Time to celebrate! It’s National Community Development Week! Celebrated in April each year, this year’s festivities start, today, April 6th, and run through the week.

Celebrating a federal program with plenty of red tape may not be your ideal party, but Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding is important to rural communities across the nation. Block Grant funds have been instrumental in implementing impactful changes to numerous communities that couldn’t have otherwise afforded it. National Community Development week points out the vital importance of CDBGs and how the funding has made thousands of communities better.

The Council of State Community Development Agencies typically leads the way each year. Their website is packed with information, videos, templates, and more to help make your celebration of Community Development and CDBG a success.

The National Community Development Week Tool Kit

But COSCDA isn’t the only entity celebrating. The National Community Development Association’s Facebook page also provides a full toolkit for those who want to bring attention to Community Development that week. There is a myriad of facts, sample proclamations, and social media campaigns that your community can use to celebrate the week. The full toolkit for 2026 is available here:

National Community Development Week Toolkit

Not a One Trick Pony

In the past, I’ve discussed how CDBGs can Help Maintain Affordable Housing. This federal funding source was also utilized by the City of Clarinda, Iowa, to help with downtown revitalization. But there’s a variety of unique ways to use CBDG.

However, the CDBG program can also play an important role in disaster recovery by providing flexible federal funding that communities can use to rebuild infrastructure, restore housing, and support economic recovery after major events such as floods, tornadoes, or wildfires. Through CDBG funding, state and local governments to repair damaged public facilities, rehabilitate homes, assist displaced residents, and address long-term community needs that insurance and emergency relief programs often do not cover. Because the program is flexible, communities can tailor recovery investments to local priorities.

Check out this video below from HUD that introduces the CDBG-DR program and how it can help communities after a disaster:

Start Thinking About How You’ll Use CDBG

National Community Development Week is a great time to think about your next CDBG project. It is an ideal time to prioritize those projects that may be eligible to receive CDBG funding. It’s also a good time to start gathering the data and approvals needed to start working toward applying for funding.

Whatever the project, utilize the week to start the momentum toward your next CDBG-funded project to help your community.

The post National Community Development Week 2026 appeared first on Rural Resurrection.

This Year’s Destination: Detroit

Detroit, Motor City, the birthplace of Motown. There’s so much history and culture wrapped up in this city at the base of Michigan’s thumb. As a Mustang enthusiast, I’ve been craving to come to the home of the real American sports car (How’s that Camaro doing?). Unfortunately, the only manufacturing plant I’ll be able to tour is the Rouge Complex, where Ford trucks are assembled.

Foods are another regular draw for me. From January until I hop on the flight, I regularly gawk at hundreds of photos on Google Maps of the local eateries I want to try, trying not to drool too much over what they are serving. Detroit is famous for the Coney Dog and Detroit Style Pizza.

Then there’s Comerica Park. I’ve been a bit of a Tigers fan for a while now. So, since Comerica Park opened up in 2000, I’ve been hankering to check it out. From the massive tigers that greet you at the entrance to the unique throwback aspect of the path between the batter’s box and the pitcher’s mound, it is an intriguing ballpark.

Of course, there’s Detroit itself. A town that epitomises “resilience”. The City has been one of the hardest hit by suburban flight. A struggle that has been arguably going on for over 50 years. Looking at the aerials of the areas surrounding downtown, one can see the impact. Entire city blocks have been leveled. Eerily vacant spaces cover the landscape. These are not just a few desolate blocks, but hundreds spread across the land that surrounds the bustling core of the city. There will be a few sessions about Detroit’s plans for recovery during the conference. I’m looking forward to checking out their efforts.

NPC26 is a Two-Headed Monster of Learning

This year’s conference continues APA’s recent trend of making it a hybrid event. For those who cannot attend in person, the American Planning Association also offers online sessions a few weeks after the in-person event.

