## Facts

- Historic Green Springs, Inc. (HGSI) sought to protect a roughly 14,000-acre rural area in Louisa County, Virginia, containing significant 18th–19th century buildings, farmland, and limited commercial development.
- Virginia Vermiculite, Ltd. (VVL) held mining rights in and near the area and sought to expand vermiculite mining.
- VVL planned to finance expansion through a bank loan backed by a federal loan guarantee from the Farmers Home Administration (FmHA), a U.S. Department of Agriculture agency.
- The area was nominated by a state historic commission and listed in the National Register of Historic Places by the Keeper of the National Register.
- The Secretary of the Interior designated the area a National Historic Landmark and accepted voluntary preservation easements over substantial portions of the area, restricting new industrial and commercial development.
- HGSI sued to prevent or condition the FmHA loan guarantee, asserting federal historic-preservation review duties triggered by the area’s protected status.
- VVL and intervening landowners counterclaimed and sued federal officials, challenging the legality of the National Register listing, the landmark designation, and the federal acceptance and administration of preservation easements.

## Issues

1. Whether the Historic Sites Act of 1935 authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to designate a historic district as a National Historic Landmark and to accept preservation easements affecting private land.
2. Whether the Department of the Interior unlawfully relied on National Historic Preservation Act criteria when making landmark and related preservation determinations under the Historic Sites Act.
3. Whether alleged procedural defects in nomination and agency processing invalidated the National Register listing, the landmark designation, or the easement program.
4. Whether the area’s upheld protected status imposes historic-preservation review obligations on federal agencies considering actions that may affect the property, including an FmHA loan guarantee.

## Decision

- The court upheld the National Register listing, the National Historic Landmark designation, and the Secretary’s acceptance and administration of the preservation easements.
- The court held the Secretary acted within statutory authority under the Historic Sites Act to preserve nationally significant historic resources, including through voluntary easements.
- The court rejected claims that use of criteria associated with the National Historic Preservation Act exceeded authority under the Historic Sites Act, treating the statutes as consistent and reinforcing.
- The court declined to invalidate federal designations based on asserted procedural irregularities, finding no basis to overturn the agency actions under deferential administrative-law review.
- By sustaining the historic designations and easements, the court confirmed their continuing legal effect for other federal decisionmaking affecting the area, including federal assistance that could facilitate mining.

## Legal Principles

- The Historic Sites Act is remedial and broadly framed; absent a clear statutory bar, the Secretary of the Interior may employ flexible preservation tools reasonably related to protecting nationally significant historic resources, including accepting voluntary preservation easements.
- Later historic-preservation legislation may supplement and reinforce earlier preservation authority; using consistent evaluative criteria across preservation programs is permissible where it aligns with statutory preservation objectives.
- Collateral attacks on National Register listings and National Historic Landmark designations generally fail absent a showing that agency action was arbitrary, capricious, contrary to law, or materially defective in a way that undermines the decision.
- When a property is listed in the National Register (or otherwise lawfully recognized for federal preservation purposes), federal agencies undertaking or assisting actions that may affect it must account for effects through applicable historic-preservation review and consultation processes.

## Conclusion

The court sustained federal historic-preservation actions for the Historic Green Springs area, holding that the Historic Sites Act authorized the landmark designation and voluntary easement program and that the National Register and landmark determinations were not invalidated by the asserted procedural challenges, leaving other federal agencies obligated to treat the area as protected in relevant federal decisionmaking.


Historic Green Springs, Inc. v. Bergland, 497 F. Supp. 839 (E.D. Va. 1980)