SUMMARY OF THE HISTORIC PRESERVATION ELEMENT OF THE OAKLAND GENERAL PLAN, Adopted 1994

This is a brief summary of provisions in the Historic Preservation Element that affect Designated Historic Properties, Potential Designated Historic Properties, and properties on the Local Register of Historic Resources. For more detail on programs and regulations, consult the Historic Preservation Element of the Oakland General Plan and the Oakland Zoning Regulations, information available from the Planning Department, branch libraries, or the Zoning Division, (510) 238-3911.

Oakland has a wealth of historic buildings and neighborhoods matched by few other California cities. These artifacts reflect the city's rich multicultural history, from earliest times to the present. They also have materials and workmanship impossible or costly to obtain today. At the same time, they serve us every day as our homes, workplaces, and community centers. How can we protect what is valuable from our past, while moving forward with today's needs?

In 1994 the City of Oakland adopted a Historic Preservation Element as part of its General Plan. (An "element" is a part of the plan that addresses a specific topic like housing, transportation, or open space). The Element is based on two broad "Goals": to "use historic preservation to foster economic vitality and quality of life" and to "prevent unnecessary destruction of properties of special historical, cultural, and aesthetic value." The Element spells out these goals through policies and actions that govern how the City will treat "Designated Historic Properties" (DHPs: landmarks, districts, and Heritage Properties) and "Potential Designated Historic Properties" (PDHPs).

The City has adopted these policies because it believes historic preservation offers many important benefits:

• Urban revitalization


• Employment opportunities


• Cost-effective affordable housing


• Economic development opportunities


• Community identity and image


• Educational, cultural, and artistic values.

Like most cities, Oakland has a program for designating Landmarks and Preservation Districts. These are the most prominent historic properties in the city. They are nominated by their owners, the City, or the public and are designated after public hearings by the Landmarks Board, Planning Commission, and City Council. These are called "Designated Historic Properties." Since the program began in 1973, about 140 individual landmarks and 96 small districts have been designated, out of close to 100,000 buildings in the city. There are also about 40 individual buildings and the Downtown district on the National Register of Historic Places, and a small group of State and National Historic Landmarks. These major landmarks have various legal protections against demolition or changes that would impair their significance.

But Oakland is "a city of neighborhoods." If preservation is to promote "economic vitality and quality of life" throughout the city, more than a few scattered superstar buildings must be protected and enhanced. To discover the full range of Oakland's resources, and to recognize a wide range of historic value, the Preservation Element has adopted a citywide historic resources survey, a graduated rating system, and a new category called "Potential Designated Historic Property" or "PDHP."

A reconnaissance or "windshield survey" of the entire city was completed in 1997. Field surveyors from the City Planning Department drove every street and rated every visible building with a preliminary estimate of its age and its possible historical or architectural interest. In addition, many buildings and neighborhoods have been researched and evaluated in more detail ("intensive survey") by the Planning Department's Cultural Heritage Survey project. All this information is available to the public as well as to city staff.

The surveys use a rating system that is adopted in the Element as a shorthand for the relative importance of properties. The system uses letters A to E to rate individual properties and numbers 1 to 3 for district status. Individual properties can have dual ("existing" and "contingency") ratings if they have been remodeled, and if they are in districts they can be contributors, noncontributors, or potential contributors. In general, A and B ratings indicate landmark-quality buildings. The rating system is summarized, with some examples, below.

A: Highest Importance: Outstanding architectural example or extreme historical importance (about 150 properties total). Examples: City Hall, Camron-Stanford House, 16th Street Station, Floral Depot.

B: Major Importance: Especially fine architectural example, major historical importance (about 600 total). Examples: Plaza Building, California Cotton Mills, Fruitvale Hotel, Herbert Hoover House.

C: Secondary Importance: Superior or visually important example, or very early (pre-1906). Cs "warrant limited recognition (about 10,000 total).

D: Minor Importance: Representative example. About 10,000 Ds are PDHPs, either because they have a higher contingency rating ("Dc") or because they are in districts ("D2+").

E: Of no particular interest, * or F: Less than 45 years old or modernized. Some Es, Fs, and *s are also PDHPS because they have higher contingency ratings or are in districts.

Contingency Ratings (lower-case letter, as in "Dc" or "Fb"): potential rating under some condition, such as "if restored" or "when older" or "with more information."

District Status (numbers):

"1": In an Area of Primary Importance (API) or National Register quality district. Examples: Old Oakland, Downtown, Oakland Point (Prescott)

"2": In an Area of Secondary Importance (ASI) or district of local interest. Examples: 23rd Avenue Commercial, Clawson Neighborhood, Bella Vista, Jingletown, Carrington Airplane Bungalows

"3": Not in a historic district.

For properties in districts, + indicates contributors, noncontributors, * potential contributors.

The City considers any property that has at least a contingency rating of C ("secondary importance") or contributes or potentially contributes to a primary or secondary district to "warrant consideration for possible preservation." If they are not already designated, all properties meeting these minimum significance thresholds are called Potential Designated Historic Properties (PDHPs).

PDHPs are a large group: a fifth of the buildings in Oakland. They are meant to be "numerous enough to significantly influence the city's character." Properties with contingency ratings are classified as PDHPs to highlight their value as restoration opportunities. District contributors and potential contributors are classified as PDHPs to promote preservation of Oakland's distinctive districts and neighborhoods.

"PDHP" is not a designation. It is a category based on Survey ratings, and the ratings simply report what the Survey has found throughout Oakland. The ratings help decide which properties may warrant some sort of preservation effort by the City. A PDHP rated B, "major importance," even if it is not a designated landmark, will probably be more difficult to alter or demolish, and will receive higher priority for assistance, than one rated D, "minor importance."

In mid-1998, following changes in State law, the Preservation Element was amended to create a category called the Local Register of Historic Resources. This includes Designated Historic Properties (City landmarks and districts, as well as properties designated under State and Federal programs) plus the most important PDHPs: those that have existing ratings of A or B or are in Areas of Primary Importance. Under certain circumstances, demolition or incompatible alteration of these properties cannot be carried out unless an Environmental Impact Report demonstrates that there are no feasible preservation alternatives and identifies mitigations to make up for loss of a historic resource.

For properties with official City designations - landmarks, preservation districts, Heritage Properties - the Element lays out a series of interrelated incentives and regulations. (Not all of these are in effect yet.) The most incentives and the strongest regulations are reserved for the most important properties.

Incentives for DHPs include:

Regulations on DHPs include:

Policies to protect PDHPs are set out in the Element chapter on "Historic Preservation and Ongoing City Activities" and enacted in the Zoning Regulations. Those most likely to affect the owner of a PDHP are:

Demolition or significant changes to the exterior of a PDHP are subject to review and postponement.

In addition, the Element states that:

- Certain PDHPs receiving City assistance must be nominated for DHP status (Policy 3.3).

To qualify for incentives, PDHPs must become DHPs (Designated Historic Properties). Though many PDHPs would not have qualified for Landmark or Preservation District status in the past, the new categories Heritage Property and Class 2 Preservation District will make designation available to a much wider group of properties.