Looking back on it, few should be surprised that preservation efforts, both historic and environmental, were so aggressive prior to 2008.  The construction industry, which single-handedly does more to alter the natural and urban landscape than any other entity, was building at an artificially fast pace, boosted by demand that really wasn’t there.

So it should also be no surprise that in a post-boom era, conservation groups are making up for lost time, buying up land for a fraction of the price it once demanded.

From the New York Times…

The victories [for conservation groups] reveal a green lining of sorts in a credit crisis that has depressed real estate prices, spawned foreclosures and derailed development projects across the nation.

The purchases by conservationists and state and local governments assure that thousands of acres will be put aside in perpetuity for parks, watershed protection or simply preservation of open space.

“We are getting a second bite at properties that never should have been developed in the first place,” said Will Rogers, president of the Trust for Public Land, a national nonprofit group that buys land for preservation. “We are working on dozens of these deals across the country, and I know other land trusts are as well.”

At last night’s city commission meeting, the commission accepted a detailed Historic Resources Survey of Decatur (page 15 of pdf), compiled by Keystone Preservation Associates and Morrison Design, LLC.

At a cost of $35,000, the months-long survey, which documented every single parcel within the city limits, was one of the outcomes of the ugly clash between residents, city boards, cats and dogs over a proposed Oakhurst Historic District in 2007.  Among the many aspects of the initiative that confused and angered all parties was a lack of information on historic inventory within the neighborhood.

So the city ponied up the dough and funded an extensive survey that documented the entire city.  According to a letter to the commission by Planning Director Amanda Thompson…

This report will help the city move forward with several long term preservation goals including awareness and appreciation of Decatur’s historic resources by making the survey results available online and determining a timeline and cost proposal for creation of National Register listings.  We will also use the report to explore the world of heritage tourism and if that is a market the city is interested in pursuing.

Missing from the city’s stated goals is any mention of the creation of any additional local historic districts, which is the only way to physically regulate design in a neighborhood. (National Register status mainly provides tax incentives to residents to rehab property and creates red-tape for federal government-funded development)

That said, a portion of the survey was included among last night’s meeting materials and identifies 13 neighborhoods inside the city limits that would be eligible for some form of historic designation.  They are… Read the rest of this entry »

Well it sure didn’t take Atlanta long to begin its slow turn away from preservation in an economic downturn.

“A dozen people, among them preservation leaders and residents of historic districts, appealed to the City Council’s Community Development/Human Resources committee Tuesday to rehire Karen Huebner, executive director of the city’s Urban Design Commission.

Huebner was one of the 222 city employees laid off recently as the city sought to offset a $50 million budget shortfall.”

Here’s the money quote…

“A weakened UDC bodes badly for historic preservation in the city,” said Kevin Kuharic, historic Oakland Cemetery’s director of restoration and landscapes.

“In other cities like Savannah where preservation is a way of life, it wouldn’t matter as much,” he says.

“Atlanta needs that layer of protection and guidance. We can look to the past and see what happened without it.”

Just got the schedule for this Saturday’s 1st Annual Decatur Old House Fair!

Looks like Regina’s lined up some really great speakers…and its only $10 if you buy tickets in advance (list of merchants here), and $15 at the door.  The full schedule is online, but here’s a taste…

• A historic window restoration workshop
• A sensitive additions seminar from an architect and preservationist from re-FORM
• A “Research Your House” seminar with GA resident expert Ken Thomas (who also happens to be a Decatur resident!)
• A “What Style is Your House?” seminar
• A seminar on “greening your old house”
• A seminar on historic landscapes
• A “How to Hire a Contractor” seminar by Renewal’s CEO
• A “Remodeling for Sustainable Living” seminar

I’m obviously a nut for this sort of thing so I’d say any ONE of these seminars is worth the price of admission.

Over at The Decatur Minute, Regina also promises free goodies from vendors…and free coffee.

Again, it’s 10a-5p this Saturday at the Holiday Inn Conference Center/Plaza/Whatever.  If I’ve missed anything, any and all details can be found HERE.

Realtor Barb Rowland sent along some info over the weekend that details who’s taking over the upper floors of the ol’ Trust Building.

Here’s the abbreviated version w/ available links…

1. Clinical psychologist Dr. John R. Lucy
2. Doherty, Duggan & Rouse Insurors
3. Two Friends Import Company
4. Premier Polygraph Services
5. Ringer Photography
6. The Nicholson Group – small business consulting
7. EyeFly Design – graphic design firm
8. A Change of Care – nurse consulting services

Quite an eclectic mix! They’ll have a Grand Opening this Friday, June 13th from 4-8p for those interested in wine, cheese and an open house of these new businesses.

Additionally, David (at InDecatur) got this response from Barb about the lovely stuccoed half-facade that veils the front of the building.

