Putnam County, FL Historic Preservation: Historic-Cultural Monuments (2026)

Putnam County Code Sec. 45-251 declares that preserving property with historical, cultural and aesthetic merit serves the public health, prosperity and welfare, and Sec. 45-253 creates the local register of historic places, kept by Planning and Development Services, to identify sites, buildings, structures, objects and districts as historic or architecturally significant. Listing can be nominated by the Board of County Commissioners, the zoning board of adjustment, a property owner, or, for a district, an owner within the proposed district; the zoning board of adjustment reviews the nomination after at least 15 days' published and mailed notice to owners within 300 feet, and forwards a recommendation to the planning commission, which processes it under the county's rezoning procedure.

To qualify, a property must have integrity of location, design, materials and association, and be tied to significant events, persons, or a distinctive type, period or method of construction. Once listed, Sec. 45-254 requires a certificate of appropriateness before regulated exterior work such as new roofing, siding, windows, doors, fencing, signs or exterior lighting, with ordinary maintenance and department-notified emergency repairs exempted; major alterations, new construction, demolition or relocation all require zoning board of adjustment approval, while minor alterations can be approved administratively by the department.

Listed properties do get a benefit in exchange: Sec. 45-253(g) makes them eligible for modified code enforcement under the Florida Building Code, waiving mandatory technical building code provisions for existing structures subject to the local building official's safety judgment.