Director of Development, Crystal Surdyk, addresses some aspects of the Local Preservation Ordinance during Monday’s public safety committee meeting. P-J photo by Sara Holthouse

There are a lot of questions about a local preservation ordinance that has been tabled by two City Council committees.

Crystal Surdyk, city development director, spent part of Monday’s meeting trying to anaswer some of those questions. During the council’s Public Safety Committee meeting, Surdyk said the main purpose of establishing a local preservation ordinance would be to give the city the ability to have a say in the preservation of historical buildings and districts.

Three historical districts already exist in the city, and Surdyk said a number of buildings have been identified throughout the years, with documents going back to 1993 for the downtown at least.

“The issue that we have is because we don’t have a local preservation ordinance, there are certain things like we cannot seek a historic building that we want to protect to have that put on a state or national register in any way because we don’t have the legal LPO in order to be able to do that,” Surdyk said. “So, while we recognize that we have districts and we would like to preserve historic buildings, we really have zero authority until we work through that process.”

One specific concern that Surdyk addressed is the regulations that property owners may have to follow if their house ends up in a historical district. As far as a local preservation ordinance goes, Surdyk said there is nothing that forces a property owner to do anything.

“As far as having a preservation ordinance goes and identifying historic districts, there is no regulation that forces a building owner or a property owner, whether it’s a residence or commercial, that they have to do certain things unless their building is on a national or state registry,” Surdyk said. “Right now, we have none. There is no building that qualifies to be on either of those things, because we don’t have a local preservation ordinance to enforce that.”

There are some identified contributing buildings, but Surdyk said as of right now that is as far as the city can go and is just saying if the city was to nominate buildings to be on the state or national registry, those would be the buildings recommended by the consultants that were in charge of those studies. The only way the city could have a building put on a registry to protect it would be to have an established LPO.

The ordinance requires certain types of property maintenance, according to the draft reviewed by the council this week. If the Preservation Board finds that a landmark or structure is undergoing what the ordinance terms demolition by neglect, the city’s code enforcement officer and building inspector would be given the option of repairing the landmark or structure and then billing the property owner. And, the ordinance allows the city to acquire the property by starting condemnation, 19A/B or other court proceedings. The ordinance also places a much longer delay on a proposed demolition of a derelict historic structure. A single objection can delay the process at least 120 days, during which time the applicant has to come up with a “viable” alternative to demolition.

Having a local preservation ordinance allows for the city to qualify for more state and federal funding for preservation purposes, Surdyk said. As far as property owners being able to work on their houses in historical districts goes, Surdyk gave an example of someone in the Lakeview Historic District wanting to put in new windows, which if they are using their own money and not funds from the state is something Surdyk said they can do and the city would have no say.

“If you have an interest in maintaining the historic integrity of your house, which I would hope, right, that’s part of the reason you buy a house that has historic value, it doesn’t mean that you can’t do that,” Surdyk said. “You can come to us and say, ‘hey, what would you do?’ or ‘what would you recommend?’ and we can give you guidance based on what the State Historic Preservation Office might recommend, but we can’t force you to do anything.”

Jeff Russell, R-At Large and chair of the public safety committee, asked for clarification that these new regulations would not handcuff anyone into staying within historic guidelines, and that if they did not stay within the guidelines they just would not get the financial gain from that, which Surdyk said is correct.

Surdyk said being a historic district also increases property values as part of the benefits, which also include things such as tax credits, saying that there is a benefit to having designated historical districts and having the LPO to support those districts.

“Again, you’re not handcuffed, you don’t have to abide by what the recommendations would be for historic preservation, you just get incentives if you do,” Surdyk said.

Surdyk acknowledged that Ellen Shadle, who is in charge of the project, is very passionate about it, and that the city is not looking to be stringent or handcuff people. Additionally, the ordinance is only in the first draft and changes are expected to be made before it is adopted.

The committee also discussed replacing things such as railings that might not necessarily be up to current code and retaining the historic value there, and that some buildings in the city may be on state historical registries, such as the train station and the Fenton History Center. Surdyk said she will look into those to verify.

Other information was shared to all council members by Corporation Counsel, Elliot Raimondo, who was in charge of writing the current draft of the LPO and had handouts for council members at the work session. The handouts go over specific information such as what kind of buildings would qualify for the LPO, how to legally designate a historic landmark or district and how to nominate a property or district for historical status. More discussions are set to come in upcoming council meetings in regards to the LPO before anything is approved.