There are a few that have piqued my interest, though they might not be based on rural communities; they may have aspects that could be helpful to us on the rural side:

• New Ruralism: Town and County Collaboration in Planning
• High-Tech Tools for Small-Town Futures
• Regional Approaches to Infill Housing for Legacy Communities
• Trails: New Tool for Grant and Economic Justification
• Incremental Zoning Reform: Navigating the Political and Possible
• Save Mom-and-Pop Shops: Zoning for Microbusiness
• Public Pockets, Private Projects: Innovations in Economic Incentives
• Parchment City, Michigan – Small City, Big Brownfield!
• Why Planners Should Lead Infrastructure Project Development
• Local Programming: Redevelopment Ready Communities: Positioning Michigan Communities for Reinvestment
• Reconnecting Communities Through Highway-to-Boulevard Transformation
• Seamless: A Trail Plan to Connect Utah
• Destination Districts as Catalysts for Economic Development
• Placemaking Playbook: Economic Development Through Public-Private Partnerships

Much like last year, I’ll do a follow-up post on what went down, what I learned, and what readers might see more about in the coming months due to the conference.

I’m looking forward to NPC’26 in Detroit, the city that Henry Ford transformed into what was once the global epicenter of the automotive industry. I’m just as interested in seeing Detroit’s plans for its next transformation.

Be sure to follow Rural Resurrection on Twitter, as I’ll likely post a few times during the event.

The post APA NPC26 – Detroit Rock City appeared first on Rural Resurrection.

The first spotlight will be on a grant offered by USDA Rural Development. USDA-RD was actually my first foray into helping rural communities. During my college years I was able to undertake a few different jobs during my summers that helped shape my future. USDA-RD was one of those. That’s when I learned of the wide array of grant and loan programs available through USDA Rural Development.

One of those funding programs is the Economic Impact Initiative Grants. This program provides funds to assist in the development of essential community facilities in rural communities. Public entities, non-profits, and federally-recognized tribes are all eligible applicants to this program.

Grant funds can be used to construct, enlarge or improve community facilities for health care, public safety, and public service. What’s better is that the grant funds can also be combined with other funding programs, including USDA-RD’s Community Facilities loans.

What Qualifies as Essential Community Facilities?

So what are essential community facilities? Here’s a listing from the grant’s webpage:

• Health Care: hospitals, medical clinics, dental clinics, nursing homes, assisted-living facilities
• Public Facilities: city/town/village halls, courthouses, airport hangers, street improvements
• Community Support Services: child care centers, community centers, fairgrounds, transitional housing
• Public Safety: fire halls, police stations, prisons, jails, police vehicles, fire trucks, public works vehicles, and equipment
• Educational: museums, libraries, private schools
• Utility:  telemedicine, distance learning
• Local Food Systems: community gardens, food pantries, community kitchens, food banks, food hubs, greenhouses, kitchen appliances
• For a complete list, see Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 3570.7

Examples of Projects

A few examples of the grant awards under this program includes:

• Munising Memorial Hospital – Received $63,000 in Economic Impact Initiative Grant funding to purchase a mobile x-ray room. The mobile x-ray room will be used to benefit more than 9,600 residents in and around Munising, Michigan.
• City of Bayard, Nebraska – Received $17,700 for purchase of extraction equipment for the local fire department.
• Creative Adventure Lab – Received $66,500 to purchase equipment for the Monticello Creative Adventure Lab for build-out activities to provide educational programs to kids and families and to help improve economic development efforts by supporting entrepreneurs and existing business growth in Jones County, Iowa.

Get Started Now

First, check out USDA’s page on the Economic Impact Initiative Grants program. As with any grant program, there are a number of requirements your project must meet and a number of different aspects about the program your community should know about before considering applying for funding.

Then reach out to your local USDA Rural Development office to talk about your potential project. Local USDA-RD representatives are the best resources to find your way through the funding process through USDA. If you don’t know where your local office is located, check out the State Offices page on their website. From there you can drill down to your state office’s page and find the local office for your community from there.

Grants featured in Grant Spotlight posts are also on the Rural Resurrection Tool Kit page. For more grant opportunities, check out the Tool Kit page.

The post Grant Spotlight: USDA Economic Impact Initiative Grants appeared first on Rural Resurrection.

