Neighborhood Conservation Overlay Districts

Preservation NC has put together a great resource about Neighborhood Conservation Overlay Districts. I like to refer to this method of neighborhood preservation as 'historic preservation lite.' NCODs tend to focus on a few defining characteristics of an area like setbacks and form and not the specifics like window types and paint colors.  NCODs are also generally administered by local government staff and not an appointed commission.  The picture below is two houses in Apex's Small Town Character Overlay District that were redeveloped using the Town's overlay standards.

http://www.presnc.org/Preservation-Answers/Neighborhood-Conservation-Overlay-District

Federal Programs that support Brownfield Redevelopment

The 2011 Brownfields Federal Programs Guide is a great resource to connect you with potential funding resources. Many federal grant programs can be used on brownfield sites, even if they do not specifically state so in their guidelines. This guide can lead to creative use of funding to achieve site reuse, and shows the great variety of funding available. Click the link below to take you to a PDF version of the guide.

2011 Brownfields Federal Programs Guide