purposes of the National Historic Preservation Act.

The Section 106 process is the fundamental Federal legal protection for historic properties. Implemented by ACHP regulations, it requires Federal agencies to identify, evaluate, and consider the impacts of their proposed actions on properties meeting the criteria for the National Register of Historic Places.

It further requires agencies to consult with State Historic Preservation Officers (SHPOs) and ACHP to resolve impacts on historic properties, with opportunity for input from local government, Indian tribes, Native Hawaiian organizations, applicants for Federal assistance, and the general public.

Section 106 is a principal mechanism whereby the Federal Government fulfills the fundamental purposes of NHPA, namely:

• to foster harmony between historic properties and the present and future needs of modern society;
• to provide Federal leadership in preservation and ensure stewardship of federally controlled historic properties;
• to contribute to preservation of non-federally owned historic properties; and
• to assist State and local governments, Native Americans, and the public in their preservation efforts.

ACHP’s overall purpose in Section 106 review is to encourage agencies to consider, and adopt measures to preserve historic properties and advise agencies in balancing historic preservation, mission needs, and other public values.

Six-Year Strategic Goal: Improve the regulatory framework for implementing Section 106 and actively oversee its administration, while maximizing the effectiveness of ACHP’s role in Section 106 case review.

A number of initiatives are being undertaken to implement the Section 106 regulations. Ongoing efforts are needed to work with partners to see that the Section 106 process is executed as responsibly, equitably, and expeditiously as possible, while preserving time to meet other ACHP responsibilities. Implementation of this goal is a resource-intensive activity, but has a direct and fundamental bearing on the overall functioning of the agency.

The redirection of ACHP resources toward oversight of the Section 106 process will necessitate focusing ACHP involvement on those individual cases, programs, and plans where it can make substantial contributions to the resolution of significant preservation concerns.

Action Areas:

• Finalize procedures and mechanisms to fully implement revised Section 106 regulations.
• Develop a process for monitoring the overall operation of the Section 106 process and the implementation of agreements developed under it, and addressing problems that arise.
• Identify and resolve conflicts between Section 106 requirements and other Federal agency program requirements and procedures.
• Create and maintain a system to track ACHP’s Section 106 work, including effective case records.
• Follow clear criteria to determine when ACHP will become involved in individual case reviews and monitor their effectiveness.
• Advocate ACHP’s interests in Section 106 cases that are litigated through effective coordination with the Justice Department.
• Develop tools that increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the Section 106 process, including guidance and prototype programmatic approaches.

Six-Year Strategic Goal: Develop guidance to clarify the relationship between Section 106 and various other Federal, State, local, and tribal authorities and processes.

Action Areas:

• Develop guidelines for the substitution of tribal and State procedures for ACHP’s Section 106 regulations.
• Develop guidelines for Federal agency alternate procedures.
• Develop guidance on improving coordination between Section 106 and the National Environmental Policy Act.

Six-Year Strategic Goal: Enhance the capabilities of primary Section 106 participants (particularly Federal agencies, State, local, and tribal governments, and Native Hawaiian organizations) to carry out their respective roles in the Section 106 process.

As ACHP continues to become less directly involved in the review of projects under Section 106, it needs to enhance the ability of others to implement the process effectively by developing clear policies, translating them into useful guidance, and providing consistent answers to problems as they arise. Since State Historic Preservation Officers and Tribal Historic Preservation Officers (THPOs) play a major role in Section 106, and this role will increase with implementation of the new regulations, ACHP must concentrate efforts on enhancing their ability to carry out their responsibilities under Section 106.

It is also important that ACHP take steps to assist Indian tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations, local governments, and applicants for Federal assistance to participate more fully and effectively in the Section 106 process.

Action Areas: General

• Develop a range of information resources, particularly via the Internet, directed at the general public and stakeholders.
• Develop a management framework for reviewing and addressing problematic issues or aspects of the Section 106 process requiring clarification or improvement.

Action Areas: State and Tribal Historic Preservation Officers

• Strengthen liaison relationships with SHPOs/THPOs to strengthen communication and in other ways enhance the working relationship.
• Develop specialized training and resource materials for (and with) SHPOs/THPOs.

Action Areas: Indian Tribes and Native Hawaiian Organizations

• Pursue partnerships with appropriate organizations to increase Indian tribe and Native Hawaiian organization involvement in the work of ACHP at the member, staff, and internship levels.
• Work in collaboration with Indian tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations to develop specialized training and resource materials regarding their roles in the Section 106 process.
• Work with the National Park Service, Indian tribes, Native Hawaiian organizations, and other key stakeholders to clarify how historic properties of religious and cultural significance to Indian tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations will be considered under the Section 106 process.
• Work with Indian tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations to improve their involvement in the Section 106 process and incorporate their views into ACHP policies and programs.
• Revisit existing Programmatic Agreements and address concerns of Indian tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations where appropriate.
• Improve coordination between ACHP and the National Park Service on issues concerning Indian tribes’ and Native Hawaiian organizations’ interests in Section 106 implementation.

Educate Stakeholders and the Public

Long-Range Goal: To advise stakeholders, the public, and their governmental representatives on the value of historic preservation and the purposes, principles, and requirements of NHPA.