After attending the session, I considered how other states have similar programs and how effective they are for rural communities. That led me to write a post about Michigan’s program and how these programs can benefit your own community.

Basics of the Redevelopment Ready Communities Program

The Redevelopment Ready Communities program started in the inner-ring suburbs of Detroit as a way to spur redevelopment in that beleaguered metro area. There were a number of best practices that were developed in the process of helping those communities that members of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation felt needed to keep alive and apply statewide.

Most of the programs take a look at the variety of plans (or lack thereof) that your community has. This includes the community’s comprehensive plan, any corridor improvement plans, downtown plans, housing studies, etc. It is often that developers look at these plans when working through the due diligence process. So take these plans off the shelf, dust them off, and see if they need to be updated.

The Michigan group also takes a look at each community’s Capital Improvements Plan (CIP). This is a good aspect that programs in all other states should incorporate. The Michigan Economic Development Corporation has found several communities that didn’t have CIPs in place. This is an alarming, but unfortunately common occurrence in many small communities, not just those in Michigan.

The program also takes a look at the community’s redevelopment processes. It reviews the regulations and processes to standardize and streamline in preparation for development.

Other Midwest States with Similar Programs

A number of other Midwestern states have similar programs. Nebraska’s program is probably the closest in design. Other states focus more on development sites than the community as a whole. Regardless, each of these programs are useful to your town.

Nebraska – Economic Development Certified Communities

Other Midwestern states have certification programs that are more site-specific. This includes the states of:

Indiana – Indiana Site Certified

Iowa – Iowa Certified Site Program

South Dakota – Certified Site Program

Minnesota – Shovel-Ready Site Certification

Missouri – Missouri Certified Sites Program

Kansas – Certified Sites Program

What’s the Payoff?

Undertaking a program like Michigan Redevelopment Ready Communities strengthens local capacity. Involved communities receive technical assistance, modernize outdated codes, identify priority development/redevelopment sites, and help to align city staff and elected officials for a shared development vision.

Also, certification processes like Michigan’s RRC program improve competitiveness for grants and state/federal resources. It doesn’t guarantee funding, but it positions communities to capture opportunities when they appear.

So if your state has a community certification process, it is highly recommended that you take a look into it. It may not immediately result in development. But it is simply a good process for assessing your community’s readiness for development. For more on Michigan’s program, check out their website.

Looking Forward to an Update

At this year’s conference in Detroit, representatives of MEDC will be hosting this session once again. It’ll be interesting to see how the program has grown since 2019 and the impacts it has had on rural communities in Michigan.

The post Michigan Redevelopment Ready Communities appeared first on Rural Resurrection.

Adaptive Reuse

Adaptive reuse refers to the process of reusing an existing building for a purpose other than which it was originally built or designed for. It is also known as recycling and conversion. Adaptive reuse is an effective strategy for optimizing the operational and commercial performance of built assets.

Administrative

Posts with no real category. Some are general site marketing posts like, “Ways to Follow Rural Resurrection”. Others like “Minnesota Towns” provide background information for future articles”

Destination Towns

Destination Towns is a relatively new series on Rural Resurrection. These towns are unique and boldly different, towns that stick out in a crowd and draw people in rather than letting them fly through.

Downtown Revitalization

Ideas and proven examples about renovating downtowns. Includes posts about economic development, grants, activating, fundraising and success stories.

Events / Conferences

Annual observances, conferences, and other activities that can have an impact on our communities, directly or indirectly.

Ghost Towns

There’s an old saying, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” It is important to learn from these ghost towns to help us avoid our communities becoming one as well. However, some of the stories in this category are just interesting tales to read.

Helping Hand

Programs and volunteer activities that can help your community. This category isn’t about grants, it is more about assistance to energize a populace into action.

Housing

Articles about all aspects of rural housing. Topics include; affordable housing, fair housing, workforce housing, repair and maintenance as well.

Marketing

Community marketing is a strategy to engage an audience in an active, non-intrusive prospect and customer conversation. Whereas marketing communication strategies such as advertising, promotion, PR, and sales all focus on attaining customers, Community Marketing focuses on the perceived needs of existing customers.

