Guide to Historic Resources

The character of Warrenton is a noted priority of the Town preserved through initiatives by Town Council, specifically within the Plan Warrenton 2040 Comprehensive Plan. In parallel with the comprehensive plan development, a new Guide to Historic Resources was adopted to facilitate the wants and needs of preservation noted in the Comprehensive Plan process. The Guide to Historic Resources is an expanded version of the previous Design Guide for Historic Resources with the intent of being a resource to the entire Town, not just the Historic District. 

Click the cover below to explore the new Guide to Historic Resources!

Background

There have been two found iterations of the HD Guidelines since creating the local Historic District in 1982. The original version created by the Land and Community Associates was adopted in September 1990, with a rewrite in 2002. The second and current HD Guidelines created by Millennium Preservation Services were adopted on February 28, 2008, with an amendment on January 14, 2014. In 2019, the local Historic District was resurveyed where the Period of Significance was found to have increased to 1970. 

A need was created for updated guidelines to contextualize properties better and accommodate the 211 years of architectural significance in the Historic District. In 2019, Michael Baker & Associates, contractors for Plan Warrenton 2040, assigned an architectural historian to work with the Town in developing new HD guidelines as part of their Comprehensive Plan update scope. At that time, staff discussed tying the Comprehensive Plan theme of Town-wide character preservation into a document or “guide” that could be utilized to encourage personal preservation in and beyond the Historic District. Staff finalized the new section layout and guidelines with Michael Baker before formatting the document for continuity with Town branding and increased ease of information accessibility with increased graphics to distill preservation topics further.

The Architectural Review Board began reviewing the document in early 2019, working with staff through edits, additions, and reconfigurations. The process was put on hold in response to the pandemic but was restarted in late 2021. On March 2nd, 2022, a public meeting was held to discuss the Historic District Design Guidelines changes and introduced the Guide to Historic Resources as a whole. After revisions based on received comments, the Architectural Review Board recommended approval of the Guide to Town Council on April 28th, 2022. Town Council adopted the new Guide with updates to the Design Guidelines on March 10th, 2022.