Historic Preservation Ordinance Amendments Designed to Address Implementation Issues Approved By Council

The City Council on Monday unanimously approved proposed changes to the Historic Preservation Ordinance designed to address issues which arose after the previous revision of the ordinance last year.

After the revised ordinance took effect in April 2021, city staff identified an implementation concern with the ordinance, as well as ‘clean-up items’ that it recommended be addressed with a series of amendments.

“I’m very supportive of these changes. I’m really glad that we did that really quickly. This has only been six months so we really looked at that once we realized there was an issue,” said Councilmember Felicia Williams.

One of the most significant changes included in the ordinance amendments is the return of the establishment of landmark districts to a neighborhood-driven process.

Prior to the April 2021 HPO amendments, the establishment of landmark districts was a process initiated and proposed by property owners to protect the character of historic resources.

As a result the revisions to the HPO, the City has been required to conduct an Historic Resource Evaluation (HRE) of properties for landmark district eligibility when a property owner proposes a demolition or major alteration to a building over 45 years of age and, if a new landmark district is identified in that process, landmark district regulations would then be imposed on property owners that may not desire to have them imposed upon them.

In addition, the HPO requires HRE for routine window replacement projects, which could then result in the identification of a new landmark district and imposition of regulations that are not supported by property owners.

The newly-approved amendments limit the HRE requirement to evaluations for individual eligibility only and not landmark or historic district eligibility.

The ordinance also specifies that window replacement is a minor project unless two or more changes to the original window’s design features are proposed.

The Planning Commission earlier opposed this staff recommendation and instead recommended that even a single change to window design should go before the Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) for evaluation.

Commissioners agreed that an evaluation is necessary as this will serve as a deterrent to people who want to change the character-defining feature of their windows.

There is no fiscal impact associated with the adoption of the proposed revisions to the HPO, according to the city.