Yakima, WA Historic Preservation: Historic-Cultural Monuments (2026)
Key Facts
- Governing section
- YMC § 11.62.045
- Age threshold
- 40 years (or exceptional importance)
- Nomination
- Any person; needs owner signature
- Approval body
- Historic preservation commission + city council
- Pre-work requirement
- Certificate of appropriateness
- Benefit
- Eligible for special tax valuation (§11.62.060)
Summary
Yakima designates buildings, structures, sites, objects or districts to its own Yakima register of historic places under YMC § 11.62.045, separate from the National Register. A property must have integrity, be significantly associated with the community's history, architecture, archaeology, engineering or cultural heritage, and be at least 40 years old unless it has exceptional importance, plus fit one of ten listed categories such as association with a notable designer or event.
A. Criteria for Determining Designation in the Register. Any building, structure, site, object, or district may be designated for inclusion in the Yakima register of historic places if it is significantly associated with the history, architecture, archaeology, engineering, or cultural heritage of the community; if it has integrity; is at least forty years old, or is of lesser age and has exceptional importance; and if it falls in at least one of the following categories...
Official source re-checked September 7, 2026: no newer edition of the code had been published (publisher’s edition: rev 4980636; v1 updated 2026-08-03; through 08-03-2026).
Full Breakdown
045(B), any person can nominate a property, but the application must carry the signature of the property owner of record from the Yakima County auditor's files (and, for a historic district, signatures from owners of a majority of properties, with at least 60 percent of the district contributing). The Yakima historic preservation commission holds an open-record public hearing on at least ten days' mailed and published notice, then makes a written recommendation to the city council, which approves listing by resolution. Listed properties are marked 'HR' on official zoning records without changing the underlying zone.
045(E), before any work other than ordinary repair, maintenance or emergency measures, the owner must obtain a certificate of appropriateness from the commission, and before demolition the owner must obtain a waiver of that certificate; violating the certificate requirement is grounds for the commission to remove the property from the register. 060.
Violations & Fines
Starting work on a Yakima-register property, or a contributing property in a historic district, without first obtaining a certificate of appropriateness from the historic preservation commission violates § 11.62.045(E)(2), and demolishing one without a waiver of that certificate violates § 11.62.045(E)(3). The chapter's enforcement tool is removal from the register itself: the commission can review and remove a listed property for a certificate violation, which also ends its eligibility for special tax valuation under § 11.62.060.
Frequently Asked Questions
What qualifies a Yakima property for the historic register?
Who can nominate a building for the Yakima register?
Do I need city approval before remodeling a Yakima-register property?
Does listing on the Yakima register save me money on property taxes?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in Yakima
Compare Yakima to another location·View the Washington historic preservation overview
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