Kokomo, IN Historic Preservation: Historic-Cultural Monuments (2026)

Chapter 153 establishes the Historic Review Board, a body of at least three voting members appointed by the Mayor with Common Council approval, serving staggered three-year terms, under § 153.01(B)(1). The Board surveys and classifies historic buildings, structures, and places within the city under § 153.02(B) and (D), dividing them into historic and nonhistoric classes, and it submits proposed Historic District boundary maps to the Common Council; under § 153.03(A), no Historic District or building classification takes effect until the Common Council approves it by ordinance.

Once a district or structure is designated, § 153.06 requires a certificate of appropriateness from the Historic Review Board before a permit can issue, or before alterations begin, for demolishing or moving a historic building, for any conspicuous exterior change including an exterior color change to a building classified as historic, or for new construction of a principal or accessory building visible from a public street. Within a primary area, the certificate requirement also reaches new walls or fences along a public right-of-way and conspicuous exterior changes to nonhistoric buildings.

Section 153.05 makes both the zoning district's rules and the Historic District's rules apply within overlapping boundaries, with the more restrictive rule controlling in a conflict, and cross-references the city's zoning chapter, Ch. 157. Designation itself is owner-driven: under § 153.02(E), an individual property owner applies to the Board for historic district designation, and the Board submits approved applications, with the owner's signed statement of intent, to the Common Council.