New Bern's Preservation Legal Action Trust has worked to defend against demolitions within the town's local historic districts. Learn more about how their special ordinance and how it functions.

The UNC School of Government, together with the North Carolina Rural Economic Development Center, began the Small Towns, Big Ideas project in 2006 to identify and record small towns that were implementing successful or original methods to community economic development. The results of this study lead to the creation of a searchable database that includes case studies about these small towns.

View more information here.

A Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) will often possess the authority to delay demolition of a historic structure for up to one year; however, most cannot deny demolition. In this session Annette Stone, Planner with the town of New Bern, highlights the city's successful efforts to pass a local bill and subsequent local ordinance that enable the HPC to deny demolition of contributing historic structures based on specific criteria including "statewide significance."

Presented at the PNC 2008 Annual Conference, Winston-Salem, October
9-11, 2008

Conservation overlay districts (CODs) are often used as tools to combat against impending infill. In this session Travis Crane, Senior Planner with Raleigh's Department of City Planning, discusses how CODs work, how they differ from local historic districts and zoning, and how they can be used to address teardown and infill issues.

Presented at the PNC 2008 Annual Conference, Winston-Salem, October 9-11, 2008

The National Register of Historic Places is America's listing of historic properties worthy of preservation, including buildings, sites, districts, structures and objects. Properties are listed for their significance in American history, architecture, archeology and culture. Places can be designated for local, statewide or national significance.

A teardown is the demolition and replacement of an existing house structure with a new, typically much larger, home. Unfortunately, older neighborhoods, many former streetcar suburbs, are often targeted for teardowns. While their convenience to urban amenities and mature trees are attractive to buyers, the relatively smaller homes in these neighborhoods are seen by some as outdated. The piecemeal replacement of houses has a dramatic and irreversable impact on the character of a neighborhood.

A neighborhood conservation overlay district (NCOD) is a zoning tool used to preserve, revitalize, protect, and enhance significant older areas within a community beyond what is specified in the standard code. The conservation overlay regulations are applied in addition to standard zoning regulations and will usually take precedence. NCOD regulations will differ from neighborhood to neighborhood depending on the area's character and needs.