HomeMy WebLinkAboutA002 - Legal opinion - Historic Preservation is Zoning Judy K Parks/COA To Ray D Anderson/COA@COA
07/22/2009 02:19 PM cc Steve Osguthorpe/COA@COA, Diane R Voss/COA@COA
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Subject Amendment to Historic Preservation ordinance
Hi Ray,
Thanks for providing some background information to me about this proposed ordinance amendment
which I had noticed is to be presented as a staff report at the next city council meeting. When you had
mentioned to me, you had a question about whether this proposed ordinance amendment would be a
zoning amendment, which is important because there are some additional procedural steps, such as
review by P and Z, before any zoning ordinance amendment can come into effect.
I did a quick check in a zoning treatise that we use frequently. According to Rathkopf's "Law of Zoning and
Planning", it is pretty clear that Historic Preservation is considered zoning, and thus an ordinance
regulating it would be a zoning ordinance. At Section 19.1 of that text, the very first sentence
states,"Historic Preservation law has continued to be one of the most active and expansive areas of
zoning and planning".
It is clear to me from that sentence alone that Historic Preservation regulation is considered zoning.
Judy Parks, Asst City Attorney
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