Neighborhood Commercial Buildings Historic Context Statement

The historic context statement provides a narrative history of commercial development patterns, time periods of development,  typical architectural styles of each period and key features that illustrate the style. These features are referred to as character-defining features and help planners understand which buildings should be considered historic resources, based on how many of these features they retain.

The historic context statement also provides a framework that planners can use to evaluate the significance of commercial buildings.  This document is intended to be used to inform the Citywide Cultural Resource Survey (SF Survey) effort and ensure that property evaluations are consistent with local, state, and federal standards.

To inform the historic context statement, a survey of neighborhood commercial buildings was conducted by the Planning Department in the summers of 2014 and 2015. The survey documented corner commercial buildings and buildings within neighborhood commercial corridors (NCD and NCT districts). Planning Department staff surveyed approximately 5, 500 buildings and made preliminary historic evaluations. These evaluations will be finalized during each geographic phase of SF Survey.

What Does This Mean for Property Owners?

At this time, there is no change to surveyed properties’ historic resource status. Preliminary historic evaluations will be finalized during each geographic phase of SF Survey.