GLOSSARY OF TERMS

Certificate of Appropriateness (CoA)
The written approval of a permit application for work, in a local historic district, that is appropriate and that does not adversely affect the resource. 
 
Certified Rehabilitation
Rehabilitation of a certified historic resource that the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) has affirmed as being consistent with the historic character of the resource, and, where applicable, with the district in which the resource is located. The rehabilitation must conform to the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation. 

Commission
The Historic District Commission created by the legislative body of a local unit pursuant to section 4 of Public Act 169 of 1970 as amended. 

Historic District
An area, or a group of areas not necessarily having contiguous boundaries, that contains one resource or a group of resources that are related by history, architecture, archaeology, culture or engineering. A local historic district is an area established by a local ordinance which regulates the construction, alteration, and demolition of resources in the district. 

Historic Resource
A publicly or privately owned building, structure, site, object, feature, or open space that is significant in history, architecture, archaeology, engineering or culture. 

Historic Preservation
The identification, evaluation, establishment, and protection of resources significant in history, architecture, archaeology, engineering or culture. 

National Register of Historic Places
The nation's list of cultural resources worthy of preservation. 

Notice to Proceed
The written permission to issue a permit application for work, within a local historic district, that is inappropriate and that adversely affects a resource, pursuant to a finding under section 5(6) Public Act 169 of 1970 as amended. 

Ordinary Maintenance
Keeping a resource unimpaired and in good condition through ongoing minor intervention, undertaken from time to time, in its exterior condition. Ordinary maintenance does not change the external appearance of the resource except through the elimination of the usual and expected effects of weathering.  

Repair
To restore a decayed or damaged resource to a good or sound condition by any process. A repair that changes the external appearance of a resource constitutes "work" for the purposes resources within locally designate historic districts, and therefor is reviewed by the Historic District Commission for a certificate of appropriateness. 

Resource
One or more publicly or privately owned historic or nonhistoric buildings, structures, sites, objects, features, or open spaces located within a historic district. 

Secretary of the Interior's Standards
Ten broadly worded standards or principles that guide the rehabilitation of historic resources. The underlying concern expressed in the standards is the preservation of significant historic materials and features of a resource in the process of rehabilitation, applied in a reasonable manner, taking into consideration economic and technical feasibility. 
 
State Register of Historic Sites
A program designed to assist the citizens of Michigan in the identification and recognition of historic resources through Michigan Historical Markers. 
 
Work
Construction, addition, alteration, repair, moving, excavation, or demolition