What makes a property ‘historic?’ The answer is anything but straightforward

As developers and homeowners take advantage of new state laws aimed at producing more housing in the Bay Area, some communities are applying for historic status in a last-resort bid to prevent redevelopment. It’s not just high-profile mansions built in the 1800s that are earning the label. It turns out, even a parking lot can be deemed historic — if your city’s local historic preservation committee is amenable to it.

Those looking to apply for historic preservation may do so at either the federal, state or city level.

National designation

To qualify for the National Register of Historic Places, one of the following four criteria must be met:

-Associated with events making a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history

-Associated with the life of a significant person

-Embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, period or method of construction, or represents the work of a master architect, or possesses high artistic values

-Has yielded, or may be likely to yield, information important in history or prehistory

Those broad categories have produced a wide variety of results. Here are examples of sites that applied for historic status in the wake of a redevelopment threat:

Baywood Neighborhood Historic District, San Mateo

PENDING

After the city approved a homeowner’s plans to demolish his 1933 Spanish Revival home and replace it with a larger home and an attached in-law unit, some residents of the tony Baywood area of San Mateo were upset that the new state housing streamlining laws bypassed the usual public comment period. Worried that their neighborhood’s character could be further eroded, neighbors formed the San Mateo Heritage Alliance and applied to the state for historic designation this fall. They argue that the Spanish Revival architecture and its “association with the national trend of streetcar and automobile suburbs” qualifies it for designation. The application is pending.

Carthay Neighborhood Historic District, Los Angeles

LISTED

Spurred by the new state housing laws, three neighborhood associations came together to designate their area as a historic district. The neighborhood was deemed historic because it is emblematic of city planning principles in Los Angeles in the 1930s, and for its collection of Period Revival architecture. Of the 1,171 homes surveyed in the eligibility study, 1,014 were deemed to contribute to the historic district.

Pomeroy Green, Santa Clara

LISTED

After the Santa Clara City Council approved four new single-family homes nearby, concerned residents applied to list architect Joseph Eichler’s Pomeroy Green, a 78-townhouse owner-occupied complex built in 1961, to the National Register of Historic Places. It earned designation as a historic district because of its “pioneering use of cluster development” and because it “embodies the distinctive characteristics of modern building design.”

U.S. Maritime Service Officer Training School, Alameda 

NOT LISTED

The Alameda Architectural Preservation Society applied to place the property on the historic register in an effort to prevent the city from building housing for formerly homeless Alameda County elderly residents.

While the application was under review, structures on the property were demolished. By then, staff from the State Office of Historic Preservation found that not enough of the original historic structures remained on the property for it to qualify as “historic.”

Cities’ local historic landmarks

Cities also have the power to create their own historic preservation ordinances, which allow them to create custom standards for what can be designated as historic, and how those historic districts or sites should be regulated.

Berkeley’s Landmarks Preservation Commission, for example, declared a parking lot historic because it might contain Native American artifacts beneath its surface, which stalled a developer’s plans to build an apartment on the site.

And in 1990, when Temple Beth El proposed building a synagogue on the site of a former historic house that had burned down, the commission reaffirmed the parcel’s landmark status, delaying development of the synagogue.

More recently, in San Francisco, possible historic designation of an empty 1970s movie theatre may determine whether a proposed 2,900-unit housing development can move forward.