New Jersey Historic Trust Grants Include 10 Morris County Sites

$1.7 Million Slated for Ongoing Local Preservation Projects

New Jersey Historic Trust yesterday approved nearly $15.8 million in grant recommendations from the Preserve New Jersey Historic Preservation Fund to save and promote historic sites around New Jersey, including 10 historic sites in Morris County.

The Morris County sites are recommended for a total of $1.7 million. Before the funds are made available, the grant recommendations must be presented to the Garden State Preservation Trust at its next meeting, and the dollars require a legislative appropriations bill and the Governor’s approval.

“This is an important first step in the process, as well as an enormous boost to our own efforts to preserve, protect and restore historic sites throughout Morris County. These state dollars will supplement grants we already approved from our Morris County Historic Preservation Trust Fund to protect these same sites,” said Morris County Commissioner Stephen Shaw, the board’s liaison to the Office of Planning & Preservation.

As of July, when he Morris County Board of County Commissioners approved $2.65 million in grants for 29 local historic sites, the county has awarded a total of nearly $46 million to assist in the preservation, protection and restoration of 122 historic properties since the Morris County Historic Preservation Trust Fund began operating in 2003.

Historic preservation projects often involve different phases of planning, design, construction and restoration work, and the nonprofits or government agencies sponsoring a preservation project will often apply for multiple grants from various sources at different stages of a project.  The New Jersey Historic Trust annually reviews many applications for grant funding, committing funds for multiple phases of a project, one phase of a project or, in some cases, approves funds with a requirement that the project sponsor match or supplement the Trust’s funding.

The Morris County Projects and Categories are listed In Attachments

The grants earmarked for Morris County are being issued in various categories:

Historical Site Management: includes grants for preservation plans, historic structures reports, conditions assessments, design documents, and more; as well as municipal, county, and regional planning projects such as architectural surveys, design guidelines, historic preservation elements of a municipal or county master plan, and the preparation or revision of a local historic preservation ordinance

Level 1: grants of $150,000 or less, involving the New Jersey Historic Trust providing 60 percent funding toward a project cost while the nonprofit or government agency is paying 40 percent of the cost.

Level 2: grants of $150,001 – $750,000 involving the New Jersey Historic Trust providing 50 percent funding toward a project cost while the nonprofit or government agency is paying a 50 percent match.

Multi-phase Grants: large-scale capital projects involving a minimum request of $500,000 per grant round. A successful applicant will receive a commitment to fund subsequent capital phases in subsequent years.