Download 2008 Preservation Report Card

As part of our efforts to promote and track preservation programs throughout Los Angeles County, the Conservancy issues a Countywide Preservation Report Card that "grades" the preservation policies of the county's eighty-nine jurisdictions (eighty-eight cities plus the unincorporated county government).

Why a Report Card?

L.A. County has an extremely rich and diverse architectural heritage that is surprisingly vulnerable, with cultural resources facing ongoing threats of demolition and insensitive alterations. The most effective protections for historic properties often lie in the hands of local government.

Spanning over 4,000 square miles, Los Angeles County has eighty-eight cities plus the county government, each of which operates independently and has its own protections—or lack thereof—for its historic resources.

For its twenty-fifth anniversary in 2003, the Conservancy released the first-ever countywide Preservation Report Card assessing how far local governments had come in protecting and revitalizing historic resources. The Conservancy updated the report card in 2008 and plans to update it again in 2013.

Methodology

Over several months, Conservancy staff interview representatives from each of the county’s eighty-nine local governments.

We speak with city representatives directly involved with the specific community’s planning review process, as well as staff members responsible for overseeing historic preservation programs in cities that have them. We also review existing preservation ordinances and historic resources surveys.

Based on this research, the Conservancy uses very specific criteria to "grade" each jurisdiction on the policies it has in place to protect privately owned historic resources.

Criteria include whether the city has ordinances to designate historic landmarks and/or districts, how many of the city’s resources have been designated as historic, whether the city participates in preservation-related programs such as the Mills Act Historic Property Contracts Program and the Certified Local Government Program, and whether the city has surveyed its historic resources.

The Conservancy offers technical assistance to local governments who wish to strengthen their preservation policies. For more information, please contact us at info@laconservancy.org or (213) 623-2489.

Download 2008 Preservation Report Card
Download 2003 Preservation Report Card