Section 106 Glossary

Parties/Actors
State Historic Preservation Officers (SHPO): Created by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, SHPO is responsible for the operation and management of the Office of Historic Preservation, as well as long-range preservation planning including surveying, evaluating, and nominating significant historic buildings, sites, structures, districts, and objects to the National Register.
Tribal Historic Preservation Officers (THPO) – Advise Federal agencies on the management of Tribal historic properties and strive to preserve their Tribes’ cultural heritage and preservation programs.
Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACPH) – An independent federal agency that promotes the preservationists of the nation’s historic resources, as well as advises the government on national historic preservation policy, as well as providing a forum for influencing federal activities, programs, and policies that affect historic properties.
National Trust for Historic Preservation (NTHP) – A private, non-profit membership organization dedicated to saving historic places and revitalizing America’s communities. 
Applicants – Any non-federal entity that is receiving federal funding to complete a project. 
Consulting Parties – Section 106 term that refers to organizations and/or individuals with a demonstrated interest in the undertaking due to the nature of their legal or economic relation to the undertaking or affected properties, or their concern with the undertaking’s effects on historic properties.
National Parks Service (NPS) – The National Park Service is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational properties with various title designations.
Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) – The Federal Highway Administration supports state and local government in the design, construction, and maintenance of the highway system.
Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) – The Department of Housing and Urban Development is the Federal agency responsible for national policy and programs that address America’s housing needs, improve and develop the Nation’s communities, and enforce fair housing laws.
Department of Transportation (DOTs) – The Department of Transportation is a Federal agency responsible for planning and coordinating federal transportation projects. It also sets safety regulations for all major modes of transportation.

Section 106 Steps
Undertaking – A project, activity, or program either permitted, licensed, or approved by a federal agency. 
Assess – The third step in the Section 106 review process where is determining whether the historic property will be adversely affected by an undertaking. 
Adverse Effects – Whatever a project may do that would diminish the integrity of a historic property.
Area of Potential Effect (APE) – The area or historic building/structure within an undertaking that may directly or indirectly cause alterations in the character or use of historic properties. 
Consultation – Process of considering the views of other participants and seeking agreement with them regarding Section 106. 
Identify – The second step in the Section 106 review process is where the historic properties are identified and the APE is determined and the National Register eligibility is assessed.
Initiate – The first step in the Section 106 review process where is determining whether or not an undertaking will affect a historic property. 
Integrity – The ability of a property to convey its significance, based on location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association. 
Historic Property – In the context of Section 106, historic property means any precontact or historic district, site, building, structure, or object included in, or eligible for inclusion in, the National Register of Historic Places.
Scope of Effort – The scope of the effort is the amount of work estimated for an undertaking. 
Programmatic Agreement – A contract that defines how an agency will carry out a program after a decision on a property has been made.

Historic Assessment
Preservation – the act, process, or result of preserving something such as the activity or process of keeping something valued alive, intact, or free from damage or decay.
Significance – What makes the historic building or structure worthy of preservation. This can include if the property is associated with historic events, or people, or have distinct historic architectural or engineering achievements.
Conservation – Prevention of the wasteful use of a resource. 
Listing – A property that has been approved for the National Register of Historic Places.

Laws & Registers
National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 (NHPA) – Legislation intended to preserve historic and archaeological sites in the US. This act created the National Register of Historic Places, the list of National Historic Landmarks, and the State Historic Preservation Offices (SHPO).
National Register of Historic Places – The US federal government’s official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects worthy of preservation. 

National Historic Landmarks (NHL) – A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is generally a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its national historical significance. 

National Historic Landmarks District (NHLD) – A historic district that is recognized as an NHL. Its geographic area may include contributing properties that are buildings, structures, sites, or objects, and it may include non-contributing properties.
Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) – A document written between parties to cooperatively work together on an agreed-upon project or meet an agreed-upon objective.