Historic preservation refers to maintaining and preserving buildings and artifacts that are at least 50 years old under the National Historic Preservation Act. Preservation allows an ongoing connection with Arizona's historic heritage and provides a legacy of cultural, social, environmental, educational and economic benefits that will enrich future generations. The city's award-winning program continues to provide incentive programs and workshops to promote preservation and rehabilitation of historic resources.
City of Phoenix Historic Preservation Office
This city office preserves, protects and enhances historic neighborhoods, buildings and sites. The city works closely with the citizen's Phoenix Historic Preservation Commission, appointed by the mayor and city council, to identify and designate properties and districts eligible for listing on the Phoenix Historic Property Register. Over 8,000 properties are registered to date, with most of these properties located in the urban core. The city works closely with historic property owners on rehabilitation projects, provides technical advice, and performs design review for new additions and alterations to historic properties. Recent accomplishments include surveys to identify historic properties associated with the city's African American and Hispanic heritage. Several city incentive programs, which provide matching grants are available to preserve and rehabilitate historic resources including:
Exterior rehabilitation assistance to owners of historic homes listed on the Phoenix Historic Property Register. This Valley Forward award-winning program has helped more than 300 individual property owners rehabilitate existing historic homes, and has facilitated the revitalization of several, large inner-city historic neighborhoods.
Demonstration Project Program to help acquire and rehabilitate historic properties used for multi-family, commercial or institutional purposes. This ongoing program has helped find new viable uses for vacant historic buildings downtown, including the Title and Trust Building (Orpheum Lofts) and Phoenix Union High School (University of Arizona Medical School).
Low Income Historic Housing Rehabilitation Program, which provides matching grants to income-qualifying homeowners to help them rehabilitate their homes. The city has committed additional 2006 bond funds to this program, which ensures that this program continues and is expanded. The program specifically funds critical structural stabilization, repair, and rehabilitation of historic exterior features such as roofs, exterior walls and porches. Funding requests can range from $2,000 to $25,000 with the city providing up to 70 percent of the project costs. Workshops are offered to assist property owners with the grant process.- New Warehouse and Threatened Building Initiative (funded with 2006 bond funds) to provide owners of empty, fire-damaged and warehouse buildings with funding to adaptively reuse existing historic buildings.