Frequently Asked Questions about the Ventura Historic Survey
The Conservancy will be crafting a FAQ soon.
After 2025 HPC meetings and postcards we realized there are lots of questions about what it means when your property is identified as historic. There's a big difference between "identifying" an older building as potentially historic, and "listing" or "designating" a property as a landmark.
The Conservancy has advocated for a City-Wide Historic Survey since it was founded in 2004. The Survey and resulting inventory list becomes a tool to help preserve and protect our historic places from demolition, incompatible infill, and speculative development at the expense of historic buildings.
Making a property a landmark requires owner consent, and requires formal listing with a fee in Ventura.
Identifying properties with historic era buildings in a city wide survey is way to protect older neighborhoods and is used as a planning tool by the City when planning for new developments. We'll be putting together a list of answers to "what does it mean?" check back to this page soon.