(13/P83) TRENTON – The Department of Environmental Protection is awarding historic preservation grants totaling $93,000 to four municipalities in Cape May and Essex counties to be used for historic surveys and creation of preservation guidelines in these communities, Commissioner Bob Martin announced today.    

These “Certified Local Government Grants,’’ offered to help provide technical historic assistance to municipalities, are being awarded to Cape May City ($25,000), Maplewood ($20,000), Montclair ($23,500) and West Orange ($24,500).

“The Department is making these grants available to help communities identify and protect their historic properties,’’ said Dan Saunders, Administrator of the State Historic Preservation Office. “These grants give communities the tools to create a future for historic properties through municipal planning and ultimately through the actions of many New Jersey residents who proudly preserve the historic homes and properties in their communities.’’

New Jersey annually sets aside 10 percent of the state’s allocation of federal historic preservation funds for Certified Local Government grants, which are administered by the DEP’s Historic Preservation Office (HPO). These grants are available for a wide variety of projects, including public education, design guidelines, surveys, adaptive reuse studies, preservation plans/ordinances and National Register nominations.

The approved projects this year are:

• Cape May City: Proposes the continuation of its ongoing local historic district survey. Since the local historic district was amended in 2008, 883 properties have been surveyed.  A total of 457 properties out of 1,525 remain to be surveyed.  At an estimated cost of $135 per survey, this grant will allow for the completion of an additional 185 surveys. 

• West Orange: Proposes an intensive-level architectural survey of 100 historic resources in the St. Cloud neighborhood and the Main Street corridor. The city’s last survey, done in 1992, is in major need of updating.  The first two neighborhoods chosen are those with the greatest concentration of historic resources.

• Maplewood: Proposes the fourth phase of intensive-architectural survey (the three previous phases were funded by previous CLG grants). The fourth phase will address approximately 270 historic resources in the College Hill neighborhood.

• Montclair: Proposes the creation of a graphically designed set of detailed and comprehensive historic preservation design guidelines. This will facilitate the preservation of Montclair’s historic buildings by assisting homeowners, architects, and contractors as they plan and implement projects.

For more information on Historic Resources in New Jersey, please visit: http://www.nj.gov/dep/infofinder/topics/historic.htm or  http://www.nj.gov/dep/hpo/