Webinar: Historic Preservation Commissions: The Legal Basics
Wednesday, February 21st – 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm
The strongest defense commissions have against accusations of arbitrary and capricious decisions is to consistently follow established review procedures. Customized for each state, this workshop covers the legal basis for commission operation. This presentation will provide an overview of procedural due process, takings, appeals, property rights, and economic hardship. Participants will examine common preservation legal issues and acquire tools to improve decision-making and build a defensible record.
About our presenter:
Will Cook is a nationally recognized lawyer and scholar with a successful record for protecting National Historic Landmarks, significant landscapes, historic viewsheds, and traditional cultural properties. His practice focuses on balancing historic preservation with economic development so that historic preservation law is more efficient, effective, and predictable. Will helps his clients navigate the Section 106 process of the National Historic Preservation Act at the project level with an emphasis on historic viewsheds and landscape protection. He negotiates on behalf of tribes, project proponents, local governments, and other consulting parties to achieve creative, win-win outcomes that appropriately balance preservation values and development needs. Examples of his work include helping to find reasonable limits to unregulated cruise tourism in historic port communities, advising a local government with a National Historic Landmark district on its legal rights in response to proposed offshore utility-scale windfarms, and working with a nationally recognized preservation advocacy group on how to address a proposed seawall that would surround a National Historic Landmark district.
In 2019, Will assisted the Parks & People Foundation in Baltimore with identifying ways to use Section 106 to leverage shoreline restoration of the Middle Branch Harbor and proposed “green” urban park along its 11-mile shoreline. Will’s extensive knowledge of preservation legal tools and land use law allows him to serve as a strategic partner with policymakers, developers, and preservation advocates on best practices to make preservation law more effective and efficient. Examples include assisting the City of Philadelphia and the Town of Palm Beach with identifying strengths and weaknesses in their local preservation laws, suggesting opportunities for improvement based on peer city reviews, and helping educate the public about preservation law’s benefits. Through his work with the National Alliance of Preservation Commission’s Disaster Planning Advisory Committee, Will helps historic communities with adaptation planning and disaster relief, including their response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Will has argued in court and before administrative agencies across the country on behalf of advocates seeking to protect traditional cultural properties: historic places that continue to be used by living communities. His engagements have included arguing on behalf of the National Trust for Historic Preservation before the New Mexico Supreme Court, which affirmed unanimously Mount Taylor’s designation in New Mexico’s State Register of Cultural Properties.
Will earned his Juris Doctor from the University of South Carolina School of Law, and is a graduate of Furman University, where he received a B.A. in political science. Prior to joining Cultural Heritage Partners, Will served for eight years as associate general counsel for the National Trust for Historic Preservation and teaches preservation law at Columbia University.
