Lock Replacement in Mesa, AZ

Historic districts and what needs review

The city lists eight historic districts: Evergreen, Flying Acres, Fraser Fields, Glenwood/Wilbur, Robson, Temple, West Second Street and West Side - Clark. Inside them, Section 11-74-3 of the Zoning Ordinance requires a Certificate of Appropriateness for a list of changes, and the list includes doors, door frames, and screen windows and doors.

Some timing details are worth knowing before you order hardware.

• The Historic Preservation Officer's answer is due within 10 city business days of an application arriving: approval, or written findings on why clearance was refused.
• Complete applications are due each Monday, and staff send written comments within 10 working days of accepting one.
• The decision rests on the U.S. Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation, which the ordinance names as the test.
• A denial can be appealed to the Historic Preservation Board, and that board's decision to the City Council.

Both the ordinance and the city's process page carve routine maintenance, repair and like-for-like replacement of materials out of that review. Whether a new lock set on an existing door counts as like-for-like is a question for city staff, so ask before you buy. North Evergreen was platted in 1910 and Vista Gardens in 1947, so two houses in one district can call for quite different hardware, and photos help either way.

Associations outside those districts

Not every older-looking street is a historic district, and newer neighborhoods have their own gatekeepers. Dobson Ranch, built between 1973 and 1999, has a homeowners' association. The Las Sendas association's website has an Architectural Review section, and the developer's disclosure statement for Eastmark describes a Design Review Committee. Whether a lock on the front door falls under that review is the association's call, so ask it in writing.

Matching the new lock to the door

A new lock has to fit the door already there. Measure the door's thickness, note the diameter of the hole cut for the lock and check whether the wood or metal around it is sound. A split edge or a warped frame may need lock repair before new hardware will sit properly.

Measurements and details to send

• the neighborhood or subdivision, and whether it is a historic district or has an association
• the door material and thickness, if you know them
• photos of both faces and the edge of the door
• why the lock is being replaced: worn out, broken, lost keys, an upgrade or a mismatch among doors
• whether every door should end up with matching hardware

If the lock works and only the old keys are the worry, lock rekeying may be enough. Historic-district and neighborhood background continues on the Mesa page.