Keep it midmod

What Sacramento’s Eichler Historic District Plan Says

The City of Sacramento adopted the South Land Park Hills (Eichler) Historic District Plan on May 21, 2024. It covers 48 residential buildings put up in 1955 and 1956 by the developer Joseph Eichler. This page goes through the plan section by section, in plain language, with a link to the plan itself.

• Defining featuresForm, roofs, siding, windows, entries, garages and front yards.8 groups
• Five house plansJE-85, JE-14, JE-83, JE-84 and Fairmeadow, each with its own features.5 plans
• Typically exemptProject types the plan lists as usually exempt from design review.14 project types
• Design standardsAdditions, new buildings, windows, fences, lighting and more.13 sections

How to use this page

This page restates one document: the South Land Park Hills (Eichler) Historic District Plan, adopted by the City of Sacramento on May 21, 2024. We put it in plain language and keep its order, so you can read our summary next to the plan itself. Each section below links to the plan, which opens in a new tab.

The plan applies only inside the district it covers. If your home is there, go by the plan and by city staff, not by this page; the plan itself tells owners to check with city staff on whether a project can be exempt. If your home is somewhere else, none of this is a rule for you. It is still worth reading, because it shows how one city has written down what makes an Eichler tract look the way it does, and what it asks of changes there. This page is not legal advice.

We name the district, the builder, the architects and the house plans. We leave out the addresses and example houses the plan uses.

The plan at a glance

• Sacramento, California

  South Land Park Hills (Eichler) Historic District Plan

  Adopted

  May 21, 2024, by the City of Sacramento

  Covers

  48 residential buildings in a Mid-Century Modern style with California Ranch influences

  Built

  Between 1955 and 1956

  Builder

  The developer Joseph Eichler, in partnership with Moss & Moss developers

  Architects

  A. Quincy Jones and Frederick Emmons (Jones & Emmons) of Los Angeles

  Tract

  South Land Park Hills Unit No. 7

  Period of significance

  1955 to 1956

  Register

  Sacramento Register of Historic and Cultural Resources

  The plan says houses that Eichler built here but that have since been modified are inside the district boundaries as non-contributing resources. On our site, the glossary explains contributing and non-contributing, period of significance and what a historic district plan is.

  Source: District plan (PDF) · On our site: historic districts page

How the tract came about

The plan opens with a short history. It says Eichler Homes was founded in 1947 and built over 11,000 homes, and it ties the houses to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Usonian idea: concrete slab foundations with radiant heating built in, and modular floor plans.

The architects were A. Quincy Jones and Frederick Emmons of Los Angeles, partners for 18 years. The plan says Eichler sought out Jones in 1950, and it names the Ladera Project (1952), a seven-unit development in Portola Valley, as where their work together started. It says the firm went on to design approximately 5,000 of Eichler’s 11,000 California homes. One of its examples is Greenmeadow in Palo Alto (1952–54), 244 properties, now a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places.

In Sacramento, Eichler worked in partnership with Moss & Moss developers. The plan says the initial 59-home South Land Park Hills Unit No. 7 was advertised in Sacramento newspapers during May 1955, as part of what Eichler intended as a 143-home tract. It says the sales brochure advertised four house models, and that Plan JE-89 was not built. The plan gives two counts: 59 homes completed in Unit No. 7, and 48 residential buildings in the district it describes.

On our site: Jones & Emmons, A. Quincy Jones in our Southern California A to Z, Joseph Eichler and Greenmeadow’s history.

The features that define the district

The plan lists the features that define the district. It says they must be evident for the district and its contributing resources to keep their status on the Sacramento Register. In our words:

