Dallas, TX Historic Preservation: HPOZ Rules (2026)

Sec. 501(g) bars altering, placing, constructing, maintaining, or expanding any structure, or altering a site, inside a historic overlay district without first getting a certificate of appropriateness (COA). An application must go to the city's preservation director with complete documentation of the proposed work; within 10 days the director must tell the applicant what additional documentation is needed, and nothing is considered filed until it's on the required forms with supporting plans, designs, and photographs. The director then routes the application to one of two tracks.

Routine maintenance work, defined to include chimney installations on accessory buildings or rear facades, awnings on rear facades, same-material roof replacement without a color change, unpainted wood or chain-link fence installation, gutters and downspouts matching the trim or roof color, and skylights or solar panels, can be approved or denied within 20 days of a complete filing. Anything else goes through the standard COA review procedure, which examines the work against the preservation criteria in the specific historic overlay district's own ordinance and can result in approval, denial with prejudice, or denial without prejudice; a written denial must state the reasons.

The predesignation phase carries its own moratorium: once a historic designation procedure is initiated, an owner needing relief must apply for a predesignation certificate of appropriateness or a certificate for demolition or removal, and if that predesignation COA is denied, further applications are barred unless the earlier decision is not commenced within a set window.