Citywide Cultural Resources Survey

The San Francisco Citywide Cultural Resources Survey (SF Survey) is a multi-year effort supported by the San Francisco Planning Department to identify and document places and resources of cultural, historical, and architectural importance to San Francisco’s diverse communities. These places and resources include tangible aspects of our environment, such as buildings, structures, objects, sites, and districts, as well as intangible aspects, such as oral traditions, performing arts, social practices, festivals, and traditional crafts. SF Survey is taking steps to center preservation in racial and social equity, better reflecting the dynamic cultural resources that make San Francisco unique.

Purpose

Support Community-Led Cultural Empowerment

San Francisco is a culturally layered and dynamic place. The transmission of knowledge across generations brings continuity to the way of life and culture of communities. A deeper understanding of our histories and the contributions of those who came before us enhances our collective sense of belonging and agency in our communities. By cultivating community partnerships, bringing people together through community programming, and acknowledging all forms of cultural heritage, SF Survey helps contribute to sustaining San Francisco’s diverse cultures.

With a focus on inclusive representation and community-led efforts, SF Survey recognizes community and neighborhood history through the Citywide Historic Context Statement, Intangible Cultural Heritage Methodology, Community Stories, SF Survey Findings, and SF Cultural Heritage (see “Methodology” section). In collaboration with various stakeholders, SF Survey identifies sites that are eligible for the Article 10 Landmarks Work Program, Legacy Business Registry Program, California Historical Building Code, tax benefits like Mills Act, and other historic preservation protections and incentives.

Facilitate Historic Resource Review Process

SF Survey leads to a more comprehensive understanding and recognition of San Francisco's history as told through the built environment. Survey results make determinations on the historic resource status for all those parcels which have not benefited from previous survey efforts.

This includes turning properties with a Planning Department Historic Resource Status of Category B – Unknown / Age Eligible as indicated in the San Francisco Property Information Map (PIM) to either Category A - Historic Resource Present or Category C – No Historic Resource Present. As we like to say, making the unknown known. This amounts to evaluating approximately 120,000 parcels. These determinations help standardize the historic resource review process for the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), building permit applications, development projects, and area plans.

Methodology

Methodology diagram

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SF Survey is an intensive, historic context-based cultural resources survey that will result in the identification, documentation, and evaluation of the tangible and intangible aspects of San Francisco’s cultural heritage. This effort makes evaluations in consultation with community members for properties with cultural associations.

SF Survey will be completed through five interrelated components that build off one another: Community Engagement​; the Citywide Historic Context Statement; Fieldwork, Research, and Evaluation; Findings and Adoption at the Historic Preservation Commission; and the culminating online platform SF Cultural Heritage.

Many of the components of the survey will take place in tandem and will see us through the next several years.

Community Engagement

Engagement diagram

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SF Survey heavily relies upon input from community members. In keeping with Planning’s previous cultural heritage based-work, the Intangible Cultural Heritage Methodology, capacity-building, and implementing a multi-media approach to engagement, critical consultation with the community is key for developing inclusive findings. Through this level of engagement, Planning ensures that aspects of the city’s history important to respective communities are shared according to the wishes of those communities.

SF Survey’s Community Engagement Framework, developed with guidance from community members and consultant in common, aligns with the Historic Preservation Commission’s racial and social equity resolution, forging civic partnerships to include and engage communities typically underrepresented in historic preservation. 

Citywide Historic Context Statement

The Citywide Historic Context Statement, established in 2020, forms the foundation for fieldwork and decision-making for SF Survey. It builds upon the Department’s past historic context and survey efforts and incorporates recently completed and in-progress historic context statements. The Citywide Historic Context Statement aims to determine resource significance and rarity more accurately by examining sites thematically and on a citywide scale.

The in-progress Citywide Historic Context Statement consists of contexts, sub-contexts, and themes which are organized within three broad categories of Architectural, Cultural, and Thematic contexts. Each context statement provides an evaluative framework that establishes significance, based on the California Register and National Register criteria. Each context’s evaluative framework also provides an integrity analysis to guide future determinations, such as allowing for lower integrity if a property is associated with significant events (particularly cultures and/or cultural events) and/or persons

Learn more about completed and in-progress context statements.

Fieldwork, Research and Evaluation

Staff collect information, conduct research, and refer to the Citywide Historic Context Statement to determine California Historical Resources Status Codes for previously unevaluated, age-eligible properties across the city (45 years or older at the conclusion of the SF Survey).

The Status Codes define eligibility for listing on the California Register and National Register. Survey efforts are three-fold: pre-survey, in-field, and in-office data collection. Staff evaluate individual buildings, objects, structures, and sites, along with cultural landscapes and districts. Phasing is based on community readiness, historic context statement status, and staff capacity. In areas of the city with previously adopted historic surveys and evaluations, staff have been auditing findings to ensure accuracy and conformance with current standards.

Findings and Adoption

Surveyed properties are assigned a California Historical Resource Status Code, which is simplified into a Planning Department Historic Resource Status of either Category A - Historic Resource Present or Category C – No Historic Resource Present. The Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) holds public hearings on adoption of components of the Citywide Historic Context Statement and on adoption of draft and final survey findings for individual properties in phases throughout the life of SF Survey.

At each hearing, the HPC may elect to immediately adopt the findings with or without modifications, or they may take no action and direct the team to incorporate revisions or provide additional information. Prior to those hearings, the SF Survey Team conducts outreach to share and discuss the context statement and/or draft findings of historic resource status with the community and key stakeholders. Property-specific reports and detailed information are made available on SF Cultural Heritage.

Upon adoption of draft findings, the San Francisco Property Information Map is updated. Once the HPC adopts all portions of the Citywide Historic Context Statement and all SF Survey phases are complete, staff will prepare a final resolution to adopt all Draft SF Survey Findings as final and forward these Final SF Survey Findings to the State of California Office of Historic Preservation.

SF Cultural Heritage

SF Cultural Heritage is an online information management platform created specifically to support SF Survey efforts. This publicly accessible website highlights the interconnections of San Francisco’s cultural heritage and shares SF Survey Findings, including information gathered through community submissions and historic research.

SF Cultural Heritage is the result of a partnership between the San Francisco Planning Department and the Getty Conservation Institute, with the assistance of Farallon Geographics. It is powered by Arches, an open-source heritage data management platform developed by the Getty Conservation Institute and the World Monuments Fund. SF Cultural Heritage will interface with existing systems like the SF Property Information Map. The platform serves as San Francisco’s living cultural resources inventory, a digital resource that is accessible and interactive; the culmination of the SF Survey project. It is intended to allow for future additions and changes to the city’s cultural resources over time, as new information is aggregated.