Advocacy
We collaborate with local, state and national organizations to further policies and funding that protect Florida's history and heritage
Our 2024 Legislative Focus:
1. We support the full funding of the FY2025 Historic Preservation Special Category Grant list.
Florida's Division of Historical Resources Historic Preservation Grant program is crucial in safeguarding our historic sites, fostering community resilience and bolstering local economies.
These grants are instrumental in supporting significant local, regional and statewide initiatives aimed at preserving historic and archaeological treasures, aiding major archaeological research endeavors and facilitating the development of noteworthy museum exhibits that illuminate Florida's rich history. This year’s grant list included 36 projects with a price tag of nearly $9.6 million.
Take action now to support Florida's historic places through the preservation grant program!
2. We advocate for the establishment of a state historic tax credit in Florida, the Main Street Tourism and Historic Revitalization Act (SB 1166, HB 1183).
Establishing a state historic tax credit would help revitalize Florida Main Street communities, promote heritage tourism, generate well-paying jobs and revive vacant or underused historic structures. Florida currently does not have this important preservation tool — one of only 11 states that do not.
The proposed credit would cover up to 20 percent of eligible costs for renovating a certified historic structure and a 30 percent tax credit for eligible costs within the official boundaries on an active, certified Florida Main Street community. Both credits would be in addition to the federal historic tax credit of 20 percent. Learn more about the historic tax credit.
Take action now to help create a state historic tax credit in Florida!
3. Amend the Resiliency and Safe Structures Act
The Resiliency and Safe Structures Act (SB 1526, HB 1647) aims to address issues related to property owners and developers dealing with non-conforming or unsafe structures.The Florida Trust expresses concern that, as written, the bill may create missed opportunities for demolition mitigation. The potential consequences for historic resources in Florida are substantial: demolition could negatively affect tourism, Main Street vitality and business development.
The Florida Trust has engaged with stakeholders to amend bill language so it not only keeps communities safe, but also retains historic character vital to our communities.
Florida's Voice for Historic Preservation
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We advocate for legislation that preserves the historic and cultural fabric of communities
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Lobby for state and national funding for historic preservation projects and initiatives
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Protect historic and cultural resources from inappropriate legislation, regulatory rulings, or court decisions that hinder preservation
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Preserve community input in the policy-making process
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Research, document and communicate best practices and model preservation policies
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Mobilize our preservation network to take action on pressing preservation issues
Financial and Community Impact
We know that historic preservation is a strong economic driver for communities, for Florida and for the Nation. The most recent economic impact of historic preservation numbers are powerful. $13.5 billion was invested in rehabilitation of existing residential and non-residential property each year between 2005 and 2008.
Historic preservation creates jobs in Florida. More than 123,000 jobs are generated in Florida from historic preservation activities during 2000. The major areas of job creation include the manufacturing sector, retail trade sector, services sector, and construction sector.
Historic preservation makes a substantial contribution to tax collections for Florida state and local governments. More than $657 million in state and local taxes were generated from spending on historic preservation activities during 2000.
Visitors to Florida spend billions of dollars while visiting historic sites. More than $3.7 billion was spent in Florida by tourists who visited historic sites. The tourists are lured by Florida′s historic sites, historic museums, state parks, and archeological sites. There are more than 1,400 Florida listings in the National Register of Historic Places and more than 135,000 historic structures and archeological sites in the Florida Master Site File of historic sites.
Public funds invested in historic preservation grants are matched many times over with private funds in local rehabilitation projects. Since 1983, state historic preservation grants have been awarded to projects in every Florida county, representing 2,751 projects and a state investment of $212.1 million, which the Secretary of State′s office estimates is more than doubled by leveraged public and private funds in these local communities.
The Main Street Program creates a greater sense of place in Florida communities. Since the Main Street Program began in Florida in 1985, eighty Florida communities have leveraged a state investment of $4 million into partnerships between private investors and local governments. This investment became a total public/private investment in these communities of $486.5 million (as reported by May, 2002) designated to improve the downtowns of these communities.
Historic preservation helps to maintain property values in Florida. In an examination of the assessed values of mainly residential property in eighteen historic districts and twenty-five comparable non-historic districts throughout Florida, there was no case where historic district designation depressed the property values. In fact in at least fifteen cases, property in historic districts appreciated greater than comparable, targeted non-historic districts.
Source: Economic Impacts of Historic Preservation by the Center for Governmental Responsibility, University of Florida Levin College of Law, Center for Urban Policy Research and Rutgers University. Click here to download the full report.