Planning the Future

“Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men`s blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will never die, but long after we are gone will be a living thing, asserting itself with ever- growing insistency.” – Daniel Burnham. This category dives into the need to plan for your community’s future.

Regulatory

What regulatory actions can you take to help your community out? Is there a new issue affecting other communities that your community needs to be prepared for with proper regulation?

Star Communities

These are communities that deserve recognition for what they have accomplished. Much like receiving a gold star from your teacher as a kid.

Thinking Outside the Box

Existing initiatives which may be working elsewhere, but may not have received enough press to trickle down to some parts of the Midwest. Or bold new ideas that just might work.

Tool Kit

The Tool Kit post category provides information on grants and other sources of assistance to help make community projects a reality. Often sample projects are provided to provide an example of how these tools can help your own community.

Tough Issues

Every community goes through tough times. Whether it happens to be tornadoes, floods, or a major employer leaving town. The key is to learn from their heartaches and their perseverance to embolden your own community when problems strike.

Tourism

The Tourism post category provides ideas to nurture the tourism sector of your community’s economic development activities.

The post Check out the Post Categories appeared first on Rural Resurrection.

The post Happy St. Patricks Day! appeared first on Rural Resurrection.

That’s why crowdfunding tools like Patronicity matter.

Crowdfunding isn’t about begging for donations or replacing the responsibility of the governmental entity. It’s about providing a way that people can put their name on the future of their community, even if their investment is only a few dollars per project.

What is Patronicity?

Patronicity is a crowdfunding and community-engagement platform designed specifically for civic, cultural, and public projects. It helps communities build support and raise funds to help funding projects that can make a local impact. Projects like downtown revitalization, historic preservation, public art, parks, trails, and other facilities can all benefit from the crowdfunding platform.

Unlike more generic crowdfunding platforms, Patronicity focuses on place-based projects rather than personal profit. Projects listed on the platform are typically led by cities, nonprofits, or community groups to create projects for public betterment.

Reaching the People Who Don’t Come to Meetings

Every town has residents who care deeply about their community. However, they cannot attend all of the council meetings, open houses, or project workshops. There is also a general lack of interest in council meetings, where the majority of the subject matter is administrative. I work for a community of nearly 20,000 residents, but you can typically count the number who attend council meetings with your fingers. Those who do attend typically have a bone to pick rather than an intense desire to help out.

Patronicity invokes involvement from those who care about the community by reaching out to them on their own schedule. Through a town’s website or social media posts, those who have an interest in contributing to making the community better can have access to information on projects on their own schedule. They don’t have to come to a meeting to find out about potential projects, the information is at their fingertips at a time that is convenient for them.

The Right Projects for the Right Tool

One of the most important rules of a successful crowdfunding effort is the project type. Crowdfunding works best for projects that people can see, feel, and point to with pride. Hence, a physical project is important for success. This may include:

• A downtown streetscape improvement
• A park feature kids will actually use
• Public art that tells a local story
• A historic building getting a second life
• A trail, plaza, or gathering space

People want to point at something and say, “I helped make that project a reality.” Give them that opportunity.

Sample Successes

Hancock, Michigan – Creekside Trailhead and Bike Park

The Hancock Trails Club used crowdfunding successfully to raise funds for the Creekside Trailhead and Bike Park. A town of 4,500 in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, Hancock is considered a “cultural capital” for Finnish Americans. The community offers a variety of festivals, attractions, and recreational activities.

One of those recreational activities is trails, which is in good hands with the Hancock Trails Club. The Club submitted a crowdfunding project to Patronicity for a creekside trailhead and bike park. Though the project had a goal of $50,000, it raised $59,440 before it was closed. This was further enhanced by a Public Spaces Community Places (PSCP) matching grant, provided by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC), making the crowdfunding twice as effective.

Warsaw, Indiana – The Warsaw Alley

The City of Warsaw conceived of an idea to convert a nondescript alley into a safe and inviting pathway that would connect Buffalo Street and City Hall Plaza. This community of nearly 16,000 residents in north-central Indiana developed a plan to install decorative paving, tables and chairs, a mixture of vegetation, and other amenities to create a welcoming space near City Hall.

The Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority pledged a matching grant of $50,000 if the fundraising campaign was successful. More than successful, the project in Patronicity raised $58,795 before fundraising was closed.

Put the Work In

Too many good ideas die quietly in capital improvement plans or sit on shelves waiting for the “right” grant cycle. Meanwhile, residents walk past vacant buildings, underused parks, and forgotten downtowns every day knowing something could be better. Crowdfunding provides tools that appreciate local effort, value small contributions, and strengthen the bond between people and place.

But crowdfunding works best with a well-conceived project setup. So get started now and put the work in to develop a project layout that has a visual draw and plenty of information for potential donors. It’ll take time, but the proper setup is important to put the best foot forward for your project.

The post Crowdfunding, It’s for Communities Too appeared first on Rural Resurrection.

Not all grants highlighted on Rural Resurrection are specifically for municipalities. Rural communities rely on small businesses for their own economic stability. It is vitally important for community leaders to know what resources are available to help businesses out. Helping small businesses in your community helps the community as a whole to survive and thrive as those businesses provide the jobs that keep the economy flowing.

What kinds of projects will the Backing Small Businesses Grants fund?

Through the Backing Small Business Grants, eligible small business owners can apply for $10,000 in grants for projects that “grow or improve their businesses by building community, supporting their economic viability, or bolstering meaningful change.”

Of the 500 recipients selected for $10,000 grants, a limited subset of 25 recipients will be awarded $30,000 Enhancement Grants. The Enhancement Grants will allow those business owners the opportunity to create transformative change within their businesses and in their communities. For example, by giving back, partnering with community members, addressing cultural, environmental, and/​or access needs in their community, opening a new location, and/​or adding staffing.

Recipients of the $10,000 grant will be required to submit a final grant report using a template provided. In addition to questions regarding the completed project, the report will include prompts on how the business would use the $30,000 Enhancement Grant. Enhancement Grant project proposals can be related to the $10,000 grant proposal or they may constitute a separate project.

Get Started Now

The grant application period typically opens in mid-March and goes into early April. However, there is an application limit each year, and the application period will end once that limit is reached. So make sure you apply early!

To learn more about the grant, check out the American Express web page about it.

Grants featured in Grant Spotlight posts are also on the Rural Resurrection Tool Kit page. For more grant opportunities, check out the Tool Kit page.

The post Grant Spotlight: Backing Small Businesses Grant Program appeared first on Rural Resurrection.

Having truly shovel-ready sites is how small towns stop losing good projects before they ever get started.

What Shovel-Ready Actually Means

A shovel-ready property is one where a project can move forward without surprises. It doesn’t mean that every project works out, but it won’t fail due to issues with the subject property. Even in projects where a developer has committed, it can make the difference between a positive economic impact and ongoing delays and frustration.

On a shovel-ready site, the zoning has been determined, and the entitlement process is clear. The utilities for the site are well-known and understood. Environmental issues, if any, have been identified and addressed honestly, instead of swept under the carpet. Ownership is clear, clean, and transferable, so there’s no last-minute scramble to untangle issues that could be deal-killers. And access to the property is provided through a viable roadway that can handle the expected traffic impact.

A shovel-ready property doesn’t mean it is perfect, it just means clarity for potential developers. It tells investors and builders that the community respects their time and is serious about economic development.

Why It Matters in Rural Communities

In rural towns, community leaders need to be ready for every opportunity. Developers are not regularly knocking on our doors. When they are, developers are often looking at multiple sites at once, often in different towns. That’s why being shovel-ready is so important. It reduces risk for small/local developers, helps hometown investors stay committed to a project, strengthens grant applications with a more credible site, and signals that the community is serious about its future.

Also, with many businesses, time is of the essence. If they can’t open their doors within a certain timeframe, they’re moving elsewhere to find a site where they will.

