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Virginia's Historic District Enabling Legislation: Preservation At The Local Level, Virginia Epes Mcconnell

University of Richmond Law Review

On April 10, 1987, Governor Gerald L. Baliles established the Governor's Commission to Study Historic Preservation (the Commission). The Governor created the Commission in order to ensure that "Virginia is back in the forefront of our nation's historic preservation efforts," and charged the Commission to examine preservation issues in Virginia and to make recommendations for improving the Commonwealth's preservation program. Governor Baliles addressed the Commission in July of 1987, emphasizing that preservation is not mere reverence for the past. Preservation is, rather, a tool to manage change, to enliven our future, and is "necessary if we are to hand over …