Secretary Lee Announces the City of Anna Maria and the City of Dunedin as Florida’s Newest Certified Local Governments

Tallahassee, Fla. –

Secretary of State Laurel M. Lee announced today that the City of Anna Maria and the City of Dunedin have been accepted to the Certified Local Government (CLG) program following certification by the National Park Service.

“I am pleased to welcome Anna Maria and Dunedin as Florida’s 76^th and 77^th Certified Local Governments,” said Secretary Laurel M. Lee. “Both communities will now benefit from training and technical support provided by the Division of Historical Resources to enhance local historic preservation efforts.”

Anna Maria and Dunedin join 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, both communities passed a local historic preservation ordinance and assembled a qualified historic preservation commission. The CLG program encourages decision making about historic preservation at the local level with input from citizens and local government.

Anna Maria was initially developed at the turn of the 20^th century by the Anna Maria Beach Company, which laid out streets and sidewalks, installed a water system and constructed houses. The city is home to a number of historic structures including Roser Memorial Church (1913), the Island Playhouse (1912) and many private homes dating from the early twentieth century.

The City of Dunedin was platted in the 1920s, and is home to a number of historic residential neighborhoods featuring a variety of architectural styles, including Craftsman and Mediterranean Revival homes.  Dunedin is also home to four National Register listed properties: Andrews Memorial Chapel (1888), the Willis S. Blatchley House (c. 1915), the J.O. Douglas House (1880), and the Dunedin Isles Golf Club Golf Course (1927), which is on the Florida Historic Golf Trail: floridahistoricgolftrail.com/.

By joining the Certified Local Government program, both the City of Anna Maria and the City of Dunedin will now receive support in the form of training, technical assistance and grant funding to support their local historic preservation efforts.

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, 77 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.