Richland County, SC Historic Preservation: Historic-Cultural Monuments (2026)

Article V of Chapter 23 creates the county's rehabilitated historic properties incentive. Sec. 23-60 fixes the special tax assessment at the property's assessed value at the time of preliminary certification, held for twenty years, encouraging owners to restore rather than demolish or neglect qualifying structures. Sec. 23-62 sets the eligibility path in two stages: preliminary certification requires the property meet the historic designation criteria and that the proposed rehabilitation work get a recommendation of approval from the appropriate architectural reviewing authority, which the code defines as the municipal architectural review board where one exists, or the South Carolina Department of Archives and History for unincorporated county areas and municipalities without their own board.

Final certification then requires that the minimum rehabilitation expenditures be incurred and paid, that the completed work match what the reviewing authority approved, and that all application fees be paid in full. To qualify as historic in the first place, a property must be listed on the National Register of Historic Places (individually or as a contributing property in a district), determined eligible for the National Register by the state archives department, listed in the Richland County Bicentennial Committee Historic Homes and Buildings Landmark Program from 1981, or designated a City of Columbia Historic Landmark, or otherwise demonstrate association with significant historical events or persons, or embody distinctive construction characteristics.

Owners file an application directly with Richland County to obtain a historic property determination under this article, which was adopted by Ord. No. 047-08HR in 2008 and amended by Ord. No. 019-13HR in 2013.