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New feedback map allows participants to identify historically and culturally important places to Asian American and Pacific Islander communities in Montgomery County
Wheaton, MD – The Montgomery County Planning Department, part of The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC), announced its Historic Preservation Office has released an interactive feedback map to collect public input on sites with historical and cultural significance to Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities in the county. The map provides an opportunity for residents to identify places of personal and community importance, such as homes, restaurants, stores, places of worship, and neighborhoods in Montgomery County. In addition to English, the map is accessible in Vietnamese, Korean, and Chinese. Alternatively, community members can use an online survey to provide this information, also available in multiple languages.
The map signifies the official launch of Montgomery Planning’s AAPI Heritage Project. The information collected will support an ongoing historic context study of sites and themes related to AAPI history in Montgomery County and may be used for future historic property designations. This is significant as Asian American heritage is currently underrepresented in the Master Plan for Historic Preservation, the county’s inventory of designated historic sites.
“The AAPI Heritage Project is part of the Historic Preservation Office’s effort to support Montgomery Planning’s Equity Agenda for Planning,” said Rebeccah Ballo, Historic Preservation Supervisor. “We recognize the long-standing presence and many contributions of AAPI individuals and communities in county history, and we look forward to partnering with the community to document them with this important survey.”
“As the son of Indian immigrants, I am very excited about this concerted effort by Montgomery Planning and the State of Maryland to recognize and celebrate the Asian American experience,” said M-NCPPC Commissioner Partap Verma, a member of the Montgomery County Council’s Racial Equity and Social Justice Committee. “History is often lost even within a generation and for us to allocate resources for this important endeavor is quite special. It is our hope that such collaborations will lead to more historical resources with the recognition that capturing history is just as critical as other facets of planning.”
The Historic Preservation Office is conducting this research with the support of a non-capital grant awarded by the Maryland Historical Trust, part of the Maryland Department of Planning. The grant will allow the Historic Preservation Office to hire a consultant to lead a research effort that will include oral histories, archival research, and a field survey. Public comments collected at this stage will serve as initial feedback to help guide the consultant in this project.
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