2025 Northeast Texas Regional Preservation Summit

Preservation in a Suburban Age: Planning for Change and Maintaining Identity in Texas

Save the Date: Thursday, September 11th in Collin County

In recent years, major cities in Texas have seen rapid, often unchecked growth. As suburbs and infrastructure extend farther into the countryside, historically rural communities are losing both population and identity—cultural landscapes, farmsteads, cemeteries, and vernacular commercial and institutional buildings are being erased and replaced by generic development. This growth is expected to continue for years to come, with significant impacts on rural places.

This one-day gathering in Collin County (TBD) will address the accelerating transformation of Texas’s rural landscapes. Together, we’ll explore how historic rural resources can be meaningfully and sustainably integrated into modern development—highlighting real-world strategies, policies, and partnerships where communities have successfully created opportunities and mitigated negative impacts. Bringing together preservation professionals, planners, developers, local officials, historians, and community advocates, the summit offers a valuable opportunity to share ideas, challenge assumptions, and shape a forward-looking vision for preserving rural identity amid suburban growth.

Designed for both practitioners and advocates, the event will feature expert presentations, regional case studies, and interactive discussions. Attendees will leave with ideas and inspiration for leveraging historic and cultural resources—especially rural and small-town assets—as essential elements of community identity, resilience, and economic development.

CALL FOR PRESENTATIONS

Preservation Texas invites proposals for sessions, panels, and case studies that address the urgent challenges and innovative strategies involved in preserving Texas’s rural heritage amid accelerating suburban development. We welcome submissions from preservation professionals, planners, historians, developers, community advocates, archaeologists, policy experts, and others helping to shape the future of place in our state.

We welcome proposals that address one or more of the following themes:

Vanishing Landscapes: Tracing the Rural Footprint in Urbanizing Texas
Exploring the long-term historical impact of urbanization and population decline on rural communities and their historic resources, as well as emerging trends shaping their future.

  • The history of the growth of Texas cities and their impact on nearby rural communities throughout the 20th and 21st centuries.

  • Loss or marginalization of churches, schools, and town centers of rural communities once they’re absorbed into the metroplex.

  • Trends for future urban development and projections about their impact on outlying rural areas.

Strategies That Work: Integrating Historic Resources into Modern Developments
What makes rural preservation viable within a suburban context?

  • What saved historic resources threatened by development from destruction? Case study presentations from the Dallas area are encouraged, but other cities in Texas can provide valuable lessons as well.

  • Adaptive reuse as a development strategy: from farmstead to community amenity.

  • Leveraging the past: how history can become a selling point in real estate development. Exploring how historic resources are used as amenities in new neighborhoods and how the names of people and places are incorporated into street and subdivision names to add character and market appeal.

Tools That Matter: Policy and Preservation Planning in Rural-Suburban Contexts
Using federal, state, and local regulatory and planning mechanisms to protect historic rural places.

  • How Section 106 can be used to advocate for rural historic resources and mitigate adverse impacts from development.

  • Preservation-minded local zoning and land use regulations in growing areas, including protection for archaeological resources.

  • State-level protections: state antiquities code, landmark designations, and similar strategies.

Cemeteries on the Edge: Preservation, Legislation, and Reinterpretation
Protecting cemeteries  and reframing their role in changing communities.

  • Reimagining cemeteries as living memorials and public spaces.

  • Legislative battles and advocacy for neglected burial grounds.

  • Strategies for identifying, restoring, protecting, interpreting, and stewarding cemeteries in development zones.

Making the Case: Economic and Community Value of Rural Heritage
Why preservation isn’t just sentimental — it’s smart planning.

  • Preservation as economic development: rural tourism, pride of place, and placemaking.

  • How to make tax credits, grants, and incentive programs work for rural projects.

  • Activating rural historic assets for modern community needs.

  • Preservation as community pride and a way to connect residents new and old alike.

Building Buy-In: Engaging Developers, Planners, and Communities
How collaboration turns conflict into shared value.

  • Developers who chose preservation: why, how, and what made it work?

  • Creating community coalitions to protect and reuse historic places.

  • Practical strategies (such as retaining road names, site names, and native landscapes) to keep historical identity embedded in new development.

  • How to be constructive in a destructive situation.

To submit a presentation proposal, please fill out the form below by Friday, July 18th.