Some Thoughts on the Successful Administration of a Historic District Ordinance

By Michel R. Lefevre

Taking the first missteps

It has frequently taken years — even decades — of community effort for the passage of a historic district ordinance by a municipal council. Too often, the best intentions of a small group of influential and concerned citizens who worked hard to develop a proposed historic district ordinance have been dashed when word spreads that property owners will be faced by an onerous ordinance that regulates what they should or should not do to their properties. Rumors fly, gruesome scenarios are imagined, council or township board members receive telephone calls from irate citizens in the late evening hours who lambaste them for even considering the idea. What could ultimately be an excellent approach to promoting a municipality's historic architecture and cultural resources is prematurely rejected even before it has had a chance to be debated, explored, and attempted.

What went wrong?

When governing bodies officially advertises a meeting to introduce the historic district ordinance and to seek public input, it's inevitable that certain individuals — who, for decades, haven't been involved in local government affairs whatsoever — attend the meeting to object to the ordinance for reasons that all too often are based more on a misunderstanding of the goals of the ordinance or because they fear that they will be required to "restore" their property causing them a major financial burden. Some believe they should be able to do what they wish with their properties, although they would be among the first to complain to municipal officials if their neighbor constructed a ten-foot-high stockade fence blocking their view. The idea that a group of self-appointed arbiters of taste will now oversee what they can or cannot do to their homes is, for many, the proverbial last bureaucratic straw to break the camel's back. But the question that needs to be asked is: Could these misconceptions have been avoided?

Failure is paved with good intentions

The ad hoc committee that initiated the idea of protecting the community's historic built environment was most likely motivated by a genuine concern for the loss of historic buildings, the imminent demolition of a local landmark, or for the gradual but pronounced deterioration of a residential neighborhood or loss of retail businesses on Main Street.

Instead of involving the public to discuss what should be done about these problems and seek community comment, the committee came up with a "ready made" solution unintentionally disregarding community input. What commonly results is that concerned citizens get together to develop a historic preservation ordinance based on a model available from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission's Bureau for Historic Preservation and too hastily want it enacted by the governing body. The ultimate result is often failure, not only because the public has not been involved in the discussion, but because the average person is generally not familiar with the arcane wording of statutes or ordinances. The wording of many such ordinances and statutes seems obscure and difficult to understand. Ordinances are often written in general terms but what is actually regulated can be and is more than likely less restrictive than the wording allows. However, on an initial reading an individual may throw up his or her hands in dismay or disgust and reject the entire ordinance without fully comprehending its provisions, thereby rejecting the whole rather than the offending part.

What vision?

While many have grown weary of hearing about the "visioning" process, if there is time and some funding, as well as no imminent threat to a historic building or structure, historic preservation advocates may find that the community will support the preservation of the municipality's cultural resources if it has an opportunity to participate in an open and facilitated discussion about the community's future. When members of the community, young and old, working and retired, are asked what it is about their community that they want to retain, change, or improve, it's surprising that there tends to be a consensus that the historic built environment and traditional neighborhoods are worthy of preservation. Sure, the jargon of the preservationist or professional planner may not be the one used, but the basic fact holds true: people who care for their community want to preserve a great portion of its physical appearance. They still want to see some changes, new construction, and new businesses, but generally they want these changes integrated into the existing built environment. Ironically, the individuals who care most for their community unwittingly sabotage their hard work by alienating friends and neighbors because they failed to involve them in the discussion.

Strategic gaffs that good intentioned township, borough, or city residents sometimes make:

• Promise that property values will rise within a short period once a district ordinance is passed. (It may take several years for property values to increase.)
• State that that the municipality will not incur extra costs to administer the ordinance. (The fact is some costs, even if minimal, will be incurred.)
• Neglect a segment of the population, such as Latinos, teenagers, the elderly, during outreach or informational initiatives. (Successful programs engage all segments of the community in meaningful dialogue.)
• Discount the fact that the ordinance will create yet another layer of bureaucracy and another mile of red tape. (An ordinance will create both, but the inconvenience is well worth it because the results are positive.)
• Ignore the objections of certain property owners who feel that their private property rights are jeopardized. (It is better to admit at the very beginning that passage of a historic district ordinance can be an inconvenience at times and that a property owner may give up a certain amount of autonomy over his or her property, but that the benefits almost always outweigh the disadvantages.)
• Discount the extra work this will create on already overworked municipal employees. (Nearly all municipal employees already have more work than they can handle.)
• Initiate a historic district ordinance for reasons other than the preservation of historic districts. (Some people erroneously believe that a historic district ordinance will discourage, prevent, or remove undesirable persons from living in a designated historic neighborhood.)
• Fail to meet with civic, business, and fraternal organizations to explain the purpose of the ordinance. (Individuals, institutions, and organizations should be made to feel like stakeholders.)
• Fail to alert district justices (magistrates) of the purpose of the historic district ordinance. (It is worth remembering that our form of government is made up of three branches.)

