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Save Our Heritage Organisation Magazine cover
Save Our Heritage Organisation
Magazine

2008 - Volume 39, Issue 3/4

Benefits of Historic Districts
As identified in 2000 by the National Trust for Historic Preservation

Districts encourage good design
Many homebuyers choose to buy in a historic district because they recognize that the very elements that drew them to a community will be protected. People who live in a historic neighborhood, whether it has received official protective status or not, willingly point out the reasons they love their neighborhood. For some residents, it's the abundance of trees. Others describe their community as a very walkable neighborhood, while other residents appreciate the diversity of architecture that flourished at a time when massive tracts of land weren't crowded with homes of nearly indistinguishable design.

Districts help the environment
Historic districts serve as a check on ill-planned residential and commercial sprawl. They preserve natural resources and keep construction debris out of the ever-decreasing landfill space. As author and preservationist Jane Powell is fond of pointing out, saving an old house or commercial building maximizes the embodied energy that wenflout into building the structure in the first place and keeps new resources from being wasted.

Districts act as an educational tool
Historic districts provide a dynamic connection to our past. We can walk the streets of these neighborhoods. We can live in the houses or shop in the businesses that populate a district. We can learn more about whom and what shaped a district by doing the research that must accompany any efforts to create the historic district in the first place.

Historic districts result in a positive economic impact from tourism
Tourists don't flock to San Diego to shop at Target or to eat their meals at an Applebee's. They visit sites like Balboa Park, Old Town, the Presidio, Mission San Diego, and the Gaslamp Quarter to discover what makes San Diego unique.

Districts provide social and psychological benefits
The formation of historic districts is a community effort. Citizens are empowered to negotiate a common goal of protecting the historic legacy of their communities. Homeowners in Burlingame came together to create a voluntary historic district in their North Park neighborhood while residents of Mission Hills worked block by block to develop plans for saving their community. The effort to preserve historic areas in downtown San Diego has been a key part of its successful revitalization.

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