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LOS ANGELES CONSERVANCY Pre ser vatio n Report Card | 2008

ELEMENTS OF A GOOD PRESERVATION PROGRAM

The Preservation Report Card ranking system stems from historic preser-
vation protections and programs that serve as the basic tools by which
cities can begin to protect their historic resources. Below is a description
of the elements of a good preservation program and their relation to our
ranking system.

HISTORIC PRESERVATION ORDINANCE

A local historic preservation ordinance is one of
the most important tools a city can use to protect
privately owned historic resources. The effective-
ness of a preservation ordinance depends on its
scope and language, and ordinances vary among
jurisdictions. Their basic provisions enable a city
to designate significant local sites as historic and
list them on a local listing of historic resources.
These designated sites are referred to by a vari-
ety of names, such as “historic landmark” or “his-
toric-cultural monument,” depending on the city. A preservation ordinance
outlines the criteria the city has established for designating such land-
marks. These criteria are often based on those used by both the National
and State Registers, which in turn are based on generally accepted
preservation standards. Each city can tailor its designation criteria to re-
flect the specific significance of the community’s unique local resources.

Strong local historic preservation ordinances require that requests for
building permits for designated structures be reviewed by city staff or a
special local commission to ensure that proposed alterations conform to
preservation standards. They also give the city the power to deny per-
mits for inappropriate alterations or demolitions. In order to protect a sig-
nificant structure from demolition or severe alteration by its owner, a
strong preservation ordinance does not require owner consent for a his-
Top: Claremont Packing House (1909-46),
toric resource to be designated. Ordinances that require owner consent,
Claremont Register Resource (Sally Egan).
or that allow the owner to have a designation removed, are far less ef-
Bottom: Higgins Building (1910), Los Angeles Historic-
fective in using landmark designation as a method for protecting threat-
Cultural Monument No. 873 (Conservancy archives).
ened resources. Weaker preservation ordinances do not prevent
Both of these historic resources, a former citrus demolition of a designated resource, but merely delay demolition for a
packing house and a downtown office building,
set number of days. The weakest ordinances contain no language re-
have become models of adaptive reuse.
garding the protection of the designated resource: such designated sites
enjoy only honorary status and no protections at all. Naturally, the
stronger the preservation ordinance of a city, the higher the ranking under
this criterion.

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