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Syracuse Landmark Preservation Board

Meetings

The Syracuse Landmark Preservation Board (SLPB) meets the first and third Thursday of every month in City Hall Room 215 (iLab). The meetings begin at 8:30AM and are open to the public. To review agendas and meeting materials for upcoming and past meetings, go to:

SLPB Meeting Schedule and Materials

Overview

The Syracuse Landmark Preservation Board (SLPB) is a 9-member board that is appointed by the mayor. Board members serve 3-year, unpaid terms and have backgrounds in architecture, landscape architecture, real estate, historic preservation, and/or are owners or historic property themselves. Individuals who are are interested in serving on the SLPB are encouraged to contact the City Planning office at 315-448-8108 or SLPB@syrgov.net

The purpose of the City's preservation ordinance is to recognize and ensure the protection of Syracuse's built heritage, including buildings, landscapes, sites and districts. The SLPB identifies and recommends to Common Council the designation of significant historic and cultural resources as Protected Sites and Preservation Districts.

In order to ensure the protection of individually designated sites and districts, the preservation ordinance requires that any exterior alterations to designated sites or properties within preservation districts must be reviewed by the SLPB through the Certificate of Appropriateness process. The goal of the Certificate of Appropriateness review is to avoid or minimize any negative impact to the historic character of the property or district.

Self Service

Apply for Certificate of Appropriateness

Instructions for applying for a Certificate of Appropriateness

Nominate a Property for Local Designation

Instructions for nominating a property or group of properties for Protected Site or Preservation District designation.

Additional Information and Technical Assistance

City of Syracuse Preservation Ordinance

City of Syracuse Preservation Ordinance (Part C, Section VII City Zoning Ordinance)(PDF, 65KB)

Design Standards and Guidelines

The Secretary of the Interior's Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties -- specifically, the Standards for Rehabilitation-- guide the Landmark Preservation Board's decision making.

The Standards for Rehabilitation are listed below. You can also find additional information about the Standards for Rehabilitation in the National Park Service's Illustrated Guidelines for the Treatment of Historic Properties.

A property will be used as it was historically or be given a new use that requires minimal change to its distinctive materials, features, spaces and spatial relationships.
The historic character of a property will be retained and preserved. The removal of distinctive materials or alteration of features, spaces and spatial relationships that characterize a property will be avoided.
Each property will be recognized as a physical record of its time, place and use. Changes that create a false sense of historical development, such as adding conjectural features or elements from other historic properties, will not be undertaken.
Changes to a property that have acquired historic significance in their own right will be retained and preserved.
Distinctive materials, features, finishes, and construction techniques or examples of craftsmanship that characterize a property will be preserved.
Deteriorated historic features will be repaired rather than replaced. Where the severity of deterioration requires replacement of a distinctive feature, the new feature will match the old in design, color, texture and, where possible, materials. Replacement of missing features will be substantiated by documentary and physical evidence.
Chemical or physical treatments, if appropriate, will be undertaken using the gentlest means possible. Treatments that cause damage to historic materials will not be used.
Archeological resources will be protected and preserved in place. If such resources must be disturbed, mitigation measures will be undertaken.
New additions, exterior alterations, or related new construction will not destroy historic materials, features, and spatial relationships that characterize the property. The new work will be differentiated from the old and will be compatible with the historic materials, features, size, scale and proportion, and massing to protect the integrity of the property and its environment
New additions and adjacent or related new construction will be undertaken in such a manner that, if removed in the future, the essential form and integrity of the historic property and its environment would be unimpaired.

In addition to the Secretary of the Interior's Standards, the SLPB adopted design guidelines specific to the Sedgwick-Highland-James Preservation District(PDF, 2MB) and the Berkeley Park Preservation District(PDF, 4MB). The guidelines are intended to assist property owners planning improvements to their historic properties and to guide the Landmark Preservation Board when reviewing Certificate of Appropriateness applications.