SWCA and City of Colton Honored with California Preservation Foundation Awards

The California Preservation Foundation (CPF) recently honored a project in partnership between SWCA and the City of Colton, Calif., with two prestigious accolades: the 2025 Preservation Design Award and the CPF Trustees Award for Excellence.

The award-winning project, City of Colton Cultural Resources Element: A Road Map for the Future, was considered and selected among several entries in the Cultural Resource Studies, Reports category.

SWCA collaborated with Colton’s Planning Division, Historic Preservation Commission, and City Council, and invited public and stakeholder input to update the Cultural Resources Element.

At over 20 years old, the previous element did not reflect current best practices for identifying and preserving cultural resources or conducting meaningful consultation with local Tribal groups.

The updated element addresses community members’ concerns and appeals for stronger protection of the city’s rich heritage and Tribal Cultural resources. It reflects extensive public engagement, Tribal representation, and community feedback, responding to concerns about increasing development pressures and the potential loss of cultural resources.

The element’s structure centers around five consistent goals — identify, document, preserve/protect, educate, and celebrate — and utilizes a user-friendly matrix layout to clearly connect action items to overarching objectives. This unique approach ensures clarity, transparency, and inherent community support for the outlined policies.

This update to Colton’s General Plan offers a comprehensive road map for the city’s cultural resources program and can serve as a model for other cities.

After extensive public and Tribal review, in May 2024, the City Council adopted the Cultural Resources Element, which now forms part of the City’s planning and entitlements process.

Ultimately, the new Cultural Resources Element positions the local government to better protect the region’s significant cultural resources in the face of development, while fostering effective collaboration with Tribal groups and the broader community.

In addition to winning a 2025 Preservation Design Award, the City of Colton Cultural Resources Element project received the CPF Trustees Award for Excellence, a special recognition honoring outstanding projects among the year’s award winners.

Principal Project Manager Stephanie Cimino accepted the awards on behalf of SWCA’s Cultural Resources team (Susan Zamudio-Gurrola, Lead Architectural Historian and Senior Vice President, John Dietler) alongside representatives from the City of Colton at the California Preservation Awards ceremony in Sacramento last month.

Cindy Heitzman, Executive Director of the California Preservation Foundation, acknowledged the project team with the following sentiments: “Your work sets a standard of excellence, safeguarding California’s irreplaceable architectural and cultural heritage. Your efforts not only protect our past but also inspire communities to embrace and invest in preservation for future generations”.

Left to Right: SWCA’s Co-Author Stephanie Cimino, Project Manager Debi Howell-Ardila, and Colton Planning Manager Mario Suarez