How can my community regulate demolition?

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.

Since creating this presentation, New Bern’s Preservation Legal Action Team has incorporated into the Preservation Legal Action Trust.

New Bern, thanks to a state-legislature-approved ordinance, has the power to protect from demolition the most significant structures in its historic districts. Approval to demolish a structure in a local historic district only comes after a thorough review of the structure’s significance, the demolition’s impact, and the viability of plans to reuse the property.

The final, city-approved two-part evaluation ordinance increased the number of criteria. Thus, the threshold for approval of a demolition application increased from 9 points to 11 points, approximately 50% of the total possible points in both cases.