Goal 8 Historic Districts and Resources

Goal LU-8: Preserve Hayward’s historic districts and resources to maintain a unique sense of place and to promote an understanding of the regional and community history.

Historic preservation greatly enhances a community’s overall sense of place and quality of life.  Not only does it help residents and visitors appreciate local history, but it also helps to revitalize and stabilize downtowns, business districts, and neighborhoods.  Historic preservation efforts can also produce local jobs, promote heritage tourism, and increase local property values.  This goal and its supporting policies strive to preserve Hayward’s many unique historic resources, including its civic and commercial buildings, and colonial, Victorian and Queen Anne homes and cottages.  The policies also support the establishment of historic districts to preserve the character of Downtown Hayward, the Upper B Street District, the B Street Historic Streetcar District, and the Prospect Hill Historic Neighborhood.

The City shall recognize the value and co-benefits of local historic preservation, including job creation, economic development, increased property values, and heritage tourism.

City Services and Operations (CSO)

The City shall strive to enhance its local historic preservation programs to qualify for additional preservation grants and financing programs.

City Master Plans, Strategies, and Programs (MPSP)

The City shall maintain and implement its Historic Preservation Ordinance to safeguard the heritage of the city and to preserve historic resources.

Regulation and Development Review (RDR)City Master Plans, Strategies, and Programs (MPSP)

The City shall maintain and expand its records of reconnaissance surveys, evaluations, and historic reports completed for properties located within the city.

City Services and Operations (CSO)

The City shall maintain flexible land use standards to allow the adaptive reuse of historic buildings with a variety of economically viable uses, while minimizing impacts to the historic value and character of sites and structures.

Regulation and Development Review (RDR)City Master Plans, Strategies, and Programs (MPSP)

The City shall consider The Secretary of the Interior's Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties with Guidelines for Preserving, Rehabilitating, Restoring, and Reconstructing Historic Buildings when evaluating development applications and City projects involving historic resources, or development applications that may affect scenic views or the historic context of nearby historic resources.

Regulation and Development Review (RDR)City Master Plans, Strategies, and Programs (MPSP)

The City shall encourage the establishment of National Park Service Certified Historic Districts to encourage the preservation of Hayward’s historic neighborhoods and districts, and to qualify property owners for the Federal Preservation Tax Incentives Program.

Inter-governmental Coordination (IGC)Joint Partnerships with the Private Sector (JP)Planning Studies and Reports (PSR)

The City shall maintain the current Marks Historic Rehabilitation District for Downtown Hayward to issue tax-exempt revenue bonds for financing the rehabilitation of historic structures.

City Master Plans, Strategies, and Programs (MPSP)Inter-governmental Coordination (IGC)Joint Partnerships with the Private Sector (JP)

The City shall promote the use of the State Historic Building Code to facilitate the reuse and conversion of historic buildings to alternative uses.

City Master Plans, Strategies, and Programs (MPSP)City Services and Operations (CSO)

The City shall participate in the California Mills Act Property Tax Abatement Program to provide property owners of historic resources an economic incentive (property tax relief) to restore, preserve, and maintain qualified historic properties.

City Master Plans, Strategies, and Programs (MPSP)Inter-governmental Coordination (IGC)Joint Partnerships with the Private Sector (JP)

The City shall promote the use of the Federal Historic Preservation Tax Incentives Program to encourage the rehabilitation of income-producing historic structures in Hayward.

Public Information (PI)

The City shall promote the Federal Historic Preservation Tax Credit Program to encourage the charitable contribution of historic resources and the establishment of conservation easements for historic preservation purposes.

Public Information (PI)

The City shall consider historical and cultural resources when developing planning studies and documents.

City Master Plans, Strategies, and Programs (MPSP)Planning Studies and Reports (PSR)

The City shall prohibit the demolition of historic resources unless one of the following findings can be made:
• The rehabilitation and reuse of the resource is not structurally or economically feasible.
• The demolition is necessary to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the public.
• The public benefits of demolition outweigh the loss of the historic resource.

Regulation and Development Review (RDR)