Jackson, MS Historic Preservation: Historic-Cultural Monuments (2026)

), lets the city designate landmarks, landmark sites and historic districts. Section 70-6 requires the Historic Preservation Commission to first conduct, or receive from a proposed landmark's owners of record (or a majority of owners in a proposed district), a documented investigation of the property's historic, architectural, archaeological and/or cultural significance, including building inventories, boundary justification and streetscape photographs for districts. For a historic district, the state Department of Archives and History gets 60 days to review and comment on the proposed boundaries before the city can act; a landmark or landmark site can be adopted without that state review.

Within 45 days of receiving the commission's recommendation, the city council must set a public hearing, publishing notice weekly for three consecutive weeks, with the first notice running at least 21 days beforehand. The council then has 60 days after the hearing to adopt, reject, or partially adopt the designating ordinance; a historic district cannot be approved unless a majority of the district's property owners voted in favor, with each owner getting one vote regardless of how many parcels they hold. Once designated, Section 70-7 lets owners apply for an exemption from ad valorem taxes (except school-district and personal-property taxes) for up to seven years after obtaining a certificate of appropriateness and completing verified improvements.

Section 70-8 addresses 'demolition by neglect': if a landmark or contributing building shows structural decay, the housing official can order repairs, and an owner who misses the deadline after a commission hearing faces misdemeanor charges if repairs aren't finished within 90 days of that determination.