The Phoenix Historic Property Register is divided into three groups: Residential Districts, Nonresidential Districts, and Individually Designated. The registration pages point to a map tailored to historic preservation features via the I17 map icon, . A few helpful map use tips are found below in a question and answer format.

Note that HPO staff are working on pointing all the individually designated sites to the map also. A preview version of the individually designated page with map references is available here Individually Designated(preview version). The main difference is that dates and comments are missing at this point. It is hoped that the preview page is useful until staff complete this project.

Another project that HPO staff are working on is the publication of property surveys. Property surveys help justify why a property is located in a district, stands alone as an individually designated property, or are excluded from historic designation altogether. A map interface is used to locate the numerous surveys. Please note that you must use a recent version of your web browser software to use this new map. Currently, the map shows the individual properties in the surveys. You must zoom into the lowest three levels to see the individual properties. In addition, a link to the Maricopa County web site is available for research of tax credit status and assessor related information. The final part of the project is to load all of the survey forms. Hence, even though the maps show links to these surveys, the links are broken until the forms have been loaded. Please visit the extended preview map here.

Questions and Answers

Q: What does the blue plus sign at the top of the upper right hand corner of the map do?

A: The top plus sign enables the layer switcher. The first section of the layer switcher lets you select the base layer or base map that the historic areas will be displayed on. Only one base layer can be selected at a time. The base layer section allows you to select your choice of aerial images and road maps. The second section, called overlays, allows you to turn off and on types of historic areas. Unlike the base layer section, the overlays section allows you to enable or disable multiple layers at one time.

Q: How does the HPO web map compare to the official zoning maps?

A: There's no doubt that the zoning maps are the official record of historic property designation. However, there are times when it is hard to locate the HP or HP-L zoning overlays on a zoning map. Three sample designations have been circled in solid back in the image above. (The zoning map segment is from the same area along 7th Street as HPO map in the first question.) The specialized HPO map allows you to focus in on just the property location and other related historic information. You can always use the official zoning maps for additional research once the property has been located.

Q: What does the "Select by Hover" and the "Select by Click" radio buttons do?

A: The map is designed to allow you to scan through the properties on the Phoenix historic property register in the "Select by Hover" mode. The "Select by Click" mode was created for two maps in development. The "Click" mode freezes the data in the site information banner upon mouse click of each property of interest. This mode helps during research of tax information at the assessor's web site, for example. It is hard to reach the links in the site information banner when the desired property is in a sea of other historic properties. You may accidentally change the site information as your mouse moves across the map to the banner in "Hover" mode.

Q: Sometimes I can't use a mouse. Is there another way to navigate the maps?

A: Besides grabbing the map with the mouse to pan around the map, these keys are available to perform some of the same panning and zooming functions on the map:

Q: In a similar question to the mouse/keyboard question, do you plan on supporting touch devices like Android tablets or phones?

A: A release candidate map with touch support is available now. Once the 2.11 version of the OpenLayers map software has been released, the touch interface will be available in the main map. The "Select by Click" mode of the map is required. Touch each property to see the historic property information in the site banner.

Q: What functionality does the "Permalink" provide in the lower right hand corner of the map?

A: As you move the mouse around the map the coordinates of the map are displayed at the very bottom right hand corner of the map. The coordinates are impossible to copy for your own location projects because mouse movements change the coordinate values. The way to solve this problem is to first center the map at your desired location. Next right click on the "Permalink" and use your web browser's "Copy Link Location" option. The copied link will record the zoom level, latitude, longitude, and both the base layer and overlays that you were using at the time you copied the link. The coordinates are suitable for GPS devices or other web mapping applications.

Q: How do I research the tax status on the Maricopa County website?

A: The historic property tax credit is not a City of Phoenix program. However, the map helps you locate the tax status information. Once the city designates a property or district with the HP or HP-L zoning, an application for the Arizona State tax credit can be submitted. There is one more qualifying item for the tax credit, if your property is in a historic district. You'll need to know if the property contributes to the historic district or not. Your property may be inside a district's boundary but does not contribute to the historic district for some reason. If your property does not contribute to the district, then the tax credit is not available. As shown in the image above, you'll need to look at the "Legal Class" line of the "Valuation Information" for the property of interest on the assessor's website. If the class is not a six, 6, then the property does not have the credit. The following table has some of the legal classes that are found in the residential historic districts. Classes three and four are good candidates for the historic property tax credit. Class four is a candidate, if you are purchasing this historic property as your primary owner occupied residence. Owner occupied residences are the last criteria for the historic property credit.

Q: What if there is a mistake in the OpenStreetMap map data?

A: OpenStreetMap, OSM, map information is contributed by people like you. You can sign up for an OSM account and make changes based on your knowledge of the world or correct mistakes. This is something that other web maps don't always let you do. You can view the main OpenStreetMap page for web mapping parties and see how other individuals have contributed map information. One idea is that you can also submit GPS traces from your latest hunting, fishing, or bicycle trip. Another idea is that you can drag a Point Of Interest, POI, icon onto the OpenStreetMap map to mark the great lunch location that you just found. In the case of historic preservation, additional features around your favorite historical site can be added to the map for others to see.

Attribution and Thanks

Special thanks go to a number of projects and individuals that hosted map data or posted OpenLayers map making examples. These individuals and groups helped to make the Phoenix Historic Preservation Office map possible.

• OpenStreetMap: The Free Wiki World Map project.
• Mapquest hosted OpenStreetMap map tiles.
• OpenLayers: Free Maps for the Web javascript mapping library and tutorials.
• Everaldo Coelho for the map help icon.
• Matthew Kenny for his early ESRI ArcGIS OpenLayers examples.
• Peter Robbins for his OpenLayers tutorials.

• E-mail
• Print