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What We Do /

Our success comes through collaborating with property owners, architects, academicians, developers, contractors, realtors, historic preservationists and government officials.


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Encourage Policy

We encourage county and regional organizations to incorporate preservation into land and urban development plans. Ordinances that protect historic structures are our best defense against the destruction of a historic site. While not all structures should be saved, we work diligently to identify structures countywide that are historically significant. We then recommend alternatives to demolition and suggest adaptive re-use possibilities for structures that merit being saved.

Promote Use of Easements

A legal tool to protect a historic structure permanently is a historic preservation easement. Such easements can be established through the Historic Preservation Trust. We, in turn, monitor each easement annually to make sure a property is being maintained and is not being compromised.

Financial Advocacy

As Lancaster County’s leader in historic preservation, we support state and national efforts to enact legislation that would provide financial incentives for private and public historic preservation efforts. Pennsylvania has a tax incentive for commercial properties that meet historic preservation guidelines. (See http://www.preservationpa.org/uploads/Advocacy/OverviewSB1150.pdf)  We also work closely with the Lancaster County Planning Commission, local historic architectural review boards and officials in each of the county’s 60 municipalities.