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Heritage Designation: A Resource Guide

Like the Community Heritage Register, heritage designation is an important component of a local government’s heritage program, as it is a recognized method to identify, acknowledge, record, and protect local heritage that has a particular value to the community.

Unlike the Community Heritage Register, designation has a more formal process that establishes the designation through the adoption of a bylaw. The heritage designation process helps the local government to understand and identify significant properties of enduring heritage value.

The goal of this guide is to support heritage designation through research, guidelines, and standards, and to address the challenges of interpretation and implementation. By understanding best practices and lessons learned, heritage designation can be successfully utilized by all local governments and regional districts.

Please note: this guide does not describe heritage conservation areas, which are a related form of designation, and it does not include references to the Heritage Conservation Act, which also describes heritage designation, but as established by the provincial government.

Download the resource guide

Or click the images to access the online chapters.

Supplement: Heritage Incentives

 

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This guide provides an overview of Heritage Designation through research and commentary. Application of this heritage conservation tool is not prescriptive, as it can be adapted to each situation. Local governments and regional districts wanting to implement the heritage conservation tools should seek legal counsel as required.
SPECIAL NOTE: It is intended this guide will develop through community input. If you have best practices and case studies that would benefit this guide, please contact Heritage BC.
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As an organization of provincial scope, Heritage BC recognizes that its members, and the local history and heritage they seek to preserve, occupy the lands and territories of B.C.’s Indigenous peoples. Heritage BC asks its members and everyone working in the heritage sector to reflect on the places where they reside and work, and to respect the diversity of cultures and experiences that form the richness of our provincial heritage.