Local Historic Designation Update

As all of you should be aware, Forest Hills is well into the process of evaluating the costs and benefits of seeking a Local Historic Designation. To date, the neighborhood has held two sets of informational meetings at Melrose Park. The first set was held on May 26 & 27. The second set was held on July 21 & 22. Powerpoint presentations given by City of Columbia Preservation Planners Amy Moore and Lindsay Crawford are available at the Forest Hills website.

Extending Interim Measures

In parallel with the process of evaluating Local Historic Designation, the Forest Hills Neighborhood Association Board of Directors requested that the city extend the coverage provided by the Interim Measures for Community Character Protection Zoning Overlay. This zoning overlay was enacted in August 2008 and was due to expire on August 6, 2010. The rationale for our extension request was to continue to provide limited protection against aggressive development while the neighborhood evaluated a permanent Local Historic Designation.

On August 2, the request for extension was brought before the City of Columbia Planning Commission. In a non-binding advisory vote, the Planning Commission voted 4-3 against recommending the extension. No rationale is given for “yes” or “no” votes, however, the Planning Commission seemed concerned about extending Interim Measures for a full two years as seemed to be required by the ordinance. Since the Planning Commission vote is advisory only, our request was forwarded to City Council. Council will hear the issue at its regularly scheduled Zoning Public Hearing at 9am on September 15th.  If City Council votes to extend Interim Measures, there will be two additional readings of the issue at subsequent City Council meetings.

Zoning Signs and Letters

It is important to note that the orange Z zoning signs currently posted in the neighborhood as well as the postal mailings recently sent by the city refer solely to the request for a temporary extension to Interim Measures and Zoning Public Hearing. Similarly, the Planning Commission vote on August 2nd dealt only with extension of Interim Measures. Our efforts to properly evaluate a permanent Local Historic Designation are in no way contingent on the Interim Measures extension. Rather, if Interim Measures are not extended, there will likely be a two or three month window before we have held a vote on Local Designation where the neighborhood will have no protection against aggressive development beyond our basic RS-1 and RS-2 single family residential zoning.

Resident Survey

As part of the process of evaluating Local Historic Designation, the ad-hoc committee for Community Character Protection and the Forest Hills Neighborhood Association Board of Directors launched a survey to systematically assess neighborhood opinions towards formal historic preservation. A description of the survey process, final results, and analysis of the final results are available on the Forest Hills website. A total of 138 separate households responded to the survey - a response rate that is greater than 50%.

In analyzing the results, we have grouped the questions into those where a significant majority of the neighborhood is in favor of oversight by the Design/Development and Review Commission (DDRC), those where there is modest support, those with neutral support, and those where a majority of the neighborhood is opposed. At an August 11th meeting, the Community Character Protection Committee unanimously voted to remove from further consideration those aspects of historic preservation where the neighborhood was either opposed or neutral. Thus, the initial draft guidelines will:

• not restrict window replacement (with the possible exception of mandating styles and profiles of windows already found amongst the historic houses of the neighborhood),
• not restrict fence materials,
• not restrict painting of masonry houses,
• not restrict shutters, and
• not restrict utilization of cement fiber siding.

Conversely, the draft guidelines will definitely incorporate those aspects where there is broad neighborhood support. These are:

• oversight of demolition and relocation, and
• review of new constructions and visible additions to ensure complimentary size, scale, rhythm of openings etc.

The gray area that is open for further debate for inclusion in the draft guidelines are those where there is modest neighborhood support. Please see the survey results for greater detail.

Conclusion

Two things have been made clear during this process.

• First, everyone who has spoken up wants Forest Hills to remain a desirable and vibrant neighborhood.
• Second, there is a wide range of opinions about what the best methods are to obtain that result - some are strongly in favor of Local Historic Designation, some are strongly against, and some are in the middle.

To facilitate the free exchange of information and opinions, the neighborhood will be launching an online discussion forum. We encourage you to join in the discussion. An email will follow in the next week with more information on the forum.

Where do we go from here?

The neighborhood Committee for Character Protection is working on a first draft of design guidelines. This process will entail debate regarding the gray areas mentioned two paragraphs earlier. After suitable debate, this draft will be passed to the Forest Hills Neighborhood Association Board of Directors. They will vote on whether to present the draft guidelines to the neighborhood. At least one more set of formal meetings will be held at Melrose Park to publicly discuss the draft. After a suitable discussion period, the neighborhood will vote on whether to apply for a Local Historic Designation with the now formalized guidelines. The results of this vote are forwarded to the Design/Development and Review Commission, the Planning Commission, and to City Council. The DDRC and Planning Commission make advisory votes and City Council ultimately decides whether to accept or reject a neighborhood's application for Local Historic Designation.

Please contact members of the neighborhood Committee for Character Protection if you have further questions. They represent a range of views from "in favor" to "opposed to" Local Designation. The committee members are as follows: George Bailey, John Cloyd, Mark Cotterill, George King, Roy Laney, Eric Powers (chair), Barbara Rackes, Jenny Smith, Reed Swearingen, Beth Wilson, and Larry Woodrum.