Standard Operating Procedures: Review & Compliance and Survey & Inventory

INTRODUCTION:

Historic Preservation, nationally and locally, is a significant activity in the respective societies. It secures the stories of our past and lays the foundation for saving the stories yet to come. Places which help tell those stories are afforded varying levels of protection under Federal and State laws. In particular, the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, as amended (NHPA), on the Federal level, and Chapter 6E Hawaii Revised Statutes on the State level, are foremost in laying the basis for those protections.

The State Historic Preservation Division (SHPD), the office within the State Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) charged with Hawaii’s regulatory responsibilities in Historic Preservation, acts as the primary State agency in both Federal and State preservation processes.

Among the many responsibilities established by Federal and State law are the responsibilities to review public and private actions that affect historic properties and to ensure compliance with Federal and State law. SHPD’s role in that process is determined by the legislation under which such action is reviewed. Another set of responsibilities regard the oversight of surveys done to identify and examine historic sites and the creation, management and on-going development of an inventory of historic sites. These two sets of responsibilities: the Review and Compliance with Federal and State laws, and the oversight of Survey and Inventory are closely related and mutually inform each other in the very general way illustrated below.

FULL TEXT: http://hawaii.gov/dlnr/shpd/reports/Combined-SOP-120717.pdf