3.6. Develop a plan for the management of cultural, historic and archaeological resources that will address how the County will achieve the preservation, protection, conservation and interpretation of such resources on County-owned or managed land.

Arlington has preserved several important historic resources within its public spaces, including historic buildings and Civil War forts.  These historic resources such as Fort Ethan Allen, Matthew F. Maury School, Carlin Community Hall and others are found in public spaces throughout the County. An element of the Comprehensive Plan, the Historic Preservation Master Plan, adopted in 2006, establishes priorities for the historic built environment and general County history. However, the Historic Preservation Master Plan does not specifically lay out a coordinated, inter-departmental approach to preserving, protecting, conserving and interpreting these valuable County-owned and -managed resources. For this reason, this management plan would provide an operational context and focus on the following objectives: 

• Complete an inventory of all County-owned historic buildings, sites, structures, objects, landscapes, and archaeological resources.  
• Develop short-term and long-term goals and strategies for the appropriate preservation, rehabilitation, restoration, or reconstruction of historic buildings, sites, structures, objects, landscapes and/or archaeological resources within public spaces. 
• Identify critical historic and/or cultural resources in public spaces that have potential educational and interpretive components. 
• Consider how to enhance the visitor experience and accessibility to these resources. 
• Develop potential solutions for addressing deferred maintenance of historic and cultural resources and how to maintain them in the future. 
• Seek out new local and regional partnerships and agreements with groups that support history, education, and cultural resources. 
• Expand existing interpretive programming of County-owned historic resources to engage residents and visitors with Arlington’s heritage. Interdepartmental opportunities and/or local and regional partnerships should be explored to further this goal.

3.6.1. Use objective criteria to evaluate whether potential historic resources will be added to the public space system. (See Appendix II for land acquisition criteria.)