First question: is your house a historic resource?
The City's ordinance protects several kinds of property: homes formally designated as a historic monument or landmark, homes listed individually in the National Register of Historic Places, contributing properties in a designated landmark district or a National Register historic district, and properties that a historic resources survey or the Planning Director has found eligible for designation. Pasadena reports designating over 130 local properties as landmarks or historic monuments, and its districts add many more homes.
Within a district, each house is classed as contributing, meaning it keeps enough of its original character to represent the district's history, or non-contributing, meaning it was heavily altered or built after the district's period of significance. The City publishes a property database, a list of designated properties and a district map, but its own guidance says a conversation with Design and Historic Preservation staff is usually needed to confirm a property's status.
Who reviews the work: staff or the Commission
Pasadena's code sorts most historic review into two main categories. For designated resources, including contributing homes in designated districts, the Historic Preservation Commission reviews demolitions and major projects, and staff review minor projects. For homes that are only eligible for designation, including contributing homes in eligible districts, the Commission reviews demolitions, staff review major projects, and minor projects are not reviewed. A temporary third category covers contributing homes in a proposed landmark district for up to 365 days after its eligibility review, during which the Commission can delay a demolition.
The Bungalow Heaven, Garfield Heights and Banbury Oaks landmark districts each have their own Conservation Plan, and in those districts the plan, rather than the general list, sets which projects need a Certificate of Appropriateness. We read the applicable plan before we price any exterior work there.
Major and minor projects, in practical terms
The municipal code treats several common remodel items as major projects. Examples include changing two or more design features of the windows on a street-facing elevation, such as frame material, muntin pattern or operation; changing doors or the size of openings; new cladding that changes the look or texture of the house; adding dormers; any added square footage on a primary elevation; an addition taller than the existing building that can be seen from the street; and removing more than about half the cladding on a street-facing side.
Minor projects include like-for-like window and door replacement, changing a single window design feature, re-roofing in a different material that replicates the existing or original roofing, in-kind replacement of deteriorated features, and additions on secondary elevations that stay out of the plane of the primary facade. In designated districts, work on period garages and other accessory structures, and new fences, walls and driveway gates, are also minor projects, although rear yard walls and fences are exempt from review. Planning a rear addition that steps back from the main facade is often the difference between a staff-level review and a Commission hearing.
What the City looks for
For alterations and new construction, the City approves a Certificate of Appropriateness when the work complies with the Secretary of the Interior's Standards or adopted guidelines based on them. In landmark and historic districts, staff and the Commission also apply Pasadena's Design Guidelines for Historic Districts. Demolishing a designated or eligible historic resource requires additional findings, such as severe structural damage that cannot be repaired, supported by at least two qualified professionals managed by the City and paid for by the applicant.
The submittal is detailed. The City's checklist calls for photographs with a key plan, existing and proposed site plans, floor plans, roof plans and elevations, actual head, jamb and sill details for new or altered windows and doors, a window and door schedule, manufacturer specifications and physical material samples. New construction or an addition over 500 square feet on a non-contributing property in a district also needs a neighborhood compatibility worksheet. We help your architect assemble this package so it reflects how the work will actually be built.
Inside the house and below the surface
Historic review in Pasadena is aimed mainly at the exterior. Interior work generally falls outside it, with two exceptions the code names: character-defining interior features of designated historic monuments, as listed in the designation report, and interior or exterior fixtures designed by Greene and Greene. Interior remodeling still needs regular building permits from the City.
Older houses also bring their own construction issues once walls open, from undersized framing to original wiring and plumbing. For qualifying historic buildings, the City notes that the State Historical Building Code can allow reasonable alternatives to standard building requirements and let some existing nonconforming conditions remain, which can help preserve original fabric. We bring those questions to the building plan checker early rather than discovering them during inspection.
Incentives worth asking about
Pasadena's Historic Property Contract program, the local form of the Mills Act, is open to designated landmarks and historic monuments, buildings designed by Greene and Greene, National Register properties and contributing homes in landmark or National Register districts. The City reports that past participants have reduced their property taxes substantially; whether it suits you is a question for the City and your tax advisor, but contract work can shape a remodel's scope and order.
The zoning code also offers relief for historic properties, including a possible waiver of the two-covered-space parking requirement for additions in designated landmark districts. On a narrow bungalow lot, that can make room for an addition that the standard parking rule would otherwise complicate.