Historic Treasures Map
Historical Building Code
One of California’s most valuable tools for the preservation of historic resources is the California State Historical Building Code (CHBC), which is defined in Sections 18950 to 18961 of Division 13, Part 2.7 of Health and Safety Code (H&SC), a part of California Law. The CHBC is intended to save California’s architectural heritage by recognizing the unique construction issues inherent in maintaining and adaptively reusing historic resources. The CHBC provides alternative building regulations for permitting repairs, alterations, and additions necessary for the preservation, rehabilitation, relocation, related construction, change of use, or continued use of a “qualified historical building or structure.”
The CHBC’s standards and regulations are intended to facilitate the rehabilitation or change of occupancy so as to preserve their original or restored elements and features, encourage energy conservation and a cost effective approach to preservation, and provide for reasonable safety from fire, seismic forces, or other hazards for occupants and users of such historic resources, structures, and properties, and to provide reasonable availability and usability by the physically disabled.