How Rural Cities Can Create Shovel-Ready Properties

The process for making properties shovel-ready involves researching and addressing a variety of aspects. Some may be an ongoing effort when potential development knocks on your door. But having a better understanding of your community’s available properties puts you in a better position than others.

1. Fix the Zoning While the Town Is Quiet

Your zoning ordinance is a picture frozen in time. It reflects development needs at the time of adoption. But soon afterwards, it is out of date as new land uses or development styles gain traction. Rural communities are then forced to rush through changes when a desired new development proposal comes along. However, this is less than ideal. “Haste makes waste,” and the potential negative impacts of developments are not thoroughly considered.

Rather than adjusting to each project individually, modernize the framework itself. Update the zoning regularly to allow for new development styles like mixed-use development, small-scale infill, and other development patterns. But don’t forget to update your comprehensive plan, too. Your zoning should align with the comprehensive plan.

With an updated zoning ordinance, you save potential developers time, which increases your chances of landing the development for your community.

2. Untangle Ownership Before It Becomes a Crisis

Vacant buildings and empty lots often come with complications. Heirs, back taxes, and other potential hidden encumbrances can stop a development project in its tracks. Cities can play a critical role by identifying problem properties early. Using tools like land banks and local investment partnerships, parcels can be assembled, keeping ownership records clean and accessible. When land is clear and ownership is understandable, it reduces risk and opens the door to smooth transactions for new investment.

3. Know Your Infrastructure

Saying “water and sewer are nearby” isn’t enough anymore. You need to have a thorough knowledge of your infrastructure. Shovel-ready communities need to know:

• Where capacity exists and where it doesn’t
• What lines are undersized or aging
• What upgrades would cost and who might pay
• Is there broadband internet access available, and can it support the demands of modern businesses

Sometimes the extension of a single water line can unlock an entire group of parcels, making them more developable. Get the best bang for your buck.

4. Name Environmental Issues Instead of Whispering About Them

Most towns have them, sites that everyone suspects there might be an environmental issue. But they don’t want to look into it. They don’t want to open “Pandora’s Box”. So the potential environmental issues stay buried, only to surface when time is of the essence.

Potential environmental issues won’t just go away if you ignore them. Communities need to open the box now, well before a developer shows interest. Have Phase I environmental reviews conducted on priority sites. Then, utilize brownfield programs to help document or clean up issues caused by past uses.

Even if your community doesn’t move forward with remediation activities, having all of the information on hand is a big step. Being up front and honest, even if the news isn’t good, builds trust and increases the potential for redevelopment.

5. Fix Access Before You Pitch the Site

If trucks can’t turn, bridges can handle the weight, or drainage is treated as an afterthought, development will stall. Cities need to look closely at the fundamentals. The road conditions and how the roads connect matter. Access points need to be safe and functional as well. But stormwater also has an impact too. How the water flows and drains can affect access to a site when storm events take place. Often, this doesn’t mean grading and paving a new road, but tweaks to your existing infrastructure to make access more viable and reliable.

6. Make City Hall Predictable, Not Intimidating

Interactions with City Hall should be simple, clear, and concise. Above all, developers are looking for clarity and a fair process they can understand. In many rural communities, the uncertainty in the processes can be a bigger barrier than the regulations themselves. To limit confusion and frustration, cities can offer pre-application meetings that help bring to the surface any potential issues. It’s also an opportune time to share checklists and clear timelines. Pre-application meetings save time, cutting down on the seemingly endless review letters and lack of understanding. They are also a good way develop relationships with those who are applying, which may be critical to the success of the project.

Just as important is the willingness to say, “We don’t know yet,” and then follow up with a clear answer. Honesty is respected, especially if the final responses are timely and logical.

Shovel-Ready Is About Preparing for Success

Communities with shovel-ready sites don’t hope for development to come; they prepare, knowing it can happen. They take responsibility for the parts only the public sector can fix. Shovel-ready communities provide certainties instead of unknowns. They honor the time and money of people willing to invest in their community.

Provided below are links to a couple of different checklists that may be helpful:

• Shovel-Ready Checklist – Empire State Development
• Redevelopment Site Screening Checklist – Prairie Hills RCD

So start getting ready today for the opportunities of tomorrow.

