Phoenix historic preservation zoning: what you can change after you buy

At a glance

What Phoenix historic preservation zoning covers

Historic Preservation (HP) zoning is an overlay. The house keeps the uses and rules of its base zone, and the zoning map shows that base zone with "HP" added, or "HP-L" for a landmark. The rules sit in Chapter 8 of the Phoenix Zoning Ordinance, Sections 801 to 816, and the Phoenix Historic Property Register has listed properties this way since 1986. Today the register holds 37 residential historic districts, which our Phoenix historic districts guide lists by era.

HP and HP-L historic preservation overlays

HP is the standard designation. HP-L marks a landmark that shows exceptional significance; it gets stronger protection and the highest priority for City incentives. For a buyer the practical difference is demolition: a contributing HP house can be held for a year, a landmark for three.

Work historic preservation review leaves alone

Routine maintenance such as painting is excluded, interior work that doesn't affect the exterior needs no review, and repairs that swap a material for the same material, asphalt shingles for asphalt shingles, need no approval. The Historic Preservation Office doesn't regulate paint colors, though it discourages painting masonry that was never painted and advises against sandblasting. The exception is a house with a conservation easement, which goes through its own review.

Work that needs historic preservation review

Nothing in an HP district may be built, demolished, moved, rehabilitated or changed in exterior appearance without review. Every building permit that affects the exterior needs a Certificate of No Effect (CNE) or a Certificate of Appropriateness (COA), and that includes infill and changes to noncontributing houses inside a district. Interior demolition permits on listed buildings also get a historic review, which is separate from ordinary interior remodeling.

The two historic preservation approvals: Certificate of No Effect or Certificate of Appropriateness

When you apply for a permit in an HP district, the Building Official sends you to the Historic Preservation Officer, and staff decide which certificate the job needs. Neither one has a City review fee, and both are valid for a year. Applications go in through the SHAPE PHX portal or in person at City Hall by appointment.

Certificate of No Effect: the historic preservation over-the-counter approval

A CNE is a staff approval for minor work that clearly meets the City's General Design Guidelines and won't harm the house or the district. There's no hearing, and it's usually done over the counter or within a few days. The Historic Preservation Commission keeps a list of work that qualifies, last approved on May 20, 2024; anything that would make the house ineligible or turn it into a noncontributor can't be approved this way.

Certificate of Appropriateness: the historic preservation hearing

Large room additions, new garages and carports, new houses and anything highly visible from the street need a COA. The steps add up to roughly two months from your first meeting:

The hearing is quasi-judicial, so no calls, emails or meetings with the hearing officer, the Commission or Council are allowed outside it. The City encourages you to show your plans to neighbors and the neighborhood association first. Clear any zoning question with Site Planning (602-262-7811) and get any variance before you file.

Historic preservation appeals

The hearing officer can approve, approve with stipulations or deny. An appeal goes to the Historic Preservation Commission, filed in person at City Hall within five calendar days, and then to City Council. If the Commission doesn't hear an appeal within 60 days, the application is deemed approved.

What historic preservation rules let you add to a Phoenix house

The pattern in the City's CNE list is simple: keep the work behind the house, lower than the house and smaller than the house, and staff can approve it. That makes the back of the lot the part of a listing to study. A house with a deep rear yard can usually grow without a hearing; one where the only room to expand is to the side or front will need one.

Room additions under historic preservation review

An addition qualifies for a CNE when its footprint is under 75 percent of the historic footprint, it sits entirely behind the rear facade and steps in on at least one side, and it's one story at or below the existing roof with a ceiling plate of 9 feet or less. Roof and wall materials must be compatible, with simple windows that let through at least half the visible light. Anything bigger, taller or visible from the street goes to a hearing. The guidelines strongly discourage additions to the front, which can get a house reclassified as a noncontributor.

ADUs and guest houses in a historic preservation district

A new ADU or other accessory building can get a CNE if it needs no variance, fits the district's historic pattern, is one story and well below the main house with a 9-foot plate, and has a footprint under 75 percent of the main house's historic footprint and no more than 1,000 square feet. Converting an existing garage also qualifies when the footprint, siding and roof shape stay the same and the new framing in the door opening is inset.

