Rockland County, NY Historic Preservation: Historic-Cultural Monuments (2026)

Rockland County Code Chapter 75A creates a County-wide historic preservation program administered by a Historic Preservation Board of 13 members appointed by the County Executive and confirmed by the County Legislature. Seats are reserved for the County Historian, an architectural historian, an architect, an archeologist, the Commissioner of Planning or a designee, the County Archivist or a designee, the Executive Director of the Historical Society of Rockland County or a designee, the County Highway Superintendent or a designee, the County Director of Tourism or a designee, at least four members from the public at large, and at least one resident from each of the county's towns.

Section 75A-6 governs the County Register of Historic Places: the Board may designate specific properties as worthy of preservation only with the written consent of the property owner, then recommends them by resolution to the County Legislature, which must approve the designation before the list becomes the official register. Placement carries no zoning or building-code force; the code expressly limits its legal effect to recognition and to protection from acts undertaken by the County itself, meaning it constrains County agencies' own undertakings rather than private owners.

The Board was required to adopt written criteria and due-process designation procedures within 12 months of the chapter's filing with the Secretary of State. Separately, § 75A-7 directs the Board to adopt criteria for a broader County inventory of historic properties, and § 75A-4 empowers the Board to comment on County undertakings that could affect registered or inventoried properties, advise towns and villages on local preservation, and participate in nominating County-owned properties to the state and national registers.