Carbondale Historic Preservation Plan

Creating the Plan

A Preservation Plan gives focus and direction to a community’s efforts to protect and enhance its historic resources. A Preservation Plan works toward making preservation decision-making a normal function or element of land use decisions rather than an exceptional one, thus making historic preservation pro-active rather than reactive. A Preservation Plan provides the means by which to self-measure, a check-list of sorts for accomplishments.

Preservation Plans may take many forms and have various emphases on contents. When the Carbondale Preservation Commission chose to create a Preservation Plan, they were especially interested in an action plan–the establishment of goals, objectives, and actions to give City efforts in historic preservation focus. While the consulting firm ArchiSearch, Historic Preservation Consultants was hired to prepare the Preservation Plan, a major focus of the Plan was the process of creating the Plan. This process has included involvement of the Preservation Commission, Development Services staff, and the public in general.

What's in the Plan

Included in this Plan is a summary of past and current preservation efforts which have been spearheaded by the Preservation Commission since its creation in 1989. This summary is useful to better understand the needs for the future direction of the Preservation Commission, which are detailed in the Goals, Objectives, and Actions; Recommendations; and Action Plan sections of this Plan. These sections set forth a ten year work plan for the Commission, a check-list for accomplishments.

Also included in the Plan are Appendices which explain programs, such as the National Register of Historic Places; provide guidance for suggestions such as establishing a preservation section in the local library; and detail the responses from the public at the Community Interactive Workshop.

Keys to Success

The process is key to the success of this Plan, as any type of planning can fail when it lacks the support of those whom it affects. In order for this Preservation Plan to succeed, it will need the continued commitment of the Preservation Commission, the Planning Commission, the City Council, the Department of Development Services, and the general public–anyone who wants to include the past in the future of Carbondale.