The City of El Dorado has initiated a planning process to create a Citywide Preservation Plan. The central objectives of the Plan are to identify critical preservation issues and to create specific, realistic and achievable strategies for enhancing the City’s current historic preservation program. With this Plan, the community desires to build on past successes while recognizing that additional efforts are needed to identify priority areas for preservation and reinvestment and to shape and enhance the City’s urban form, character, and overall economic development.
The City of El Dorado has engaged The Lakota Group – a Chicago-based firm specializing in historic preservation, urban planning, urban design and landscape architecture – to prepare the Citywide Preservation Plan. Creation of the plan will encompass the following:
- Analyzing existing City policies, ordinances and procedures and recommending ways to improve or enhance them;
- Reviewing existing local historic district designations and National Register listings and recommending potential areas or buildings for additional research and potential future designation;
- Working with City staff, interviewing local stakeholders and holding public workshops and open houses to gather community input and identify critical preservation issues.
The process for creating a Citywide Preservation Plan is comprised of two phases:
PHASE 1: State of the City (June 2019 – December 2019)
The first phase analysis will include a comprehensive review of the City’s historic resource surveys, local historic designations and National Register listings, the existing preservation ordinance, plans and studies, economic data and incentive programs, and other plans and reports.
The first phase of the planning process will also include meeting with the Steering Committee and holding listening sessions with local focus groups, stakeholders and City of El Dorado staff.
PHASE 2: Historic Preservation Plan (January 2020 – August 2020)
During the second phase Lakota will complete the Citywide Preservation Plan and generate a range of implementation actions and programs to help implement the strategies and recommendations presented in the Plan. The final plan will be a collaborative effort together with City leaders, the Steering Committee, Historic District Commission, preservation advocates, property/business owners, and residents,
For more information about the Historic District Commission and historic preservation in El Dorado, visit the City’s website.
