McCall, Idaho
Area Historic Preservation Plan
Brief Description
This Plan will guide the commission and other stakeholders to better promote and protect McCall’s cultural heritage and its architectural character. Community feedback via surveys and virtual meetings allowed for The Craig Group to understand what was needed and build a plan with goals and objectives to match. For example, the survey responses showed a need for indigenous collaboration, therefore we built into the plan for them to include indigenous and marginalized peoples into future actions and efforts. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was not possible to host in-person meetings, therefore, engagement was limited to virtual formats. Nevertheless, The Craig Group delivered a Historic Preservation Plan and partnering StoryMap to City Council for unanimous approval.
Integrating Historic Preservation
McCall Idaho has a history tied as much to its natural resources as its cultural ones. Historic resources including log structures, wood and brick storefronts, vernacular style homes and mid-century buildings—are integrated into an environmental setting where water meets forest. Appreciation of cultural traditions and practices such as cambium bark peeling is only now being shared at locations such as Rotary Park. Yet travelers to McCall, while being offered the opportunity to learn more about the community’s indigenous peoples, its forestry history, and its growth as a recreational mecca, are causing new threats to the city’s heritage assets. McCall is losing historic places to the mounting pressures of development. How the City and the McCall Historic Preservation Commission respond to that threat, is the basis for this revised McCall Area Historic Preservation Plan.
This Plan will guide the commission and other stakeholders to better promote and protect McCall’s cultural heritage and its architectural character. The Plan presents a vision, mission, goals, objectives and actions intended to better inform and educate residents, visitors, businesses, property owners and developers as to the social, cultural, and economic value of protecting McCall’s historic buildings and settings from which the city prospers.