Secretary Lee Announces the City of St. Cloud as Florida’s Newest Certified Local Government

Tallahassee –

Secretary of State Laurel M. Lee announced today that the City of St. Cloud has been accepted to the Certified Local Government (CLG) program following certification by the National Park Service.

 “I am pleased to welcome the City of St. Cloud as Florida’s 75th Certified Local Government.” said Secretary Lee. “As a Certified Local Government, St. Cloud will now have access to training and technical support provided by the Division of Historical Resources to enhance local historic preservation efforts.”

                           Grand Army of the Republic Memorial Hall, one of two properties listed on the National Register of Historic Places in St. Cloud, Florida (Wikimedia Commons).

The City of St. Cloud joins a network of more than 2,000 Certified Local Governments in the United States. In order to become eligible for the Certified Local Government program, the St. Cloud City Commission passed a local historic preservation ordinance in 2018 and assembled a qualified historic preservation commission with seven members. The CLG program encourages decision-making about historic preservation at the local level with input from citizens and local government.

St. Cloud is home to two National Register listed properties: the Grand Army of the Republic Memorial Hall and the St. Cloud Depot. St. Cloud is also an active Florida Main Street community and was recently awarded a small matching grant from the Division of Historical Resources to produce an updated historic resources survey of the city’s historic downtown. The results of the survey will be instrumental in helping the St. Cloud CLG and St. Cloud Main Street identify and preserve additional local historic resources in the future.

For more information, please visit flheritage.com/preservation/clg.

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About the Certified Local Government Program
The Certified Local Government (CLG) program was established in 1980 by the National Park Service and is administered in Florida by the Florida Department of State’s Division of Historical Resources. The CLG Program links three levels of government—federal, state and local—into a preservation partnership for the identification, evaluation, and protection of historic and archaeological resources. Florida’s CLGs (towns, cities, and counties) receive expert technical historic preservation assistance to guide them in the preservation efforts from the National Park Service, the Division of Historical Resources, and from Florida’s other CLGs. This designation also gives CLGs access to historic preservation grant assistance available solely to CLGs. In order to become a CLG, local governments must be committed to enforcing local and state historic preservation laws, and ensure the establishment of a professionally qualified historic preservation board. Nationally, more than 1,966 local governments participate in the CLG program. In Florida, 75 local governments have been designated as CLG.

About the Florida Department of State’s Bureau of Historic Preservation                             The Bureau of Historic Preservation (BHP) conducts historic preservation programs aimed at identifying, evaluating, preserving and interpreting the historic and cultural resources of the state. The Bureau manages the Florida Main Street Program, and under federal and state laws, oversees the National Register of Historic Places program for Florida, maintains an inventory of the state's historical resources in the Florida Master Site File, assists applicants in federal tax benefit and local government ad valorem tax relief programs for historic buildings, and reviews the impact that development projects may have on significant historic resources. For more information, visit flheritage.com/preservation.