(A) Purpose. The Cultural Resources Chapter of the General Plan includes a number of goals and targets intended to identify, conserve, and protect the historic character of the city’s neighborhoods. Allowing for the identification and adoption of conservation overlay zones forwards General Plan goals and targets.
(B) Intent. This section establishes the criteria and process for identifying and adopting conservation overlay zones.
(C) Definition. CONSERVATION OVERLAY ZONES are cohesive groupings of related properties that convey an era or type of construction in the city’s history but do not qualify for designation as historic districts. This subchapter provides for the identification and management of such CONSERVATION OVERLAY ZONES. Alterations to properties and features found to be contributing elements of CONSERVATION OVERLAY ZONES shall be subject to design guidelines and standards as adopted by the Commission. For purposes of CEQA, CONSERVATION OVERLAY ZONES are not historical resources.
(D) Procedures. As verified by a qualified architectural historian or historian through a historic resource survey or evaluation, the Commission may recommend that the City Council approve the creation of a conservation overlay zone if the proposed zone meets one of the following criteria:
(1) It represents a grouping of properties and features with a cohesive and identifiable setting, architectural style, scale, or character, and/or development history or association that makes it an integral part of the city’s identity; or
(2) It represents a recognized neighborhood identity with a definable physical character whose retention would contribute to the historic character and setting of the city.
(E) Design guidelines. The adoption of a conservation overlay zone shall be accompanied, within a timely manner, by the adoption of design guidelines to guide new construction/in-fill, major alterations, and additions within the boundaries of the conservation overlay zone. The design guidelines shall reference the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards, particularly with reference to the mass and scale of new construction/infill, major alterations, and additions, interpreted with the flexibility appropriate to a conservation overlay zone.
(Ord. 636-C.S., passed 8-15-17)