The City of Lebanon has begun a public process to revise the City’s Historic Preservation Design Guidelines. Adopted by the City in 2014, the existing guidelines require revisions to better reflect the needs and character of the community. In 2022, the City of Lebanon engaged the team comprising The Lakota Group, a professional planning firm in Chicago, Illinois, and Heritage Strategies, a historic architecture and planning firm in Sugarloaf, Pennsylvania, to undertake the guidelines revisions.

What are Historic Preservation Design Guidelines? Design guidelines provide information and recommendations for the proper maintenance, preservation, and rehabilitation of historic buildings. Design guidelines are both an educational tool for the community and a resource for owners of properties within local historic districts. The guidelines also advise and inform decisions by the Historic Preservation Commission when reviewing Certificate of Appropriateness applications.

Why do the Historic Preservation Design Guidelines need revision? The City of Lebanon adopted the existing guidelines, created for another Tennessee community, in 2014 for use by the Historic Preservation Commission following the designation of the City’s first historic district. Revising the design guidelines will help the city to enhance Lebanon’s small-town character centered around the Public Square, Main Street, Cumberland University and surrounding residential historic districts and older neighborhoods and to preserve and revitalize these areas, building on its current preservation successes.

LOCAL HISTORIC DISTRICTS

Who are the Historic Preservation Design Guidelines for? The revisions to the design guidelines will focus on the conservation and maintenance of the architectural features and characteristics found in Lebanon’s five historic districts (see map) consistent with principles outlined in the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation. The guidelines will also incorporate standards and recommendations on appropriate building alterations and additions, infill development, demolition, relocation, and the effects of long-term neglect. The guidelines will discuss the certificate of appropriateness review process, financial incentives, and the Historic Preservation Commission and preservation ordinance. The document will be user-friendly and easily understood.

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