Section 106
What is Section 106?
Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) requires Federal agencies, including NEH, to consider the effects of Federally funded projects on historic properties and to afford the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) an opportunity to comment on such projects prior to the expenditure of any Federal funds.
What kinds of projects require Section 106 review, and how is an applicant who has been awarded or offered an NEH grant affected by Section 106?
Section 106 covers a broad range of projects, including construction, renovation, repair, or rehabilitation; ground disturbances; and changes to an area’s visual characteristics. NEH bears ultimate responsibility for ensuring that it meets all of its Section 106 requirements. However, NEH cannot meet its obligations without the full cooperation and assistance of NEH awardees or offers. Further, NEH cannot release grant funds until it completes its Section 106 obligations.
What is an historic property?
An historic property is any property that is included in, or eligible for inclusion in, the National Register of Historic Places (National Register). National Register-listed or -eligible properties fall into five broad categories:
- Buildings: constructions designed principally to shelter human activity, including houses, barns, commercial buildings, government buildings, etc.
- Structures: functional constructions not principally designed for human shelter, including bridges, canals, lighthouses, dams, boats, aircrafts, etc.
- Sites: Locations of significant events, or prehistoric or historic occupation or activity, including ceremonial sites, battlefields, shipwrecks, trails, designed landscapes, archaeological remains of habitation sites, natural features having cultural significance, etc.
- Objects: Constructions that are relatively small in scale, frequently artistic in nature, and associated with a specific setting or environment. They are not museum objects, but include sculptures, monuments, fountains, boundary markers, etc.
- Districts: A concentration or continuity of sites, buildings, structures, or objects that are united by their history or aesthetics. The identity of a district results from the interrelationship of its resources. Frequently encountered districts include residential areas, commercial areas, transportation networks, large farms, rural villages, groupings of habitation sites or ceremonial sites.
Historic properties also include artifacts, records, and remains related to and located within such properties, and properties of traditional religious and cultural importance to an Indian tribe or Native Hawaiian organization.
What is an adverse effect?
An adverse effect occurs when a project may directly or indirectly diminish the integrity of an historic property by altering any of the characteristics that qualify that property for National Register inclusion. Specifically, if the project diminishes the integrity of a property’s location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association, then there is an adverse effect. Examples of adverse effects include:
- Physical destruction or damage;
- Alteration inconsistent with the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties;
- Relocation of the property;
- Change in the character of the property's use or setting;
- Introduction of incompatible visual, atmospheric, or audible elements;
- Neglect and deterioration;
- Transfer, lease, or sale out of federal control without adequate preservation restrictions