HistoricPlacesLA documents and organizes information for two kinds of resources in the city: Designated Historic Resources and Surveyed Historic Resources.

Designated Historic Resources include buildings, structures, objects, sites, or districts officially designated as historic by the National Register of Historic Places, the California Register of Historical Resources, or the City of Los Angeles. Historic designations in the City of Los Angeles include both Historic-Cultural Monuments (HCMs) and Historic Preservation Overlay Zones (HPOZs). Information on designated historic resources can also be found at zimas.lacity.org.

Until all historic resources data is in HistoricPlacesLA, continue to search in ZIMAS for properties and districts formally determined eligible for listing in the National Register (NR) or the California Register (CR) by the Keeper, Part I Tax Certification, or through a Section 106 process, or other federal regulatory process in addition to HistoricPlacesLA.

Surveyed Historic Resources Include individual or district resources identified through SurveyLA or other study officially recognized as a historic resources survey. Though not all, some Surveyed Historic Resources may be Eligible Historic Resources, meaning potentially eligible for historic designation under local, state, and/or national historic preservation programs.

For purposes of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), Designated Historic Resources are considered “Historical Resources,” while Eligible Historic Resources may be considered “Historical Resources.” (PRC 15064.5(a))

See Using ZIMAS to Find Historic Preservation Information for a step-by-step guide to using the ZIMAS database to find out if a particular property in the City of Los Angeles has a historic designation or has been formally determined eligible for listing in the National Register (NR) or the California Register.

Resources in HPLA will have an associated status code that denotes which preservation program (local, state, or national) they have been designated under or are eligible for designation under. Status code and resource information can be found in the Resource Reports for properties included in the HPLA inventory. Some historic resources may be assigned a status code indicating they are not eligible for designation or that additional research is required to make a determination. See How to Search for more information.

HistoricPlacesLA includes a number of planning districts, which are areas not eligible for historic designation, but whose information and data may be useful for long-range community and land-use planning. Planning Districts are not included in the Historic District map layer; for a filtered view of Planning Districts, see the Planning District overlay layer.

Additionally, a limited amount of properties found not to be eligible for designation when surveyed can be found in HistoricPlacesLA with one of the following survey status codes assigned:

6Z: Not eligible; Determined ineligible for National Register, California Register or local designation through SurveyLA or other survey evaluation

6LQ: Not eligible: Area determined ineligible for district designation through SurveyLA; neighborhood or area may warrant special consideration for local planning

6LS: Individual property identified through SurveyLA as ineligible for National Register, California Register, or Historic-Cultural Monument designation; may warrant special consideration for local planning

7SQ: Not eligible; individual property assessed for significance in accordance with SurveyLA but does not meet eligibility standards

See the How to Search page for videos and step-by-step guides on how to conduct searches using the interactive map within HistoricPlacesLA.

Much of the data in HistoricPlacesLA is from historic resources surveys conducted for the City of Los Angeles, such as SurveyLA, a citywide survey that systematically identified and documented Los Angeles’s cultural heritage resources. This also includes data from resources identified through SurveyLA’s Ethnic-Cultural Historic Context Statements.

Survey data for the following Community Redevelopment Plans has also been added to HistoricPlacesLA:

Adelante Eastside Redevelopment Area
Hollywood Redevelopment Project Area
San Pedro Commercial Center Redevelopment Area
Westlake Recovery Redevelopment Area
Wilshire Center and Koreatown Recovery Redevelopment Area

Survey reports for these areas are available in PDF format on City Planning’s Historic Resources Surveys webpage, under "Other Recent Historic Resources Surveys."

In addition to survey data, the inventory includes data on designated historic resources. These include:

City of Los Angeles

• City Historic-Cultural Monuments (HCMs)
• Historic Preservation Overlay Zones (HPOZs)

California Office of Historic Preservation (OHP) and the California Historical Resources Information System (CHRIS)

• Properties listed in the California Register of Historical Resources; however not all properties are included at this time
• California Historical Landmarks
• California Points of Historical Interest

California Office of Historic Preservation (OHP) and the National Park Service

• Properties listed in the National Register of Historic Places
• National Historical Landmarks

Data on designated resources under state and federal programs will continue to be added over time. Please continue to search for designated properties in ZIMAS.

All initial SurveyLA and historic resource survey data has been added, and data entry of newly designated historic resources is ongoing.

Please note that HistoricPlacesLA does not yet include a number of properties and districts listed on the California Register of Historical Resources. Until all designated resources data is in HistoricPlacesLA, continue to search for designated properties in ZIMAS.

Please note that properties listed in the inventory may be designated or eligible for historic designation under local, state, and/or federal programs.

For properties recorded as potentially eligible, inclusion in the inventory does not confer formal designation status on a property, nor does it ensure approval of designation. Properties that are not designated must be fully evaluated under relevant criteria to determine if they meet significance and integrity thresholds for designation, and then go through the process for formal designation.

In Los Angeles, designation does not guarantee that a building cannot be demolished, but it does delay demolition in order to create opportunities for preservation solutions to emerge. Designation ensures that Office of Historic Resources staff, trained in preservation and architecture, reviews and approves proposals for work on designated historic resources before any permits for alteration are issued. Properties designated as historic under local, state, and/or federal preservation programs are presumed to be a significant historical resource under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), triggering the requirement to perform an environmental review (that could lead to the preparation of an Environmental Impact Report [EIR]) before demolition can occur.

There is no HistoricPlacesLA mobile app. Instead, HistoricPlacesLA is accessible via a web browser with internet connection. Due to the large amount of data present in the inventory, HistoricPlacesLA is most useful when accessed from a desktop computer.

A select number of featured searches are, however, accessible via a web browser on a mobile device with internet connection at the following URL: https://historicplacesla.lacity.org/search_mobile