National Forest Homeowners
Cabins
NFH
Within each Historic District there are three “levels” of significance to the District. A cabin may be individually eligible for the National Register, contributing to the District, or non-contributing. Presumably the restrictions on the first group will be greater than those on the last group, but the detailed management guidelines have not been written yet.
Historic Eligibility of Cabins
Some cabin tracts and individual cabins had been found eligible for the National Register of Historic Places (National Register) under the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA). These historic regulations are different from the regulations on our Special Use Permits, which are not as strict.
There are three states an individual cabin or Historic District can be in: eligible for listing on the National Register, nominated for listing on the National Register, or listed on the National Register. At this time all Historic Districts and individual cabins are in eligible status.
However, another Federal regulation, 36CFR800.5 mandates that any property that is eligible for listing on the National Register must be managed as if it were already listed on the National Register, even if there is no plan to ever nominate it for listing and no listing ever happens. This regulation applies forever, regardless of change of
ownership, wishes of the cabin owners, damage to or deterioration of the cabin. The regulation also includes mandates that the property must not be neglected. In the interim, 36CFR800.5 will be used by the Forest
Service (FS).
Within each Historic District there are three “levels” of significance to the District. A cabin may be individually eligible for the National Register, contributing to the District, or non-contributing. Presumably the restrictions on the first group will be greater than those on the last group, but the detailed management guidelines have not been written yet.
Regarding possible grants or tax incentives, only individually eligible or contributing cabins are eligible for those funds, and only if the Historic District or individual cabin is listed on the National Register. But all cabins in a Historic District, even those that are noncontributing, are subject to some restrictions on allowed repairs or remodeling.
Why were these historic appraisals done? Section 110 of the NHPA requires that government agencies scout the area for historic sites and buildings whenever some project is undertaken.
There is a Federal tax credit program administered by SHPO for rehabilitating historic buildings, but it requires meeting Federal standards for the rehabilitation work and is only for buildings which will be used for income-producing purposes afterward.
If you are interested in seeing your cabin on the National Register, it takes 100-150 hours of paperwork and photographic documentation, and then about a one year wait once the nomination is filed. The steps and forms are available on the SHPO website. The nominated cabin would be given additional scrutiny by SHPO and the nomination might be rejected or returned for additional supporting information. For the Historic Districts, for a contributing cabin to move toward being eligible for funds the whole District would need to be nominated. As of last month the FS was not sure how nominating a District could
be done.
The FS letter stated that well preserved cabins on the National Register might be in demand on the real estate market. This might be true, but should be investigated with a realtor before assuming it’s true. Many cabins are not well preserved and some potential buyers would never consider buying a property which was National Register eligible due to the many restrictions on maintenance and remodeling, and the need to wait for written approval before doing work.
For the purposes of the NHPA the Federal Preservation Officer is in charge of decisions for permit holders. Since we do not have fee simple ownership or deeds to our cabins, and are occupying Federal land under Special Use Permits, the Federal Preservation Officer for the Forest Service is designated to act on historic matters. This authority is stated in 36CFR60.3(e) and elsewhere in Federal regulations.
For the purposes of the NHPA our cabins are considered to be like personal property such as furniture or appliances. Cabin owners
have no veto over those decisions, though there is an appeal process available through the District Ranger, but since we are not fee simple owners the FS is in charge and will order restoration and removal as they think necessary.
The Forest Service states that there will be no change in the terms and conditions of our permits due to this historic preservation action. This is not quite true, since the text of permits is being changed constantly nation-wide and there will probably be wording added to our
next permits which require us to comply with NHPA regulations or risk cancellation of our permits. But the most important point is that the terms of our present permits are essentially constant and nation-wide, while the terms of the NHPA are far more restrictive regarding allowed buildings and apply only to selected cabins. There are no guidelines
written yet, but things like standing seam metal roofs, hot tubs, thermally insulated windows, and solar panels, which might be permitted by our current permits, may not be allowed under the NHPA.
Also it is possible that some cabins may be ordered to remove
materials or change colors which are not compatible with the historic period of the cabin’s construction. However lenient the FS may be at first in approving repairs, it is possible that over time there will be increasing restrictions due to historic preservation issues in the
same way that Special Use Permit restrictions have increased steadily over the years.
At this time, any requests by cabin owners with historic cabins for approval of maintenance and repair projects is being done for free by FS staff. But approval by properly qualified historic preservationists is
now a requirement for all historic cabins and Historic Districts, and the FS does not guarantee that they will always have a professionally qualified person on staff.
If free project approvals are no longer done, cabin owners would be required to hire a qualified private consultant at their own expense to analyze proposed projects. Also there are some projects which may be allowed only if contractors that have historic preservation
experience do the work. It is increasingly the case that historic preservation work is done by preservation qualified professionals instead of volunteers, owners, or regular contractors.
Could a cabin owner maintain or restore her cabin to NHPA standards without the NHPA eligibility for listing? They would not have the honorific of being on the National Register, but would be free of the requirement to follow details of the NHPA which could be prohibitively expensive, and free of the risk of permit cancellation for noncompliance. Cabin owners could follow those directions themselves
or hire private consultants for advice.
How would the FS react to having cabins or Historic Districts revoked? The bottom line is that it is unclear. The FS have spent years and tens of thousands of dollars on the historic surveys. But they were doing it because they were required to by Federal regulations. Could these historic cabins and Districts be revoked? Possibly they could, through an appeal process which is stated in a Programmatic Agreement of the Forest Service.
Typically historic surveys done under Section 110 of the NHPA are biased in the direction of including all possible structures, even those with flimsy or questionable history. The surveys are biased so that the government agencies are not accused of dereliction of duty by overlooking historic properties which should have been preserved.
It would be possible to have qualified professionals re-survey cabins or tracts and possibly come up with different conclusions. Those surveys would not be paid for by the FS. The historic story for the justification of the three Historic Districts is greatly exaggerated from what really happened, the other criteria for the Districts are the most liberal allowed, and the architectural classification of some individual cabins is not really a recognized classification.
Some may wonder if these historic designations would be some insurance against the cancellation of our permits in the future. If the historic designations are based on false information, anyone can challenge it now or in the future. A determined group would soon find out the that the historic story is true or false and that unqualified buildings are sometimes allowed to become eligible and listed because
of the eagerness of the owners to be listed. The historic designations would only provide insurance for our permits if the historic story about our cabins was true and unassailable.
Note that there is a disconnect between the Historic Districts and the individually eligible cabins. The individual cabins outside Historic Districts are “standalone” and each of them could be re-surveyed and lose all historic designation upon successful appeal.
Editors Note: Special thanks to Norman Goetz of the Oregon and Mt Hood Forest Homeowners Associations who penned much of the original article.