City of Sedalia Awarded $20K Federal Historic Preservation Grant

The City of Sedalia has been awarded a $20,000 grant from the federal Historic Preservation Fund.

The city will use the grant money to plan and produce design guidelines for use by Sedalia’s Historic Preservation Commission (SHPC). The guidelines will be a reference for property owners and members of the Commission during the Certificate of Appropriateness process. The city will have until the summer of 2025 to complete the grant project.

This is the third Historic Preservation Fund grant that Sedalia has received from the Department of Natural Resources. In 2020, the Department awarded Sedalia $12,000 to conduct an architectural survey of the Victorian Towers neighborhood immediately west of downtown.

In 2022, the city received $50,000 to conduct a wider survey of the West Central Sedalia neighborhood between Broadway and West Main Street.

The survey, conducted by Rhonda Chalfant, Ph.D., is ongoing. Architectural surveys are the first step to creating a National Register Historic District, which will enable property owners to access state and federal tax incentives for the rehabilitation of historic properties.

The Sedalia Code of Ordinances requires property owners who conduct façade improvements or new construction within the city’s historic districts to receive a Certificate of Appropriateness from the SHPC. The Ordinances provides standards and guidelines for the review process including height, the proportions of windows and doors, roof shape, landscaping, signage, architectural details, and minimum maintenance.

Get our free mobile app

The design guidelines produced during the grant project will illustrate the principles outlined in the Ordinance and examples of appropriate work. The public will have opportunities to comment on the design guidelines as they are drawn up.

The funding for the design guidelines project comes from a $2 million grant awarded to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources’ State Historic Preservation Office by the National Park Service. Under the terms of the grant, the Department is required to pass through 10% of the funding as subgrants to Certified Local Governments (CLGs) throughout the state. CLG grants are awarded based on a competitive scoring process and the direct relation of the projects to the identification, evaluation, or protection of historical, architectural or archaeological resources.

Sedalia is providing a 60% match for the project. For more information about Historic Preservation Fund Grants, visit https://mostateparks.com/page/84331/historic-preservation-fund-grants or contact the State Historic Preservation Office at (573) 751-7858.