Melbourne Historic Preservation and the HARB — Melbourne, Florida

The Melbourne Register of Historic Places is the city's own list of protected landmarks, separate from the federal National Register. According to the City of Melbourne, since 2006 the City of Melbourne has locally designated six historic resources and one historic district, the Eau Gallie Historic District, which adds 12 contributing resources. The program sits in the Community Development Department and is run by a Historic Preservation Officer working with the Historic and Architectural Review Board, known as HARB.

The individually designated resources named by the city include the Eau Gallie Yacht Club on Houston Street, the Sea Lounge on East Avenue B, the Rossetter House on Houston Street and Highland Avenue, and properties on Pineapple Avenue, Palmetto Avenue and East New Haven Avenue. The Eau Gallie Historic District groups contributing buildings along Highland Avenue, Houston Street and Montreal Avenue in what was the separate town of Eau Gallie before its 1969 merger with Melbourne. The city also keeps a historic designation report for the Hell 'n Blazes building on East New Haven Avenue, and it has rescinded at least one earlier local designation, which shows the register can shrink as well as grow.

The bar for age is half a century. The City of Melbourne states that owners of historic buildings, structures, objects, landscape features, archaeological sites and other improvements that are at least 50 years old may apply to locally designate the resource. All owners must consent to the local designation application, so the Melbourne program does not designate private property over an owner's objection.

Two threshold tests come first: the resource must be significant in Melbourne's history, architecture, archaeology or culture, and it must keep integrity of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship or association. It then has to meet at least one listed criterion. Those include association with significant events or persons, the characteristics of a distinctive architectural style or period or the work of a prominent designer or builder, the likelihood of yielding historical or prehistoric information, existing listing on the National Register of Historic Places, or a tie to a distinctive landscape, park or neighborhood feature. The rules are set out in the Melbourne City Code, Chapter 20, Article VIII, Section 20-266.

The path to the Melbourne Register of Historic Places runs through six steps posted by the city. First, the owner submits a written petition to HARB; there is no fee to apply. Second, at a preliminary review HARB either accepts or denies the petition, and if it accepts, it sets a hearing date and directs staff to prepare a report. Third, the city's Historic Preservation Officer prepares the Designation Report and recommends approval or denial based on the criteria. The City of Melbourne pays for that report once HARB decides to move forward.

Fourth, notice of the public hearing is published in the newspaper and mailed with the Designation Report to the owner, and surrounding property owners are notified. Fifth, HARB holds its hearing. Sixth, the Melbourne City Council approves, denies, or approves with conditions the designation by resolution, and an approved property is then listed on the Melbourne Register of Historic Places. Applications for local designation are handled by the Community Development Department at City Hall.

Designation changes how exterior work is permitted. Once a Melbourne property is locally designated, the city requires a Certificate of Appropriateness, or CoA, prior to issuance of a building permit for exterior changes. The certificate is available at no cost to the applicant. Depending on the type of work, a CoA is either approved by the Historic Preservation Officer or the Historic and Architectural Review Board. If proposed work does not fit the standards, the City of Melbourne will not issue the permit. Ordinary maintenance that does not need a permit does not need a CoA.

The test applied is the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation. The National Park Service describes these standards as the criteria for certified rehabilitation under federal tax incentives and as the standards most often used by local historic district commissions nationwide, so a Melbourne CoA review draws on the same rulebook used across the country.

The review board is built around expertise. The HARB page describes a quasi-judicial board of nine, with seven regular members and two alternates, drawn from Melbourne residents or business owners with backgrounds in architecture, history, architectural history, planning, archeology, landscape architecture, real estate and general contracting. The board must include one architect and one contractor, and representation from the Melbourne Downtown and Olde Eau Gallie Riverfront redevelopment areas is encouraged. Its regular session is the third Wednesday of each month, at 6 p.m., in the City Hall Council Chamber.

HARB's reach goes beyond designated landmarks. On the Downtown CRA page, the city states that exterior changes to commercial buildings and signage in the district require prior HARB approval, and the Olde Eau Gallie Riverfront CRA page applies the same rule along the Eau Gallie riverfront. Variances for landmarks go elsewhere: the Planning & Zoning Board considers recommendations made by the Historic Preservation Board for variances of individually designated historic resources in Melbourne.

The City of Melbourne frames designation as a trade. Owners accept design review, and the city lists economic benefits that include stabilizing property values in historic areas, eligibility for property tax abatement programs, lower construction costs through reuse, and support for cultural tourism, along with cultural and environmental benefits. State law supplies the tax tool: Florida Statutes section 196.1997 allows a municipality to authorize the exemption from ad valorem taxation of up to 100 percent of the assessed value of improvements to historic properties resulting from restoration, renovation or rehabilitation. Whether a Melbourne ordinance under that statute is currently in force was not confirmed in city sources consulted on October 8, 2026.

Local and federal listings can overlap. The Rossetter House in Eau Gallie, one of the Melbourne designated resources, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, according to the Historic Rossetter House Museum. National Register listing is itself one of the criteria a property can meet to join the Melbourne Register.

Research tools sit behind the same counter. The Community Development Department at Melbourne City Hall provides copies of the Historic Properties Survey document and access to a Historic Properties Survey interactive map on request at 321-608-7500, and HARB publishes the Downtown Melbourne and Olde Eau Gallie District Architectural Guidelines, mural guidelines and an artist page for applicants planning exterior work or public art in the redevelopment districts.