The National Park Service designated 34 communities from across the United States as Certified Local Governments in 2015.  More than 1,900 communities now participate in the program which provides local governments access to historic preservation guidance and grants.

Certified Local Government (CLG) designation makes communities official partners in the portion of the federal historic preservation program which engages local, state, and federal partners to promote historic preservation at the grassroots level.  As a Certified Local Government, communities can use expert technical historic preservation advice from the National Park Service and their respective state historic preservation offices.  The designation also gives localities access to grants for historic preservation that are available exclusively from the Historic Preservation Fund for Certified Local Governments.

“We are proud that last year 34 new communities spanning the country from Florida to Washington joined us in our commitment to historic preservation and protecting what makes their cities and towns special,” said National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis.  “These Certified Local Governments now have access to unique resources to preserve the heritage of their communities and promote local economic growth through tourism to their historical areas.”

Administered by the National Park Service through State Historic Preservation Offices, the Certified Local Government program links the three levels of government into a preservation partnership for the identification, evaluation, and protection of historic properties.  In order to become certified a local government must meet several requirements, chief of which is committing to enforcing local and state historic preservation laws and establishing a qualified historic preservation commission.

The following communities were designated Certified Local Governments in 2015:

For additional information on the Certified Local Government program, visit www.nps.gov/clg.