Farmersville, TX Historic Preservation: Historic-Cultural Monuments (2026)

Section 77-120 lets an owner of a historical landmark or property submit a request for local designation, but the mechanism is zoning, not a simple registry entry: designation is accomplished by applying the Historical Preservation Overlay Zoning District (HD) to the property and amending the official zoning map, which requires an ordinance passed by city council after notice, a public hearing, and recommendations from both the historic preservation commission and the planning and zoning commission, in that order. Owners of proposed landmarks must be notified before the historic preservation commission's hearing, where owners, interested parties, and technical experts may present testimony or documentary evidence on the property's historic, architectural, or cultural importance, which becomes part of the record.

After the commission's recommendation, the city secretary forwards the case to the planning and zoning commission, which gives its own notice, holds its own hearing, and forwards a recommendation to city council for a final vote after further notice and hearing. Section 77-120(f) lists seven independent criteria for designation, any one of which can qualify a property: significance in history, architecture, archaeology, or culture; association with events that made a significant contribution to local, regional, state, or national history; association with the lives of significant persons or embodying a distinctive construction type, period, or method; representing the work of a master designer, builder, or craftsman; representing an established and familiar visual feature of the city; possessing high artistic value or being part of a significant entity whose individual components may lack distinction; or having yielded, or being likely to yield, information important to prehistory or history.

Once designated, section 77-120(e) requires city council to record the designation on the official zoning maps with an appropriate mark. A designated landmark then falls under the certificate-of-appropriateness requirements of section 77-116 for any exterior work.