But the new initiative promises to dig even deeper and wider to learn which properties are historic, what historic resources are important and what’s worth preserving.

The outcomes are far from clear.

It could mean more textured recognition for the former Cardinal Bar, 418 E. Wilson St., which is a landmark because of its architecture but was long owned by former Ald. Ricardo Gonzalez, the first openly gay Latino official in the nation, or for Native American mounds on the North and Far East sides.

“We don’t have it all figured out,” Fruhling said. “What we really know is there’s a lot we want to find out. A big challenge of this plan is to identify things we don’t know.”

Revisiting the rules

As the city begins its outreach for the preservation plan, it’s also unfolding a process to re-examine the individual ordinances for each of its five local historic districts.

Some of the ordinances are 40 years old and haven’t been significantly modified since they were created. The ordinances range in detail from Mansion Hill’s single page dating to 1976 to First Settlement’s six pages approved in 2001.