The post What Really is “Shovel Ready”? appeared first on Rural Resurrection.

However, many towns today do not have historic districts that are recognized on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). Having a historic district that is on the National Register doesn’t just bring national recognition to the area. Adding your district to the National Register opens the path to financial benefits like federal tax credits and grants, promotes heritage tourism, provides national recognition, and encourages community stability and improves property values.

Define a District that Makes Sense

Historic districts throughout the rural Midwest are generally definable based on their type. This includes:

• Downtowns surrounding a courthouse square
• Industrial/warehouse districts
• Early residential districts that have maintained their character
• General areas around historically significant locations.

But no district is identical. Each district is unique, and finite boundaries may be arguable. Just remember that what matters is the story you are telling about how the community developed. Regardless, the initial boundaries need to be solidified before you move forward. This creates the base from which you start.

Do Your Research

This is where the fun begins for me. As a history buff, researching the district’s history is the part that I may enjoy the most in the process.

Many rural communities hesitate to do the work necessary to designate a district because they assume too much of the history of the district has been lost. Yet, the National Register values the integrity of the district, not perfection. Historic buildings that have been adapted, repaired, or modestly altered can still contribute to a district. What matters is whether the overall setting, materials, and patterns of development are still recognizable.

A variety of sources can be helpful in making your case to create a historic district. Historic surveys, old Sandborn maps, plat books, and courthouse records are all valuable documents in the process. The County Recorder’s Office can be an especially valuable resource. Your local library or the library in your county seat may be good sources as well. They may have books, periodicals, newspapers, or other media sources that can add to your record.

Keep Your Property Owners in the Loop

In small towns, word travels fast. Misinformation can travel faster. Property owners need clear, plain-language explanations of what a National Register listing means. They need to understand:

• No new local regulations are created
• Private property rights remain intact
• Normal maintenance, repairs, and improvements are allowed
• Federal review only applies when federal funding or permits are involved

Talk with the property owners within the district you are working to designate. Keep them in the loop by talking to them early and often.

Work with Your State’s SHPO Office

To many cities, the mention of the State Historic Preservation Officer (SHPO) draws a wary eye from staff. Many projects that are funded in part by federal aid have been hampered through the approval process due to potential historical issues. But your state SHPO office can be quite helpful in the development of your historical district application. They understand rural contexts, small-town development patterns, and the impact of your community on the history of the state.

Most importantly, they want communities to succeed. The more communities that succeed with their historic district designation, the more likely history that history will be preserved.

Start early with the SHPO office. Early coordination with SHPO staff can save months of revisions and help communities frame the significance of their district in a way that aligns with the criteria set forth to be included in the National Register.

Your state SHPO office also plays a significant role in the process. Districts seeking a spot on the National Register are required to be reviewed by the state’s National Register Review Board. The Board provides a recommendation to the State Historical Preservation Officer on whether to submit the nomination to the National Park Service for final review by the Keeper of the National Register for Historic Places.

Celebrate the Win, But Don’t Stop There

A National Register listing can be especially powerful for rural towns because it can open doors that may otherwise remain closed. But be mindful that National Register nominations take time. But the reward is worth the wait.

Once a National Register designation has been obtained, don’t forget to celebrate the win. The impact on community pride can be sizeable, affecting how owners in the district look at their property.

Just understand that a National Register Historic District designation is just a starting point. As mentioned, it can open doors for your community, but it is up to your community leaders to walk through those doors and put forth the effort to make your community better.

Additional Resources

Here are a couple of additional resources to help you read up further on the process:

• How to Designate a Historic Place in Your Community 
• 11 Tips to Build Your National Register Knowledge

Also, check out the National Register of Historic Places Inventory – Nomination Form for Rocheport, Missouri. Rocheport is one of the communities I visited in my 2025 Summer Road Trip. The form is nearly 50 years old, so it is probably not an ideal template. But it gives you a decent feel for the basics of the application.

The post Creating a National Register Historic District appeared first on Rural Resurrection.