What successful municipalities do

There are several important steps that the municipality will need to undertake if it is to succeed in administering its historic district ordinance and, in a larger sense, its historic preservation program. The following suggestions are certainly not intended to be implemented all at once; instead, consider phasing them over time as resources allow.

Key: indicates priorities

• Prepare the public for the effect of the ordinance
  
  Publicize that new regulations have been established and the reasons for them through local media
  • Develop, print, and distribute informational brochures about the historic district and the ordinance and the responsibility of property owners and contractors

  • Develop, print, and distribute historic district design guidelines to explain and illustrate the appropriate and inappropriate maintenance, repairs, and design approaches, and to provide an overview of the history of the municipality, its architectural styles, a map of the district, and the steps required by property owners and their contractors to acquire a certificate of appropriateness.

• Notify property owners, contractors, real estate agents and brokers of the positive effects of the ordinance.
  • Alert local contractors, including signage firms, of the passage of the ordinance and the steps that property owners will have to follow before work can proceed on a property in the historic district.

  • Alert real estate firms to notify prospective buyers of properties in the historic district of the ordinance. The Realtors Association© requires this disclosure.

• Prepare municipal staff for administering the ordinance
  • Allocate space for file cabinets, desk, computer, etc.

  • Purchase digital camera for documenting projects

  • Develop an essential library of historic preservation books

  • Become a member of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the National Alliance of Preservation Commissions, and Preservation Pennsylvania, Inc.

  • Develop a certificate of appropriateness application form

  • Develop a flow chart showing the steps to acquire various permits such as zoning, subdivision, and building including the certificate of appropriateness

  • Cleary define the role of the code administrator who will be overseeing the administration of the ordinance. Make certain he or she is supportive of the goals of the municipality, or at a minimum fully understands its purpose.

  • Designate who will be responsible for taking the Board of Historical Architectural Review meeting minutes, prepare the meeting agenda, and send notification letters to applicants for certificates of appropriateness

  • Appoint professionals to the Board of Historical Architectural Review as required by state enabling law, i.e., registered architect, building inspector, licensed real estate broker

  • Coordinate historic preservation efforts with Main Street, Elm Street or Downtown Improvement District managers and their boards, chamber of commerce and other community groups

  • Identify and apply for grants that can assist the municipality to implement many of its preservation initiatives

  • Apply for the National Park Service "Certified Local Government Program" (Several municipalities have done so and benefited from grant awards.)

If you suspect that establishing a historic preservation program and administering a historic district is serious business, you are correct. However, this ought not to dissuade a municipality from going ahead. Municipalities considering this planning approach can learn a lot from many of the experienced staff and volunteers of well administered municipalities with historic districts and preservation programs, many of which have been in existence for more than several decades. To name just a few, consider the following boroughs: Newtown, Doylestown, New Hope, Gettysburg, Hollidaysburg, Chalfont, Harmony, Bellefonte, Carlisle, Phoenixville, and Pottstown, and townships: Lower Merion, Cheltenham, Warwick, West Whiteland, etc. All these municipalities have stayed the course over many years and the result can't help to convince the most skeptical person: that a well administered historic preservation program and historic district ordinance makes for an economically viable and vibrant place to work and live.

The successes of these boroughs and those of townships, and cities attest to the viability of implementing an array of historic preservation activities. In fact, just in the past five years a number of municipalities have enacted historic district ordinances or expanded their historic districts, of the latter Doylestown and Gettysburg are two that come to mind. Of the former there are quite a number: in Allegheny County three contiguous municipality sharing one historic district have combined their efforts by contributing members to one Board of Historical Architectural Review they are: Homestead, West Homestead, and Munhall; The following municipalities recently enacted historic district ordinances they are: Centre County, Millheim; Cumberland County, Mechanicsburg; Lancaster County, Columbia; Montgomery County, Norristown and North Wales; Pike County, Milford; and Tioga County, Wellsboro.

In conclusion, to establish a historic preservation program that includes the passage of a preservation or historic district ordinance or historic preservation "overlay" in the zoning ordinance and expect positive results it may be a good idea to confer with municipalities that have stayed the course over the years. Attached are the names, telephone numbers, and e-mail addresses of your colleagues.

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Article reprinted by kind permission of Michel R. Lefevre, PHMC. Contact mlefevre@state.pa.us or telephone at 717-787-0771. Michel R. Lefevre is chief of preservation planning and education outreach for the Bureau for Historic Preservation; he provides technical assistance on the establishment and administration of historic districts and preservation programs.

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