Print
this page 
Planning Department - Incentives For Preservation
Property Reduction Tax - Mills Act
Information & background
The Mills Act, under state law, enables the owners of Landmarks designated by the City of Rancho Cucamonga to enter into an agreement (contract) with the City to preserve, maintain and possibly rehabilitate the structure. The Mills Act requires the County tax Assessor to re-evaluate the property using a capitalization method rather than the market value. The result is a substantial reduction in property taxes for the post Proposition 13 qualified historic properties. (Note: Due to Proposition 13, new owners of historic properties are most likely to benefit from a Mills Act contract. Owners who have owned their property for a long period of time and have low property taxes due to Proposition 13 will most likely not benefit due to a higher assessed value under a Mills Act Agreement rather than the existing value). The money saved from the reduced property tax bill will be available to maintain and restore the Landmark. The agreement runs for 10 years and is self renewed annually for an additional year unless a notice of cancellation is filed by the owner.
The City of Rancho Cucamonga currently has 34 active Mills Act contracts.
Application Procedures
To be eligible for applying for a Mills Act agreement in the City of Rancho Cucamonga, your property must be a city designated local landmark. A concurrent application for local landmark designation may be processed. To apply for the Mills Act agreement you must have completed the following:
Mills Act agreement applications do not require the payment of any fees. Contracts will be reviewed by the Historic Preservation Commission and referred to City Council for final approval.
Tax Credits
Tax credits may be applied for by owners of Landmarks designated by the City of Rancho Cucamonga, or listed in the State or National Register of Historic Places. Financial incentives in the form of state tax credits and conservation easements encourage property owners to rehabilitate buildings listed on the National Register. During the past decade, hundreds of California buildings have been rehabilitated with the assistance of tax credits, generating over a half billion dollars in private investment in the state of California. For more information about federal income tax credits for National Register properties, contact the National Park Service or the State Office of Historic Preservation.
Grants
Funds for historic preservation projects have come from the
federal or state government, or from voter-approved bond acts.
The State Office of Historic Preservation distributes these
funds as directed in the legislation or bond act, and ensures
that the preservation projects follow appropriate standards.
The California
Heritage Fund Grant Program, which is administered
by the State Office of Historic Preservation and the State
Historical Resources Commission, is offering $474,000 in grant
funds from the California Heritage Fund. Initial competitive
grants ranging from $25,000 to $474,000 will be awarded. To
qualify, projects must be listed on the National Register of
Historic Places or registered as either a State Historical
Landmark or Point of Interest. For further information, please
contact SHPO at (916) 653-5789.
Loans
The National
Trust for Historic Preservation offers loans
for preservation of historic structures and properties. The
Trust's very informative home page has more information.
Flexible Building Codes
Owners of Landmark properties qualify for use of the more
flexible State Historic Building Code (SHBC) for rehabilitation
of structures. The SHBC supplants the Uniform Building Code
(UBC) and is particularly useful in code issues related to
requirements for plumbing, electrical, structural, seismic,
fire safety, energy requirements, and disabled access. The
SHBC allows greater flexibility in enforcement of code requirements.
All older buildings, because they were built before present-day
code requirements, are out of conformance with the latest UBC.
The most important aspect of SHBC is that it allows the City's
Building Official to make a determination that a building's
internal systems are reasonably safe (if in fact they are)
without automatically imposing the requirements of the modern
UBC. It should be clearly understood that in most cases the
SHBC does not allow standards to be waived. Instead, SHBC provides
for alternative methods to be achieve reasonable levels of
safety. Where prescriptive code alternatives are not identified
in the SHBC, discretion lies with the Building Official in
determining how individual provisions of the SHBC are interpreted.
A licensed architect familiar with SHBC can help you determine
the specific advantages to using the SHBC for your structure.
back to top
Historic Plaque Program
 The City of Rancho Cucamonga's Historic Landmark and Point of Interest Plaque Program was initiated in 1991, and was created to identify the Historical Landmarks and the Points of Interest throughout the City. The program was updated in 2000 and again in 2004, to give more owners the opportunity to participate in the program to identify their historic properties. A recent phase was completed in 2007 to include more properties, trees, and corridors that have been identified as landmarks (such as the Victoria Avenue Street Trees, Highland Avenue Street Trees, and the Pacific Electric railroad corridor).
A bronze plaque measuring approximately 11 inches by 7 inches is mounted onto a Victorian Style mailbox. The plaque is headed by the City of Rancho Cucamonga's crest (a grouping of grapes) and text.
The program remains voluntary and there is no cost to the homeowner.
Free Information
Owners can receive free information from the Planning Division
regarding restoration and rehabilitation. A variety of materials
are available to help you plan and design the repair, restoration
or modification to a historic structure. back to top |
