Review & Compliance

Introduction and Background • So, why should you care? • What are Cultural Resources? • Why are cultural resources important? • How do we protect cultural resources? • Legal Authorities

Review Process

Flow Chart • Step One – Records Check • Step Two - Inventory • Step Three - Evaluation • Step Four – Impact Assessment • Step Five - Mitigation • Review Process – The Players • Planning for Preservation • Coordinate and Communicate • Summary of Points to Remember

Compliance Requirements and Processes

Introduction • Review Process • Comprehensive Plan Amendments • Rezoning Requests • Grading Permit •Right of Way Use Permit • Guidelines for Pima County Cultural Resources Compliance • Cultural Resources Action Request Form (for internal Pima County use only - PDF)

Introduction and Background

Pima County’s cultural resources program was created in 1989 with the hiring of the first county archaeologist. Since 1996, the office has been a part of Pima County Administration. Linda Mayro is the Cultural Resources Manager and directs a staff of four, including two archaeologists/cultural resources specialists, a historic preservationsist, and an administrative support specialist.

The Pima County Cultural Resources and Historic Preservation Office (Cultural Resources Office) has many responsibilities:

• We are responsible for assisting all county departments in meeting the county’s cultural resources requirements under county, state and federal law.
• We provide assistance and technical advice to private developers and the general public.
• We serve as the county’s regulatory office concerning cultural resources compliance requirements.
• We manage Bond projects for the acquisition and restoration of important cultural sites.
• We are engaged in regional planning and have been heavily involved in the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan.
• We seek grants for preservation projects.
• We engage in public outreach, education, and training.

So, why should you care?

If you are planning a residential or commercial development, large or small, we can help you meet the cultural resources requirements of the county as well as any state and federal requirements that might apply. We can also help you resolve cultural resources issues that you may not be aware of, but are required by law to address, to avoid unpleasant surprises during planning and review.

In the following sections, we’ll outline the county cultural resources compliance review process, and we’ll discuss some of the issues concerning development projects in Pima County. We’ll cover the following subjects:

• Definitions and concepts
• Legal authority
• Compliance review process
• Planning for preservation
• Summary of points to remember

Hohokam images

What are Cultural Resources?

• Archaeological sites
• Historic sites
• Traditional Cultural Places

Archaeological Sites

• Definition: Any material remains of past human life or activities that are preserved in their original setting that are important to understanding prehistory or history

Archaeological sites represent the physical remains of past human behavior in a single location dating to one or more periods of use in time.
These may include places where people lived, where they hunted and gathered their food or harvested their crops, where they worshipped, buried their dead, and fought their battles. An archaeological site is any place where artifacts and/or cultural features are concentrated on the landscape that represent past human activities that are 50 years old or older.
This definition has been broadly applied to include prehistoric and historic sites of all time periods, functions, and spatial distributions from the earliest human occupation some 12,000 years ago to the 1950s.

Pima County is rich in cultural resources and many archaeological sites are known. For instance, although only about 12-percent of the landbase of Pima County has been archaeologically surveyed, more than 4,000 archaeological sites have been recorded. The remaining 88-percent of the county is yet to be surveyed, but it is certain that thousands of archaeological sites exist in the unsurveyed portions of the county. Perhaps one or some of them await discovery on land you plan to develop.

Historic Sites

• Definition: Sites, districts, structures, objects, or other evidences of human activities that represent facets of the history of the nation, state, or locality

Historic resources include a wide variety of sites, buildings, structures, and objects, including residences, commercial establishments, engineered features such as roads and bridges, schools, churches, military forts, cemeteries, parks, and streetscapes.
These kinds of resources typically date to within the last several hundred years. Currently, there are about
4000 recorded historic sites in Pima County, mostly buildings, and mostly in Tucson. There are 121 historic sites listed on the National Register of Historic Places and
26 National Register Historic Districts.

Traditional Cultural Places

• Definition: Places associated with the cultural practices or beliefs of a living community, that are: (a) rooted in that community's history, and, (b) important in maintaining the continuing cultural identity of the community.

The cultural significance of Traditional Cultural Places (TCPs) is derived from the role these resources play in a community's historically rooted beliefs, customs, and practices. Cultural resources that meet this definition are typically identified as being significant to Native American communities, but not exclusively.
These can include a place where traditional plants used in a ceremony are gathered, a natural landscape feature associated with an event or figure important in creation myths, or a spring revered because of its life giving water.
There are about half a dozen well documented TCPs in Pima County, but many more remain undocumented.

Why are cultural resources important?

• Vestiges of our collective heritage
• Contribute to a sense of place and cultural identity
• Scientific, educational, recreational, aesthetic, and spiritual values
• Finite, fragile, irreplaceable, non-renewable

Cultural resources have the potential to tell us about who we are and where we came from.
And, once they are gone, they are gone forever.

How do we protect cultural resources?

• Historic Preservation: A process whereby the effects of planning decisions on cultural resources are considered in accordance with law

There are historic preservation laws on the local, state, and federal levels throughout the country.

Legal Authorities

• Arizona State Antiquities Act 1927
• Pima County Board of Supervisors Resolution 1983-104
• Arizona State Burial Act 1990
• Pima County Comprehensive Plan 2002
• National Historic Preservation Act 1966