Whenever the Building Commissioner or the LHDC has reason to believe that an action for which a Certificate of Appropriateness is required has been initiated or is about to be initiated... the Building Commissioner shall make every reasonable effort to contact the owners, occupants, contractor or subcontractor and inform them of proper procedures.
That clause sits inside Florissant's historic preservation ordinance for a reason. Enough homeowners in Old Town have replaced a window, put up a fence, or reroofed a house without asking first that the city wrote a two-step response for it: a warning, then a stop work order delivered by certified mail if the work continues. A second stop work order is available if the first one doesn't take.
If you own, or are considering buying, a home inside the boundaries of Florissant's "H" Historic Districts, this is the rule that will shape your timeline more than anything a home inspector finds. It's also the more honest explanation for why homes in the Old Town core tend to price below the rest of the city. Not because the houses are worse. Because the rules attached to them are different, and buyers price that difference in whether they realize it or not.
Two districts, rules older than most of the code around them
Florissant established its historic preservation ordinance in 1971, well before most of the residential zoning categories governing newer subdivisions elsewhere in the city took their current form. That ordinance created two Historic Districts, Historic Residential and Historic Business, both centered on the oldest part of town near City Hall. Exterior design inside those boundaries answers to what the city calls the Old Town Guidelines, which trace back to an Old Town Development Plan dated August 18, 1970. In October 2001, the city added Certified Local Government status from the National Park Service, tying its review process to federal preservation standards.
The city doesn't run this alone. A coalition of four nonprofits, including Florissant Old Town Partners, the St. Ferdinand Shrine, Historic Florissant, and the Florissant Valley Historical Society, works alongside the city on preservation efforts. The actual review authority, though, sits with one body: the Landmark and Historic District Commission.
What actually requires sign-off
The LHDC, seven residents appointed by City Council, reviews any application for construction, alteration, off-site relocation, or demolition affecting a designated Landmark or a Historic District Contributing Resource. That list runs wider than most sellers expect. It isn't limited to additions and teardowns. New siding, replacement windows, fencing, and roofing material all count as exterior alterations subject to review, because the guidelines exist to protect what a passerby sees from the street.
The commission meets once a month, the first Monday at 7 p.m. in the second floor conference room of Florissant City Hall. If you're planning pre-listing repairs on a contributing home, that meeting date is your real deadline, not the day your contractor happens to be free. Missing it by a week can mean missing it by a month.
For anyone trying to work inside that calendar, the sequence looks something like this:
- Confirm whether the property sits inside an "H" Historic District or carries a Landmark designation. Public Works can answer this directly at 314-839-7648.
- Identify whether the planned work touches anything visible from the street. Interior renovations and mechanical systems, HVAC, plumbing, electrical, generally fall outside review because they don't change the exterior.
- File the Certificate of Appropriateness application ahead of the next first Monday meeting, not the week you want work to start.
- If a proposal is denied and a genuine financial hardship exists, a Certificate of Economic Hardship is a separate track worth asking about.
- If work starts before approval, expect contact from the Building Commissioner first, then a certified-mail stop work order if the work continues anyway.
What skipping the step actually costs
That last point matters more than it sounds. A seller who reroofs or fences a yard the week before listing, without checking district status first, can have a project halted mid-stream, with a certified letter as the formal notice. That's a timeline problem no amount of staging solves, and it's exactly the kind of friction that surfaces only once a transaction is already in motion, not during the planning conversation where it belongs.
The price gap this produces
Here's where the mechanism shows up in the numbers. The most recent published read on the Old Town Florissant core, covering January 2026, put the median sale price there at $177,000, with homes selling in an average of 16 days, down from 17 a year earlier, and 13 recorded sales that month, itself up from 11 in January 2025. Citywide, Florissant's median sat at $200,000 as of March 2026, with homes across the city going to pending in around 17 days as of a February 2026 update, and an average home value of $187,589 that same month.
| Old Town Florissant core (Jan. 2026) | Citywide Florissant | |
|---|---|---|
| Median sale price | $177,000 | $200,000 (Mar. 2026) |
| Typical time to sale or pending | 16 days | 17 days (Feb. 2026) |
| Exterior repair process | Certificate of Appropriateness, LHDC review | Standard building permit |
That gap isn't a verdict on the neighborhood. Homes there still move at close to the same pace as the rest of the city, and with only 13 sales in a single month, the median can swing hard on which two or three houses happened to close. What the gap more likely reflects is the cost of compliance built into ownership. A buyer weighing a contributing resource against an equivalent house outside the boundary is pricing in a rule that says the next roof, fence, or window replacement runs through a monthly commission meeting instead of a same-week permit desk.
What "contributing resource" means for your next renovation
Not every house inside the boundary carries the same weight. A designated Landmark and a Historic District Contributing Resource both trigger review, but a property built after the district's period of significance, or one that's lost enough historic integrity, may not carry contributing status at all. Buyers should ask directly, before writing an offer, which category a specific house falls into.
Old Town still holds several of the structures that make the case for why the rule exists in the first place. The August Aubuchon-Herbst House and Casa Alvarez, both dated to 1790, rank among the oldest buildings still standing in the city, joined by Hendel's Market, built in 1873, and the Narrow Gauge Railroad Station, built in 1878. Buying into that streetscape means buying into its maintenance rules along with it, and knowing that going in changes how you budget for the first renovation.
What this means for your timeline, whichever side you're on
None of this is a reason to avoid Old Town Florissant. It's a reason to sequence things correctly. If you're selling a contributing home, the pricing conversation needs to happen before the repair conversation, because a repair that needs LHDC approval can add a month to prep in a way a standard permit never would. If you're buying one, the renovation plan you sketch out before closing needs a realistic calendar attached to it, not the assumption that a contractor can start next week.
A couple of questions worth asking early
Does the Certificate of Appropriateness apply to interior work? No. Review covers exterior alterations, construction, relocation, and demolition. Interior renovations and mechanical system work fall outside it.
What if work already started without a certificate? Contact Public Works before a contractor goes further. The code allows the Building Commissioner to make a reasonable effort to reach owners and explain the proper procedure before a stop work order is issued, and that conversation is easier to have before certified mail arrives than after.
If you're weighing a sale inside Old Town Florissant's boundary, or looking at a contributing-resource home from the buyer's side, talk it through before you touch a hammer. Finest Homes Network can walk the district lines with you, sequence pre-listing work around the LHDC's calendar, and price the home honestly against what buyers are actually paying for houses carrying this designation. Schedule a consultation and we'll build the timeline together.
