Butte County, CA Historic Preservation: Historic-Cultural Monuments (2026)

The -BCC overlay zone covers the Butte Creek Canyon area and layers extra land use and development standards onto whatever base zone already applies there, protecting what the ordinance calls the canyon's scenic resource and historical and ecological foundation. Subsection D(5), Historic, Cultural, and Archeological Sites, singles out five recognized locations: the Nicholl Family Cemetery in Helltown, Boneyard Flat in Helltown, the Centerville Schoolhouse, the Centerville Cemetery, and the Honey Run Covered Bridge. Before the county issues a building permit or grants any discretionary approval affecting those sites, the Department of Development Services must consult the California Historical Resources Information System's Northeast Information Center at California State University, Chico, for recommendations and mitigation measures needed to preserve the historic, cultural, and archeological resources present.

This sits alongside the overlay's other Butte Creek Canyon standards: ridgeline development is restricted with a 100-foot building setback for structures under 25 feet tall and a 150-foot setback for taller buildings, hillside slopes over 15 percent are generally off-limits to development unless no flatter site exists on the parcel, and clustered development under Article 18 is prohibited outright. 1(B) lets the Director of Development Services determine an alternative feasible building site rather than block the project entirely. The overlay was adopted by Ordinance No. 4144 in 2018 and amended by Ordinance No. 4189 in 2020.