Through their work with the National Center for Smart Growth at the University of Maryland (UMD), the Montgomery County Department of Planning commissioned this report from the university’s Partnership for Action Learning in Sustainability (PALS). The client wished to understand the historical context of the Master Plan area and how heritage values would change over the future and be influenced by climate change. Broadly defined, the field of historic preservation is concerned with the identification, protection, and conservation of culturally and historically significant structures and sites. Preservation policy, then, is concerned with the laws, regulations, and rules which encompass and guide the field of historic preservation and preservation practitioners.