About the Preservation Development Standards
How Will These Preservation and Development Standards Be Used?
These preservation and development standards have been developed to provide property owners and any design or construction professionals assisting in local projects with information that should be used in planning an approach to the treatment of historic properties or in the design of alterations or new construction involving historic Landmarks or properties within Historic Districts. Property owners should review the standards when planning an improvement project in order to ensure that the work contemplated will help preserve the historic fabric and character of the property and, if applicable, the historic district.
Why Have Preservation Development Project Standards?
Preservation Development Project Standards help establish a common understanding of historic preservation and design principles and standards. Maintaining a high quality of life and retaining the charm and character of the city are important goals identified by the City and its residents. Therefore, these standards and the preservation development project application review and approval process through which they are administered promote preservation of the significant historic, cultural and architectural resources that reflect the history of Sacramento. These resources are fragile and finite, and are vulnerable to inappropriate alteration and demolition.
Historic districts, similar to historic structures, also are established to protect a district's character or certain features that have been identified as important to that district’s sense of place or history. New construction within historic districts can enhance or compromise that character. Recognizing this, the City of Sacramento has established these preservation development project standards to identify the most appropriate means to protect historic properties and districts, and to provide as clear direction as possible to the applicant and provide the basis for how the preservation development project application review and approval decisions will be made.
Where And To What Properties These Standards Apply
Preservation standards seek to preserve significant historic fabric, in addition to ensuring that new construction is of a design that is appropriate to preserving the historic property's or district's character-defining features. Should either the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties or these Standards be silent on a particular issue or proposal, then the underlying "Design Review District" Guidelines, if any, will apply though always within the general preservation principles as described herein. This Preservation Development Project Standards document will supercede the Listed Structures Plan and the Preservation Area Plan documents for residential and neighborhood commercial properties.
Within areas where Design Review District Guidelines currently exist, such as the Central City Neighborhood Design Guidelines in the Central City, these Preservation Development Project Standards generally supercede those Guidelines for properties within historic districts or historic properties outside historic districts.
This document does NOT apply to the Central Business District, Downtown Railyards, Richards Boulevard Special Planning District, R Street Historic District, or other industrial Landmark properties.
For historic resources in the City of Sacramento, the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties are specified in the City Code as the standards to be used for rehabilitation and development projects involving Landmark and Historic District properties. This Preservation Development Project Standards document details the application of the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards in the City of Sacramento.
What Types Of Projects Should Use These Standards
This document includes the City of Sacramento’s adopted Residential and Neighborhood Commercial standards for rehabilitation, alterations, adaptive reuse, additions, new construction, new design, development and infill projects that will apply to designated City Landmark properties and properties within Sacramento’s designated Historic Districts. These Standards are based upon the Secretary of the Interior's Rehabilitation Standards. They will be used in conjunction with other Sacramento City Codes, such as the Zoning Code and Building Code, and other laws and regulations pertaining to development projects, such as the California Environmental Quality Act and the California Historical Building Code, among others.
To implement the preservation policies adopted in the Historic Preservation Element of the City of Sacramento’s General Plan, the Historic Preservation Chapter of the City Code addresses procedures and standards to be used in the review of remodeling, rehabilitation, additions, new infill construction, repairs, demolitions or other proposed development projects involving City-designated Landmark properties and properties located within City designated Historic Districts.
While ordinary repair and maintenance are encouraged, seemingly minor alterations to a historic property, like changing windows or enclosing a porch, can have a dramatic effect on the visual character of a historic property and therefore are subject to preservation project review. The following is a list of common changes that can have a significant impact on a historic property:
- Alteration or removal of exterior features of a historic property
- Addition to a structure
- Raising the elevation of a structure
- Removal or demolition, in whole or in part, of a historic property
- Applying a new exterior siding material
- Adding new windows, doors or dormers
- Replacing windows, doors or dormers
- Creating a driveway or a parking area
- Building a deck, fence or garage
- Enclosing a porch
This list is not all inclusive but is indicative of the types of changes to which these standards apply. For questions regarding permits and the applicability of these standards, please contact the Help Line at 916-8085656 or email planning@cityofsacramento.org.
While the design standards are written for use by the layperson, property owners are strongly encouraged to enlist the assistance of qualified design, construction and planning professionals, including architects and preservation consultants.
Applicability & Cost
These preservation development project standards convey general policies about the appropriateness of, and the appropriate design and materials to be used for proposed alterations to existing structures, additions, infill, new construction and site work. While in some cases these standards dictate specific solutions, in others they define a range of appropriate responses to a variety of specific design issues.
How Many Standards Should Be Met?
Each proposed project will be considered on a case by case basis to determine compliance with relevant standards. In each case, a unique combination of preservation and design variables may be involved and, as a result, the applicability of each standard may vary. These variables generally include analysis of the property's or district's character-defining historic features and the proposed project's compatibility with, or impacts upon, those features. If a proposed project is not compatible or adversely impacts those features, there may be design alternatives for the project that would bring it into compliance with these standards.
Rehabilitating a historic property can cost less than constructing a new one. In fact, the preservation development project standards presented in this document promote cost-saving measures, in that they often encourage simpler solutions, or retain existing materials, which in themselves provide savings.
Historic rehabilitation does not automatically translate into higher construction or maintenance costs. Ultimately, preserving historic resources is a long-range community policy that promotes economic well-being and overall viability of the City at large.
Organization of the Document
The document is organized into an introduction, a chapter on the City of Sacramento's preservation development project review procedures, a chapter on the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties and a chapter explaining the guiding principles, five chapters of general preservation development project standards and a chapter of specific preservation development project standards for four historic districts. These four districts are serving as pilot districts in the development of additional preservation development project standards which are more specific to each of those districts.
Structure of Preservation and Development Standards
Each design standard in this document includes several components that constitute the material upon which preservation and development project review decisions will be made.
Design Elements
The standards are grouped into pertinent design element categories (e.g., site planning, building materials, secondary structures).
Background Information
Following the policy statement is a brief discussion of the issues typically associated with the specific design element. This may include technical information as well as other relevant preservation practices.
Preservation and Development Standards
Specific design standards are numbered in order to reference them during the preservation and development project application review process. The numbering system does not reflect a prioritization of the standards.
Additional Information
The design standard statement is followed by supplementary information that may include additional requirements, or may provide an expanded explanation. The supplementary information is listed as bullet (•) statements.
Illustrations
Preservation and development standards are further explained with photographs and illustrations.