Las Cruces, NM Historic Preservation: Historic-Cultural Monuments (2026)

Sec. 40-9 of the Las Cruces Land Development Code sets the standards and process for naming a building, structure, object or site a 'cultural property' and adding it to the City's Register of Cultural Properties. To qualify, a property must meet all six requirements at once: it must sit within the city's corporate boundaries, be at least 50 years old, or of exceptional significance despite its age, possess the design, material, workmanship, setting, feeling and association integrity used for National Register of Historic Places listings, embody other qualities the Historic Preservation Commission finds worth designating, be listed on or eligible for the National Register as determined by the State Historic Preservation Officer, and demonstrate at least one form of historic, architectural or cultural significance such as an association with an important person or event, a distinctive architectural type, or the likelihood of yielding significant archaeological information.

Any property owner, contract purchaser, individual, group, association or the Commission itself may nominate a property, but the owner of record must give written consent before the nomination proceeds. After a pre-application meeting and a completed Historic Cultural Property Inventory Form, the Historic Preservation Specialist has ten business days to flag deficiencies, notice of the public hearing runs 15 to 30 days out in a newspaper and on the city website, and abutting owners within 500 feet get mailed notice at least ten days ahead.

If the Commission does not act within 45 calendar days of the hearing, the nomination is deemed recommended for denial; otherwise the City Council grants or denies designation by simple majority vote, and a denied or withdrawn application cannot be resubmitted for 12 months. Once designated, the resolution must be recorded with the Doña Ana County Recorder of Deeds within 60 days.