Preservation of the commonwealth’s historically significant natural, scenic, cultural, and architectural features and resources is a rising priority among local municipalities—and for good reason. Historic preservation not only helps cultivate an aesthetically pleasing environment for residents and business owners to live, work, and play, but it can increase property values, generate new tourism/economic development opportunities, and encourage future development with high-quality site design and architectural patterns. Municipalities are vested with several options when it comes to historic preservation. The two most common are the utilization of their authority under the Pennsylvania Historic District Act, 53 P.S. Section 8001 et seq., (Historic District Act) and the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code, 53 P.S. Section 10101 et seq., (MPC).

The Historic District Act was enacted in 1961 and confers upon counties, third class cities—First and second class cities (i.e., Philadelphia and Pittsburgh) are expressly excluded from the Historic District Act’s grant of authority—boroughs, incorporated towns, and townships the authority to designate historic districts within their geographical limits. In order to create a historic district, a municipality must do two things. First, it must adopt an ordinance. While the Historic District Act does not command in great detail what content or subject matters the ordinance must cover, it should, at a minimum, express the municipality’s intent to create a historic district pursuant to the Historic District Act, delineate the historic district’s boundaries, establish a historical architectural review board (HARB), enumerate the powers and duties of the HARB, and set forth guidelines and the approval process applicable to the issuance of a certificate of appropriateness (COA). Next, the municipality must provide the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission written notice of the ordinance’s enactment.  The commission must then certify, by resolution, to the district’s historical significance. Only after such certification does the ordinance become effective.