Garages and carports in historic preservation districts

Before World War II, garages in Phoenix's residential districts were usually detached at the rear of the lot, and new ones should follow that pattern. A side carport can get a CNE if it's set back from the front, no wider than one car bay or a third of the facade, open on three sides and roofed well below the house.

Solar panels under historic preservation rules

Panels qualify for a CNE when they can't be seen from the street: below a parapet, on the rear of the house or a rear outbuilding, or on the rear half of a hipped or gabled roof with none on the street-facing slope. Textured solar roof tiles are considered case by case.

Windows and roofs under historic preservation guidelines

Since July 1, 2011, replacing windows as a stand-alone job needs no permit or HP review if certain conditions are met; window work inside a larger permitted project is still reviewed. The guidelines ask you to keep the window pattern and avoid swapping true divided lights for simulated ones. On roofs, replacing in kind is maintenance, and dimensional composition shingles are accepted in place of wood shingles, but a switch from shingle to tile or metal is a change that needs review.

Demolition under Phoenix historic preservation zoning

If you're looking at a historic lot for its land, this is the rule that decides it. No permit can be issued to move or demolish all or part of a structure in an HP district without a demolition approval, and the Historic Preservation Officer decides within three days whether to issue one.

Historic preservation demolition delay

If approval is denied, no demolition permit is issued for a year while the City looks for help, a new use or a buyer; for an HP-L landmark the hold is three years, with a review possible after two. Even then, a redevelopment or reuse plan has to be filed first, and leaving the lot empty doesn't count. An owner of a single-family home can ask for an economic hardship hearing, but hardship means the house has no beneficial use as a home even if rehabilitated, and it can't rest on having paid well over market value or on neglect.

Certain older buildings without HP zoning get a separate check. Since March 1, 2018, demolition permits for certain older buildings carry a 30-day hold, or 60 days for homes on the National Register or flagged as HP-eligible, with a $390 plan review fee. Doing work that needs a certificate without one leads to a stop work order.

What historic preservation zoning means for your offer

Approved plans bind the applicant and their successors, so conditions on a past approval pass to you with the house. Ask the seller for copies of any CNE or COA and the plans that went with them, and compare them with what was built.

Contributor status and historic preservation flexibility

Noncontributing houses follow the district-wide guidelines but not the ones about their own character. The City's example is a 1975 masonry house in an 1895 to 1930 district, which may be stuccoed or have its windows changed. Contributors are held to more, and status can be lost: one East Alvarado house was reclassified as noncontributing after its original steel casement windows were replaced. If the state tax reduction matters to you, keep a contributor's original windows, siding and front facade, because the tax program needs contributor status; our Arizona historic property tax guide explains why.

Historic preservation grants and easements

The City's Exterior Rehabilitation Grant pays 50 percent of approved exterior work, from $5,000 to $20,000 per property, for roofs, foundations, windows, porches, stucco and reversing poor alterations. In exchange you sell the City a conservation easement on the exterior for 15 years (up to $10,000) or 20 years ($10,001 to $20,000), recorded on title and binding on later owners. Your lender has to consent to it, so tell your loan officer early; the historic home financing guide covers that step. The 2026 round is closed, and 2027 round details are expected in July 2027.

Phoenix Historic Preservation Office and Commission

The Historic Preservation Office administers the ordinance, keeps the register, reviews certificates and runs the City's incentive programs, including grants paid from the Historic Preservation Bond fund. It publishes technical bulletins on masonry repointing, wood and steel casement window repair and wood shingle roofs, and a guide called Historic Homes of Phoenix. It doesn't offer programs to help buy a house.

Historic Preservation Commission members and role

The Commission is a nine-member citizen panel appointed by the City Council for three-year terms, unpaid, and it has to include at least one registered architect, a real estate professional, an archaeologist and a historian. It hears appeals, adopts the design guidelines, and holds the first hearing on a proposed district before it goes to the Planning and Development Commission and City Council.

The office is at 200 W. Washington St., third floor, and answers at 602-261-8699 or historic@phoenix.gov. If you'd rather not make the calls yourself, Joe Janus can check the zoning, contributor status and any past approvals for a house before you offer. The full list of steps for buying a historic home shows where this fits.

Phoenix historic preservation FAQs