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Starting in the 1960s, a nationwide decline in urban areas led to a movement to eradicate blight, slums, and even marginal neighborhoods through urban renewal. The demolition of hundreds of thousands of buildings meant the loss of community character, and sometimes in its place, the erection of vastly out of scale new buildings that did not foster a livable community for the next generation.

Historic preservation emerged as a solution with the leading set of tools from the public and private sector, both regulatory and incentive-based, to stabilize and often reverse the trends of neighborhood decline. A series of federal, state and local laws and incentives help to provide a level of consistent decision-making that is based on national standards for design criteria. In addition, numerous partners at all levels of government, nonprofits, for profit companies, and the preservation craftsmanship and experts frequently collaborate to find the right solutions for any historic property.