Providing education regarding historic preservation and encouraging interest in the field are important ways by which ACHP contributes to building a preservation ethic. The success of the national preservation program is linked to fostering an understanding and appreciation for the importance of our historic resources.

Knowledge of Federal preservation laws, policies, and procedures also is essential for both Federal agencies and those State, local, and tribal officials, applicants, and concerned citizens who wish to participate in the processes created by the National Historic Preservation Act and related laws.

Broad understanding lessens confrontation and delay, facilitates decisions that support preservation, and allows members of the public to effectively voice their concerns and wishes for the future of their heritage to responsible Federal officials.

Six-Year Strategic Goal: Implement effective outreach programs that showcase the roles of ACHP and other members of the national historic preservation partnership in achieving successful integration of preservation with other community values.

Informing others about the operation and achievements of the preservation program can broaden the constituency for preservation, enhance understanding of the roles of the various parties, and offer models for future success. ACHP’s unique membership and position in the program equips it to do this job well.

Action Areas:

• Publish materials that explain to the public the role of the Government in general and ACHP in particular in preserving the Nation’s historic and cultural resources, as well as how citizens can participate in Section 106 review.
• Identify and document specific cases in which leadership by ACHP and/or other Federal agencies has resulted in successful integration of preservation with other community values.
• Communicate these success stories (through the mass media, ACHP’s Web site, etc.) to the public and target audiences, including Congress, the administration, and other key stakeholders at the national, State, and local levels.
• Work with preservation partners to collect and disseminate information on exemplary practices in integrating preservation with other Federal goals and responsibilities.
• Establish a ACHP-sponsored recognition program heralding preservation successes built on collaboration among a variety of stakeholders at the Federal, State, tribal, and local levels.
• Produce articles that highlight Federal leadership in historic preservation for publication in professional journals and trade magazines.
• Produce necessary studies and guidance, including reports to the President and Congress, that highlight Federal preservation achievements and issues.

Six-Year Strategic Goal: Educate the primary participants and other stakeholders in the Section 106 process and facilitate their use of the Section 106 regulations.

ACHP’s training and outreach activities play a critical role in educating all participants about the Section 106 process and the changes in the process resulting from the revised regulations.

Action Areas:

• Provide effective instruction on the Section 106 process and its relationship to other laws.
• Develop and implement a plan for training key Section 106 participants.
• Revise all training materials to be consistent with the revised regulations.
• Encourage and facilitate the training activities of others in order to leverage training resources.
• Use distance learning options (such as video conferencing, teleconferencing, interactive online modules) to reach audiences in a cost-effective manner.
• Collaborate with partners to develop and expand training initiatives.
• Increase ACHP’s ability to respond to specialized training requests, using new technologies when possible.

Six-Year Strategic Goal: Increase public access to information on historic preservation issues, opportunities, and resources through use of new technologies.

Use of emerging technologies provides ACHP with the opportunity to expand dramatically the audience it reaches.

Action Areas:

• Expand use of the Internet to reach as wide an audience as possible with ACHP educational materials and information, including a carefully designed and managed Web site.
• Develop the capacity to provide online technical assistance and guidance in response to specific requests.
• Pursue the use of additional tools for reaching outside audiences, including cd-rom, video, and other media.

Enhance Organizational Capability

Long-Range Goal: To improve the effectiveness and efficiency of ACHP in meeting the needs of its customers and in carrying out its mandated responsibilities.

While the long-range goals discussed in the previous pages are the pillars of a strategic plan, organizational capability is its foundation. Without ongoing nurturing of such development, strategic planning is a paper exercise.

An adequate resource base must be maintained and operations must be organized and carried out to maximize effectiveness and efficiency, minimize impediments to productive work of the highest professional quality, and maintain public responsiveness.

Six-Year Strategic Goal: Maintain adequate resources, including funding, staffing, office systems, and other support, to carry out ACHP’s responsibilities effectively.

Action Areas:

• Secure adequate funding through the appropriations process.
• Cultivate and capitalize on partnerships that have the potential to increase ACHP’s effectiveness as well as its available resources, including the use of cooperative and reimbursable agreements.
• Ensure that ACHP has adequate professional expertise on its staff or available through contract and cooperative agreement.
• Provide basic support services with adequate administrative and clerical support, modern technology, and office systems user training.

Six-Year Strategic Goal: Enhance operational effectiveness and efficiency by improving teamwork, communication, professional development, and the office environment.

It is essential to foster commitment and a sense of shared purpose and accomplishment among all parts of ACHP in the pursuit of common goals. To achieve the objectives of the strategic plan, the membership and the staff must work closely together.

The role of the membership is particularly important in setting policy direction and obtaining an adequate and reliable resource base, and it is incumbent on the staff leadership to keep the membership apprized of actions underway to advance our organizational development objectives and to seek member support when achieving desired ends requires their involvement.

Action Areas:

• Structure ACHP/staff interaction policies and procedures and ensure that ACHP meeting planning and preparation maximizes communication and effectiveness.
• Strengthen communication and team activities among ACHP staff and between office units within the organization.
• Provide an effective ongoing staff development program, including professional development opportunities that include conference attendance, writing and speaking assignments, and training.
• Ensure that office space, filing and records handling, and daily operations procedures contribute to an effective work environment.

Updated August 12, 2002

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