• Form. One-story houses, horizontal toward the street and rectilinear in overall form.
• Roofs. Flat, nearly flat or very low-pitched gable roofs. Eaves often reach well past the walls for sun protection. The plan gives the roofing as rolled roofing or tar and gravel.
• Siding and walls. Plywood siding scored with narrow vertical grooves, and concrete block wing walls laid in stacked bond. The plan says brick, stucco and wood shingles are not found on Eichler homes.
• Windows. Very few window openings on the front. Long, narrow or triangular clerestory windows sit high on the wall at the roofline. At the rear and sides, floor-to-ceiling glass with vertical wood divisions, and sliding glass doors.
• Entries. Solid, smooth wood front doors. In two of the house plans (Fairmeadow and JE-83) the door is reached through an open entry atrium; in the other three it is on the side of the house, out of view.
• Garages. Always part of the body of the house and its roof. The plan describes two-car garages with paired door bays and a thin vertical wood division between them, and says vertical-groove sheathing appears to have been the most common cladding for garage doors.
• Streets and front yards. Curving streets, a consistent front setback, and front yards that read as shared space across lot lines, with one or two specimen trees, turf and low shrubs. The plan records that some owners have since turned to xeriscape. Our gardens guide covers the yard standards.
• Heating, cooling and structure. Radiant heating in the concrete slab, and post-and-beam construction. The plan says the houses were not designed with ducted air conditioning or much insulation, and that roof-mounted Coolair air-cooling units, also known as swamp coolers, supported their passive cooling.

On our site: post-and-beam construction, clerestory windows and the glossary entry for defining features.

The five house plans

The plan identifies five house plans in the district, gives a count of known homes for each, and lists the design features of each one. The five counts add up to 47; the plan describes the district as 48 residential buildings.

• 18 known homes

  Plan JE-85

  The most common of the five. Typically a U-shaped plan with three bedrooms and two baths, under a low-pitched, gable-front roof. The entry is along the side of the house, out of view. One vertically aligned window faces the street, with an exposed concrete block wing wall extending to its side. The garage has a single or double door bay, and clerestory windows sit high on the wall under the slope of the roof.

• 10 known homes

  Plan JE-14

  Typically a T-shaped plan with three bedrooms and two baths. The roofline is low-pitched, nearly flat and floating, with exposed rafter ends. An all-purpose room sits at the front wall line. Paired and single vertically aligned windows flank a slightly inset front door, and the garage forms an end bay that projects forward of the front wall.

• 8 known homes

  Plan JE-83

  Typically a U-shaped plan with four bedrooms and two baths, under a flat or nearly flat roofline. A small entry atrium holds the front door, set into its back wall. Paired window openings sit on the front wall next to the atrium, and the garage has paired door bays.

• 8 known homes

  Plan JE-84

  Typically an H-shaped plan with four bedrooms and two baths, under a low-pitched floating roofline. The all-purpose room is at the front wall line and the garage forms the end bay. Clerestory windows sit high on the walls at the roofline, with extended rafter ends.

• 3 known homes

  Fairmeadow plan

  An L-shaped plan with three bedrooms and two baths. A flat roof with a recessed entry courtyard, a two-car garage facing the street, exposed post-and-beam brackets and horizontal grooved siding.

Source: District plan (PDF). On our site: Jones & Emmons floor plans and where to look for Eichler plans in the archives.

What is typically exempt from design review

The plan lists project types that are typically exempt from design review. It adds a note to check with city staff on whether a specific project can be exempt. The 14 types, in our words:

1. Any interior improvement.
2. Detached accessory structures such as sheds or gazebos, if they meet the standard code requirements.
3. Solar panel installations or repairs.
4. Most mechanical equipment replacement or repairs.
5. Repairs to, or installation of, pools or hot tubs.
6. Repainting, with the minor like-for-like trim or siding repairs that go with it.
7. Some window replacements.
8. Re-roofing, including gutter replacement.
9. In-kind repair or replacement of an HVAC system.
10. Building or replacing a fence as the standard code requirements allow.
11. New landscaping.
12. New hardscaping.
13. Underground utilities.
14. Maintenance of a home’s existing features.

The list is about design review under this plan. For permits, ask the city. The standards below still say how the plan wants windows, fences, solar panels and mechanical equipment handled.

The design standards, section by section

The section numbers below are the plan’s. The short titles and the wording are ours. Section 1.0 is about non-contributing houses, sections 2.0 and 3.0 about additions and accessory buildings at contributing houses, and section 4.0 about new construction and alterations to contributing houses.

Plans and codes change. Read the current text at the link above and ask city staff before you rely on any of it.

