One of Susanville’s first ordinances, was a real attention getter and would dramatically change the town’s business district. Adopted in 1902, Ordinance No. 17 prohibited the construction of wooden frame buildings in the heart of the town’s business district—the four blocks on Main Street between Roop and Gay. It required building plans be submitted to the city clerk and to designate whether the building materials were brick or native stone. Roofs were required to be metal, slate or tile. This it was deemed to reduce fire, something that was dominate issue in the town’s history. In 1912, the ordinance was amended to include the block from Gay to Weatherlow.
In 1914 the ordinance was challenged in court. O.M. Doyle who wanted to build on the southeast corner of Roop and Main Streets, but thought the cost of non-flammable building materials was prohibitive. The judge in the case upheld the city’s ordinance. Doyle then had a two-story property constructed on the property in question, that became known as the Del Mar, which still stands today.