Under the Renaissance Zone administrative code, the State Historical Society of North Dakota is responsible for:

To ensure timely service to owners and developers interested in the Renaissance Zone historic rehabilitation tax credit, the State Historical Society built the Renaissance Zone historic rehabilitation process on the tested federal historic rehabilitation tax credit program.

The first step in using the Renaissance Zone historic rehabilitation tax credit is to determine if buildings in the Renaissance Zone are listed in or eligible for the National Register of Historic Places and/or the State Historic Sites Registry. Municipalities preparing their Renaissance Zone plan are required by the Division of Community Services to include this information in their plan. The information is gathered by completing a file search.

The Municipality must obtain the Township-Range-Section locations and street addresses of properties located in the Renaissance Zone because the Society's permanent site files are arranged first by County, then Township-Range-Section, and finally by street address.

The Municipality also should be aware of archeological sites located within Renaissance Zone boundaries. Locating these sites may be accomplished through the site file search. Ground-disturbing activities, such as new roads, reconfiguring driveways, basements, and utility lines should be addressed in the overall project description at the time of submittal. Call the State Historical Society with any questions concerning archeological sites or ground-disturbing activities.

The State Historical Society of North Dakota provides the following list of local preservation contractors the Municipality may wish to hire to perform a file search of historical buildings in its proposed Renaissance Zone boundaries. The permanent survey files (approximately 45,000 site files) are located in Bismarck, at the North Dakota Heritage Center in the Archeology and Historic Preservation Division. The 45,000 files constitute only 10-15% of the state's historic resources.

If the Municipality would prefer to send city staff to perform the search, the State Historical Society recommends making an appointment first with Society staff. The Society can offer these aids:

Please note: If the historic buildings in the Municipality's Renaissance Zone boundaries are not evaluated, or if building evaluations for National Register and State Registry are more than 15 years old, new evaluations by the State Historical Society are required. The State Historical Society has prepared online assistance for completing a the National and State Register Building Eligibility Evaluation Form. (Click here for the Building Eligibility Evaluation Form and Instructions; Policy Statement; National Register Criteria for Eligibility.)

Recommendation: Historic rehabilitation projects in the Renaissance Zones require clearance by the State Historical Society. The State Historical Society 30-day review period begins upon receipt of the building's complete rehabilitation application. The review period does not commence until the application is complete and all relevant materials are submitted to the State Historical Society. Early submittal of rehabilitation applications is highly recommended.

Copyright ©2000-2002 State Historical Society of North Dakota. You are free to use information from these pages for any non-commercial purpose. Any use of this information should credit the State Historical Society of North Dakota. Photographs shown on the State Historical Society of North Dakota's web site are taken from the collections of the State Historical Society of North Dakota and may not be included in any publication, printed or online, without the written permission of the Society.

This page last revised March 18, 2003