Advocating for Historic Preservation in Georgia
Trying to Save a Historic Property?
The Georgia Trust has developed an Advocacy Toolkit as a guide to empower individuals to become strong advocates for the preservation of Georgia’s historic resources.
The Georgia Trust advocates for Historic Preservation in Georgia in multiples ways, including participating in legislative advocacy. For recent legislative updates and alerts, see below.
Federal Legislative Advocacy
Update
May 12, 2025:
Recent developments at the federal level of government present a direct threat to historic preservation and require us all, as advocates for historic places, to speak up. The Historic Preservation Fund, established by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, has been effectively eliminated in the proposed FY 2026 Budget. Equally alarming, FY 2025 funding has not been disbursed as required by law. The Historic Preservation Fund (HPF) serves as the cornerstone to providing technical and financial assistance to preserve historic places and America’s heritage, funding 60% of State Historic Preservation Offices and competitive grants that provide direct funding to save historic sites.
Notably, the Historic Preservation Fund does not rely on taxpayer dollars. It is funded through fees for oil and gas leases on federal lands.
What’s at Stake?
- The National Register of Historic Places
- While established by legislation, the outreach, technical assistance, and review of National Register properties is administered by Georgia’s SHPO, which is funded through the HPF.
- Historic Tax Credit Reinvestment
- Georgia’s SHPO facilitates technical assistance, review and approval of federal tax credit projects, which incentivize direct private investment in Georgia’s historic communities.
- In the last five years, our SHPO reviewed 297 preliminary historic tax credit applications, leading to 237 final tax credit certifications which resulted in $873 million in investment and created 5,713 direct jobs and 5,941 indirect jobs.
- Certified Local Government (CLG) program
- Since 2020, Georgia’s SHPO has administered 39 Certified Local Government grant projects totaling $549,610.97, providing essential resources to municipalities preserving local landmarks.
- Competitive Grants
- More than $7.5 million in direct grant funding has been invested in the preservation of historic sites in Georgia over the past 5 years.
The continued withholding of appropriated funds and the proposed elimination of future funding will be detrimental to all historic preservation efforts in the state.
What you can do:
The Georgia Trust calls upon preservation advocates to speak up for these important programs by contacting your elected representatives. Below is a link to find contact information for your federal legislators and sample language you can use for a letter or email.
Find Your Legislators Sample Letter (Download)
Note: Input your address to find your legislators. Please contact your federal legislators, especially in the House of Representatives.
The Sample letter linked above is in a .docx (Microsoft Word) format that downloads directly to your computer for you to edit. For a PDF version click here.
State Legislative Advocacy
Updates
2025
January 30, 2025:
As the 2025 General Assembly gets underway, The Georgia Trust is again leading the effort to improve the state’s historic rehabilitation tax credit (RTC) program. After tremendous bipartisan support to expand and extend the state RTC program in 2024, the Trust is working with supporters from around the state to engage members of the General Assembly and increase the annual caps on the commercial component of the program.
Why is this important? Currently, the annual credits available are capped at $30 million per year for the whole state. This artificial limitation on the available credits has created a scenario in which historic preservation projects are unable to secure reliable funding to complete their projects. This creates a disincentive for main street developers to pursue these projects that are vital to historic downtowns throughout the state.
The Georgia Trust looks forward to pursuing these changes and is actively seeking support for our advocacy efforts. For more information, please email Ben Sutton: bsutton@georgiatrust.org.
2024
March 25, 2024:
Georgia Trust Successfully Spearheads Effort to Pass New Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credit Legislation
We are very pleased to announce that Senate Bill 496, which extends and expands the state’s historic rehabilitation tax credit program, passed the Senate on March 21, 2024.
Historic rehabilitation tax credits are directly responsible for the revitalization of many commercial buildings and historic homes in the State of Georgia each year. Going into this legislative session, the residential component of the program was threatened with extinction due to a “sunset” date at the end of the year. Additionally, the commercial component of the program was scheduled to end in 2027. To avert this catastrophe, The Georgia Trust and its preservation partners across the state worked with Representative Debbie Buckner to introduce legislation that extends both the commercial and residential programs through 2029 and expands the residential program to allow owners of locally designated properties that are certified by the Georgia Department of Community Affairs to qualify for the income tax credits.
The new legislation will allow for even broader revitalization of our state’s important historic infrastructure. It will also create jobs, encourage investment in older neighborhoods, expand workforce housing opportunities and enable more owners of historic homes to rehabilitate their homes in a cost-effective manner. This benefits not only historic preservation in the State of Georgia, but also the economic development of our great state.
We would like to thank Representative Buckner, all of the legislators who acted in support of the bill, and all of you who contacted Representatives and Senators to help make the case for extending and expanding our very effective historic rehabilitation tax incentive program.
The Georgia Trust also would like to thank our preservation partners listed below:
Atlanta Preservation Center
Historic Augusta, Inc.
Historic Columbus Foundation
Historic Macon Foundation
Historic Savannah Foundation
Madison-Morgan Conservancy
Thomasville Landmarks
Georgia Department of Community Affairs
NewTown Macon
Briana Paxton
Cabretta Capital Corporation
Ray, Ellis & LaBrie Consulting
Ward Architecture + Preservation
Pictured: Georgia Historic Tax Credits helped convert the Dixie Cotton Mills in LaGrange into housing, bringing in new energy to the neighborhood.
Georgians For Preservation Action (GaPA)
Since its founding in 1987, GaPA has advocated laws, programs, and policies that promote the preservation of Georgia’s historic resources by mobilizing grassroots preservationists across the state.
Among its activities, GaPA:
- Annually develops and advocates a legislative agenda that represents a consensus of the leaders of key preservation constituencies on preservation issues.
- Regularly communicates with historic preservation advocates about critical issues and legislation before the General Assembly.
- Provides GaPA members with information on national preservation issues with news from the National Trust and Preservation Action, the national lobbying arm for historic preservation.
Use the link above and select GaPA to sign up for email updates. Please note you will receive a follow up email to confirm your subscription.
The Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation has coordinated GaPA since its founding, providing staff to administer the group; maintaining a presence and tracking legislation at the State Capitol during the General Assembly sessions; and ensuring communication among GaPA members.
GaPA has played a significant role in many of the hard-won legislative advances for preservation in Georgia including the creation of the Georgia Heritage grant program, property tax incentives for historic buildings, the creation of the Georgia Register of Historic Places, and the inclusion of preservation concerns in the Georgia Comprehensive Planning Act and the Georgia Environmental Policy Act.