Mountain View approves updates to historic preservation rules

The Mountain View City Council recently updated its historic preservation policy, but did not finalize a list of buildings to put on the city’s historic register. The register has drawn opposition from some residents who say their properties are not historic and shouldn’t be included on the list.

At a Sept. 22 meeting, the City Council unanimously approved a staff recommendation to make changes to the policy, laying out the rules for how properties are nominated, listed and removed from the city’s historic register.

The changes will no longer allow property owners to unilaterally “opt off” the local register. Instead, property owners will need to go before the city’s zoning administrator and then the city council to get off the register once the list is formally adopted. That vote is tentatively scheduled for December, according to Planning Manager Eric Anderson.

“We cannot finalize the register update with the ordinance because that would leave the owner opt-off provisions in place,” Anderson said. “Thus, we need to adopt the register update once the new ordinance’s provisions have taken effect.”

With the council’s approval, the historic policy amendments will go into effect in November.