Central Coast Rep Seeks to Create California’s Second National Heritage Area

If you think the Monterey Bay area is a special place, you’re not alone. History buffs know it as the capital of California under the Spanish. Nature lovers cherish Big Sur, Pinnacles National Park, and the Santa Cruz Mountains. It’s home to some of the state’s most popular tourist attractions—as well as rich agricultural land and productive commercial fisheries.

These assets are well known to Jimmy Panetta, and he’s proposed an ambitious plan to recognize the region’s specialness. Though he’s the son of Beltway powerhouse Leon Panetta, he attended Carmel High School and Monterey Peninsula College. Now he’s serving the community in the U.S. House of Representatives, and he’s introduced legislation to designate Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Benito counties as a national heritage area.

The Monterey Bay National Heritage Area Study Act directs the secretary of the interior to study whether the three-county area qualifies for and would benefit from this designation. If so, it would become the second NHA in California. The other one is the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta NHA, which stretches from Sacramento to Stockton to Vallejo.

What Is a National Heritage Area?

An NHA is a swath of land deemed to have cultural, natural and historic resources that tell a story that is important to the entire country. These places can be defined by unique cultures, important events, major social movements, or other characteristics that contribute significantly to the American story.

Although the program falls under the National Park Service, these areas are not national parks. In fact, they are what the federal government calls "lived-in landscapes," which encompass populated areas. NHAs are valued for the benefits they can impart in the form of economic development and recreation, along with heritage conservation.

President Ronald Reagan signed the law establishing the first NHA, the Illinois & Michigan Canal National Heritage Corridor, in 1984. There are now 55 such areas in 34 states, with Pennsylvania having the most—seven National Heritage Areas.

The areas each celebrate stories of national significance, from steel production in Pennsylvania to auto production in Michigan, from Washington state’s maritime industry to farming in Iowa. Many also represent land associated with Indigenous people and their histories and cultures.

Benefits of a National Heritage Area

The federal government touts a long list of perks for areas with the NHA designation.

According to government studies, NHAs can provide economic benefits such as tax credits for historic preservation, grants, increased job opportunities, and more visitors for heritage tourism.

Other benefits are educational or recreational in nature, such as archaeological excavations, hiking and biking trails along historic infrastructure like railroads and canals, and programs for schools that might include tours, history lessons, and environmental projects.

Longer-term benefits that will pay off well into the future include natural resource conservation, reuse and reinvigoration of historic buildings, and improved access to cultural and natural resources. The process of planning an NHA promotes public engagement and stewardship of these resources—as well as conservation of significant sites, either through adding them to the National Register of Historic Places or to the National Historic Landmarks list.

One thing to note is that the federal government maintains that NHAs do not affect private property rights. A 2004 U.S. General Accounting Office report found that to be the case as well. 

Funding and Governing an NHA

The federal government provides funding from annual congressional appropriations to the local entity in charge of the NHA, and it estimates that NHAs generate $5.50 for every $1 of federal investment. Most NHAs are authorized to receive up to $1 million a year for a certain number of years. However, the actual appropriations are usually less, from $150,000 to $750,000 per year.

Because NHAs are areas where people live, they are managed by a local entity. For instance, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta NHA is managed by California's Delta Protection Commission. These entities collaborate with communities to figure out how to make the heritage area’s theme relevant to the local community.

NHA managing entities also receive the money allocated from the federal government, hold agreements, and have to meet accountability measures and performance requirements. Public-private partnerships are also key to funding programs, improvements and other projects the entities undertake on behalf of the NHA.

Creating a National Heritage Area

Deciding whether to create an NHA can be a years-long process. The creation of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta NHA took eight years, from 2011 to 2019. 

Before the Department of the Interior will make recommendations to Congress regarding the creation of an NHA, there must be a completed feasibility study that included public involvement; demonstrated widespread public support for the NHA designation among residents; and demonstrated commitment to the designation from influential organizations, including governments, industry and community groups.

To advance the proposal to designate a certain area as an NHA, the feasibility study must meet 10 specific criteria to be evaluated by the National Park Service and Congress.

Broadly, the study must show the cultural and historical value of the area. Taken together, do the historic, cultural and natural resources of the proposed area still exist in a form that allows for the improvement of their quality or their conservation? Do these resources represent a distinctive part of America that is worth conserving and recognizing? And does the area reflect customs, beliefs, traditions and folkways that are part of the national story?

As for the natural environment, the area must provide important conservation opportunities and must show that the designation would provide recreational and educational opportunities. The area also must have resources that still exist and are not degraded or lost.

The feasibility study must also state whether there is an organization willing and able to manage the work and finances of making an NHA happen, what that proposed entity is, and which governments supporting the designation have committed to partnering with the entity. Then the study must include a description of the management entity that will plan and implement the project.

Finally, community involvement is key to the NHA designation. The federal government wants to know if the public supports the idea of creating an NHA, so the study must show that the planning of the NHA has involved the community, from residents to governments, businesses to nonprofits, with all collaborating to develop a financial plan that outlines support for the designation. The public should also approve of the boundary map and the proposal, which must be consistent with economic activity in the area.

Once complete, the National Park Service reviews the feasibility study along with experts from other federal departments. The Department of the Interior will make a recommendation to Congress, and the item will have a public hearing before Congress decides whether to designate the area as an NHA.

If the effort is successful, the hard work of setting up the NHA begins. The federal appropriations help provide funding and technical support, and three years before the funding is scheduled to end—usually 10 to 15 years after the NHA's formation—the federal government evaluates the NHA to determine if it has fulfilled its authorizing legislation and implemented its management plan.