## Facts

- WATCH, a local preservation organization, challenged demolition planned under Waterbury, Connecticut’s Central Business District Renewal Project.
- In 1973, the Waterbury Urban Renewal Agency (WURA) and HUD entered into an urban-renewal contract providing federal funding and oversight in phases requiring continuing HUD approvals.
- During the project, a structure within the project area (a carriage house) was determined eligible for the National Register of Historic Places in February 1978.
- After receiving notice of eligibility, HUD did not evaluate the project’s effects on the carriage house or apply historic-preservation review procedures.
- WATCH sought to halt demolition, alleging noncompliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), and related HUD and Advisory Council on Historic Preservation regulations.

## Issues

1. Whether NHPA applies to an ongoing, federally funded and federally approved urban-renewal project where the federal-local contract predates, but affected properties later become eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.
2. Whether demolition must be stopped until HUD and WURA identify and evaluate potentially historic properties and complete required NHPA review procedures.

## Decision

- The Second Circuit held that NHPA and its implementing regulations applied because the project involved continuing federal participation through phased funding and approvals.
- The court rejected the view that execution of the initial federal-local contract cut off NHPA obligations for later-identified or later-eligible historic properties.
- The court upheld injunctive relief halting demolition until HUD and WURA determined eligibility of affected buildings for National Register inclusion and complied with applicable historic-preservation procedures.

## Legal Principles

- NHPA duties apply to federal “undertakings” with continuing federal involvement, including projects implemented through staged funding and ongoing agency approvals.
- NHPA protections are triggered by properties eligible for the National Register, not solely by properties formally listed.
- Agencies must identify and evaluate historic resources and consider effects (and required consultation opportunities) before proceeding with actions that may cause irreversible harm, such as demolition.
- Courts may enjoin demolition to preserve the status quo when agencies have not completed mandatory historic-preservation procedures.

## Conclusion

The Second Circuit treated the Waterbury urban-renewal project as a continuing federal undertaking and required NHPA compliance for properties later found eligible for the National Register, approving an injunction stopping demolition until eligibility determinations and prescribed preservation review steps were completed.


WATCH v. Harris, 603 F.2d 310 (2d Cir. 1979)