Historic Preservation
The City of Livingston has four districts that are recognized by the National Register of Historic Places: (1) Westside Residential, (2) Eastside Residential, (3) B Street, and (4) Downtown (business). When requested, the Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) provides guidance to owners who are maintaining, upgrading, or restoring historic properties in Livingston.
The Downtown Historic District (shown in the map above) is recognized as an invaluable asset to the City, not only as a magnet for tourists but as a source of pride for residents. For this reason, the City Commission passed the Historic District Overlay Zoning Ordinance in 1982, and created the HPC to carry out its intents and purposes.
The law requires that the HPC review and approve all changes to the exterior of buildings, including facade changes and painting, and signs and window signs, within the Downtown Historic District. The HPC conducts design reviews on the second Tuesday of each month at 3:30 p.m. in the Community Room of the City-County Building.
Applications for design review should be completed and returned to the Planning Department ten days before a scheduled meeting in order to ensure placement on the agenda. Questions on the application process may be addressed to the Planning Department at 406-222-4903 or planning@livingstonmontana.org.
To learn more about historic preservation, click on any hyperlink in this brief hierarchical history:
Congress enacts the National Historic Preservation Act in 1966, to be administered by the Advisory Council Historic Preservation (ACHP)
The National Park Service maintains The National Register of Historic Places
The U.S. Secretary of the Interior issues the Standards for Rehabilitation and Guidelines for Rehabilitating Historic Buildings
State Historic Preservation Offices administer the National Historic Preservation Act at the state level via the Certified Local Government (CLG) Program
By ordinance, the Livingston City Commission creates the Historic District Overlay Zoning and the Historic Preservation Commission to ensure compliance with federal, state and local requirements.
Historic Preservation Commission By-Laws
Historic Preservation: Powered by the People
It might be that the historic preservation movement was launched by the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association in 1858, when it saved George Washington's home. But it is more generally held that the movement began in earnest about a half-century ago. The reason: public outrage over demolition of the venerated Pennsylvania Station in New York City,
Slow but steady progress continued to be made. Responding to heightened citizen interest and concern, in 1964 Princeton began offering the country's first graduate degree program in historic preservation. Perhaps the most widely reported preservation effort, led by Jacqueline Kennedy in 1975, succeeded in saving New York's Grand Central Terminal. Citizen concern still drives the preservation effort: in 2010 a Stuttgart, Germany crowd of 100,000 (one-sixth of the city's population) demonstrated against proposed changes to the city's hundred-year old Central Station.
Your Historic Preservation Commission strives to ensure that Livingston's residents, businesses, and visitors may continue to be enriched by our distinctive architecture. Citizen concern and participation remain essential to this process.
