Summer 1997

NAPC Training Programs

Planners and planning commissioners are becoming increasingly aware of historic preservation as an integral part of planning practice. However, gaps between the two still exist.

The National Alliance of Preservation Commissions (NAPC), a nonprofit coalition of local historic preservation commissions nationwide, works to alleviate this breach between planning and preservation considerations and to expand the expertise of local historic preservation commissions. Through four training programs, the NAPC targets preservation concerns at different levels of expertise and involvement.

The Short Course for Preservation and Planning Commissioners, also entitled "Protecting Character in Established Neighborhoods," highlights the areas where preservation and planning issues dovetail, looking to better unite preservation and planning interests for positive community development, and to promote awareness of preservation as a planning tool. In the one-day, interactive course, participants are presented with mini-lectures on historic preservation tools, legal issues, and design character, and with a case study neighborhood facing potentially conflicting planning goals. The participants are divided into groups and must apply their newly acquired information to solve the neighborhood's issues. The Louisiana Chapter of APA will include the Short Course for Preservation and Planning Commissioners at their annual meeting, September 25-27, in Lafayette, Louisiana.

The NAPC also presents annual educational sessions at the National Trust for Historic Preservation's annual conference. Workshop topics change yearly, concentrating on timely issues of concern to historic preservation commissions and the planners or other professional staff who support them. One recurring and very popular workshop is the NAPC's Mock Preservation Commission Meeting, which is staged at the national conference every other year.

The Short Course for Preservation Commissioners provides a more focused perspective. This one-day workshop, designed for the new preservation commissioner or the experienced commissioner needing review, focuses on the basics of historic preservation administration, including the role of the commission, procedures, legal issues, design review, the preservation network, and integrating preservation into land use and community planning.

The Commission Assistance Program (CAP) aims to increase the effectiveness of commissions and to strengthen the local preservation systems of individual states. As the needs and procedures of each state differ, CAP is customized for its participants through four possible phases: survey and field visits to commissions, training workshops, technical assistance and special publications, and specific assistance to individual commissions.

In addition to training, the NAPC provides on-call technical assistance, coordinates the preservation advocacy network, and manages the United States Preservation Commission Identification Project database. Through these programs the NAPC works to increase the preservation commission's effectiveness, while also striving to coordinate the shared interests of preservation and planning. For more information about the NAPC, call Lisa Vogel at 706-542-4705.

Lisa Vogel, Program Assistant, NAPC
Amy Phillips, Graduate Student, University of Georgia