Terms the plan defines

The plan ends with a glossary. 13 of its terms, in our words:

• Clerestory windows. A row of windows at the top of a wall, above eye level.
• Contributing and non-contributing resources. Buildings in a historic district are classed by their historical significance and condition. Contributing buildings date from the district’s historical period and have kept their condition from that time. Non-contributing buildings were built later or have been significantly altered.
• Concrete masonry unit. A standard-size, pre-cast, rectangular concrete block.
• Stacked bond. Masonry units set directly on top of each other, so the horizontal edges and vertical joints run continuous. The plan says the pattern is used where the wall carries no load.
• Wingwalls. A smaller wall attached to, or set next to, a larger wall or structure, often built of stacked masonry units.
• Post-and-beam construction. A building system that uses vertical and horizontal wood members to make the frame of a building.
• Rolled roofing. A mineral-surfaced roofing material that comes in rolls.
• Vertical-groove siding. Siding in which vertical boards are separated by vertical grooves. The plan ties it to the mid-century period.
• T-1-11 siding. Compressed wood textured for a channeled or grooved look.
• Modular floor plans. Floor plans that can be modified or changed.
• Smooth-finish concrete. Concrete finished to a smooth surface with screed and trowels.
• Usonian. From “Usonia”, the term the plan says Frank Lloyd Wright coined for the United States and his vision for its landscape.
• Xeriscape. A style of landscape design that needs little or no irrigation or other maintenance.

The plan also defines bay, board-and-batten, datum line and historic context statement. Our own preservation glossary covers terms such as historic context statement, integrity and design review.

Rules for Eichler homes in other places

The Sacramento plan is one city’s document. For Eichler and mid-century homes elsewhere, start with these pages on our site:

• Mid-century modern historic districts: the districts we have found, each with a link to its record. Sacramento is in the California section.
• City guidelines and overlays on Keep It Midmod: the rules and guidelines a few cities and one county have written for their Eichler tracts.
• Palo Alto’s Eichler design guidelines and Sunnyvale’s Eichler design guidelines.
• Design guidelines for mid-century modern homes and the Remodel Rules Finder.
• Front-yard rules in two Eichler neighborhoods: this plan’s yard standards next to the Marin County standards for Lucas Valley.

What the plan puts into words

Outside the district, nothing here is a rule. The plan is still a useful model of how to write an Eichler tract down. Six things it does:

1. It describes the houses before it sets any standards. Form, roofs, siding, windows, entries, garages, streets and front yards each get their own description.
2. It names each house plan. Five plans, each with a count and a list of its own features, so an owner can tell which one they have.
3. It says what is usually exempt. Fourteen project types, from interior work to new landscaping, with a reminder to check with city staff.
4. It keeps additions off the front. Rear or side only, side additions set back, entry courtyards left open, and second stories held to the rear.
5. It treats small things as part of the picture. Garage doors, fences, light fixtures, driveways and rooftop ductwork each get a standard.
6. It defines its terms. A glossary at the end explains the words the standards use.

If your own neighborhood is thinking about something similar, see how to start a mid-century historic district and Keep It Midmod.

More on our site

• Jones & Emmons and Jones & Emmons floor plans: the architects of the Sacramento Eichlers.
• Joseph Eichler: the developer and his company.
• Streng Brothers homes in Sacramento: our post on another group of mid-century houses in the Sacramento area.
• California mid-century modern timeline: people, offices and districts in date order.
• Eichler plans and archives: where drawings and records are kept.
• Mid-century modern gardens and front yards: what the records say about yards, fences and planting.
• The ten rehabilitation standards, read for a mid-century home: the National Park Service’s ten principles, one at a time.
• How to read a National Register nomination: the form, section by section, with four mid-century neighborhoods.
• Post-and-beam repair, Eichler siding replacement and solar permits in the Bay Area.

Questions and answers

We want Eichler tracts to stay recognizably Eichler, and a plan like this one shows what that takes on paper. Our own work is in the Bay Area. If you are getting ready to repair, add on to or sell an Eichler or other mid-century home there and want a second pair of eyes on what you have found, call the Boyenga Team at (408) 373-1660 or (650) 383-8606, or write to MidMods@Boyenga.com.