Excerpt from Economic Benefits of Historic Preservation: The Impact of Historic Preservation on Local Economics in Georgia

During 1986 and 1987 the Georgia General Assembly appointed special Study Committees to examine the role of historic preservation in the State's economic development. Committee members heard repeatedly of preservation's tremendous impact. Many people appearing before the Committees presented hard economic data to support their testimony. It was clear that relatively small public investments in preservation could leverage much larger private investments about 15 private dollars for every public dollar spent. The Committee report urged the Historic Preservation Section of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources to undertake a study which would examine the economic impact of a broad range of preservation activities and provide a model framework which could be used to document and measure this impact.

In 1987 the Historic Preservation Section of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, which serves as the State Historic Preservation Office, received a Preservation Services Fund Grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation. This grant funded a study to document the effects of historic preservation on the economy of Georgia and to design a methodology for measurement of this impact. The study was conducted between April and November of 1988.

Although the study's original intent was to produce a measuring tool or framework which could be applied statewide, the focus was eventually narrowed to examine the impact of preservation in the context of a local economy. A case-study approach was used in five Georgia cities: Athens, Macon, Rome, Thomasville and Valdosta. It is hoped that in a future study, building on this material, a statewide methodology for assessing the economic impact of preservation activities can be developed.

The present study, undertaken by the Historic Preservation Program of the School of Environmental Design at the University of Georgia for the Historic Preservation Section, documents the economic benefits accruing to these five Georgia communities. Impacts of preservation activity on tangibleeconomic indicators such as property values, retail trends, tourism, the construction industry, employment, taxes and fees have been tracked directly. Preservation's impact on intangibles such as citizen involvement, community pride and image, and quality of life was addressed in three of the five cities through a telephone opinion poll. The data was collected according to a methodology that other cities and communities will be able to use. These two bodies of data are complementary, and when joined present a full picture of the impacts, both real and perceived, of preservation.

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