Bill
HD 1170
Expands Massachusetts Community Preservation Act funding eligibility to include digitizing and documenting historic resources' informational content, not just physical structures.
HD 1170 allows municipalities to use Community Preservation Act (CPA) funds—which are typically restricted to affordable housing, open space, historic preservation, and recreation—to preserve the informational and documentary content of historic resources. This expands how communities can spend their designated preservation budgets to include archival work, digitization, and documentation of historical materials alongside traditional physical preservation.
Historic documents, photographs, and records are vulnerable to loss through deterioration, disasters, or neglect, and their preservation requires specialized resources distinct from building restoration. By explicitly authorizing CPA fund expenditures on information content preservation, the bill enables communities to protect irreplaceable historical records that contextualize and document their heritage, potentially increasing public access to local history.
Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.
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