“The difficulty with renovation [besides it is very expensive] is the surprise of what is behind the stucco? From what we understand it is not Brick under most of it, but several types of surfaces and apparently quite a procedure and risk of taking the stucco off to examine. But at some point, hopefully in 2009 we will examine further and work toward a historical look.”

Hmm…are downtown business owners interested in making downtown a National Register Historic District? Then all qualified rehabilitation of historic structures (like the Trust Building) would be eligible for Sonny’s new, generous tax credit. We’re talking up to $300,000 here folks (25% of total project cost). All you have to do is register the district (write a nomination) and get your rehab signed off by the NPS. OK, so you gotta fight through a little government tape…but now it seems totally worth it.

OK, I’m a few days behind on this news…but to those preservation-minded individuals in the area, its huge.

Back on May 15th, Sonny signed House Bill 851, which increases the historic preservation tax credit from $5,000 per building renovation/rehabilitation project cap to a whopping $100,000 for residential properties and $300,000 for commercial. ALSO, it increases the tax credit to 25% of the total project cost for both residential and commercial. Much better than the old 10% for residential and 20% for commercial!

As always, in order to qualify the building must either be individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places or a contributing structure in a NRHP-listed historic district. To those a little gun shy about local historic districts as of late, don’t confuse a National Register District with a local historic district, as they are completely separate entities. In fact, Decatur’s MAK District is the only historic district in Decatur that is both a local historic district and a National Register district. None of the other local districts have yet to apply for NRHP status. Both of Decatur’s current National Register areas are in Oakhurst. South Candler/Agnes Scott and Winonna Park are the only National Register Districts in Decatur. To see a full list of Decatur properties on the NRHP, click here and search “GA” and “Decatur”. (Not all search results are in the city of Decatur)

Unlike a local historic district, National Register districts exist mainly to provide tax incentives to property owners, along with providing some pseudo-protection in the case that the state or federal government wants to tear down your property (to build a highway or government building, etc…)

If you already own a NRHP property and want to rehab it to receive the tax credit, the final step is getting your renovation plans approved by the National Park Service.

Hopefully this mammoth increase will not only motivate residents to rehab their historic properties, but also create a few more NRHP districts in the area, which get residents learning more about the unique heritage of their neighborhoods.

Rus sends in this article from the Dalton Daily Citizen…

ATLANTA – Twelve Georgia communities will be receiving a federally funded grant to conduct historic preservation projects to begin in May 2008 and be completed by August 15, 2009. A total of $75,315.60 in grants from the FFY2008 Historic Preservation Fund was awarded this year.

The recipients are as follows:

City of Decatur–$3,000 to conduct an old house fair and workshop. 

I’m pretty sure this is a matching fund, meaning the city will have to shell out $3,000 as well to take advantage of it.

And $3,000 certainly isn’t much, but Federal Historic Preservation $ has been getting slashed for years.  For example, as recently as 2004, GA received $653,497.  Compare that to the $75k in 2008 and you see that its been a pretty drastic shift in policy.

But any money is better than no money, and perhaps it will expose a few new folks in our city to some of the basics regarding their historic homes.

Chief among them: Restore, Don’t Replace.

If you’re working on a big restoration project regarding a commercial building or B&B, doing so might just qualify you for a 20% tax credit.

It’s likely that you’ve already come across Monday’s front-page AJC article that discussed the potential razing of the award-winning Buckhead Library (see Flickr photos of the library here) in favor of ominous “mixed-use development”, but as a bleeding-heart preservationist I felt like I should do my part by exposing a few more people to this threat.

I’m not going to reiterate the facts presented in the article, but I will make this point. Like everything in life, our community needs to show a little restraint when developing our urban environments so we don’t destroy the rare structures that give our city character. And we certainly can’t blindly rely on private interests to show this restraint, because turning a profit and creating and preserving art have never gone hand-in-hand.

So its a torch that the general public must continue to carry.

And we must not stop carry the torch for only the currently fashionable; the craftsman bungalows, the Fox Theater or the Old DeKalb County Courthouse. We must provide equal protection to the modern and post-modern structures (built within the last 50 years) that face a much faster developing world than their predecessors.  We look back at those that wanted to destroy the Fox in the 1970’s and think, “who could have even contemplated such an act!?” But architecture too goes in and out of fashion, and 10 years from now you’ll be asking yourself why we allowed the Buckhead Library to be demolished, like you ask yourself how you ever walked around in public with teased out hair.  If you turn a blind-eye to the high-style architecture of the past 20 years just because it doesn’t fit your taste, you’ll be committing the same sins as the prior generation that bulldozed the early 20th century downtowns and neighborhoods in the name of urban renewal.

I understand we can’t stand in the way of progress.  Much modern mixed-use development being built today has tremendous value in terms of function, while a smaller sample will (hopefully) stand for centuries as the high-art that will define our young century. For those that claim function and frugality, I respect their need but do not honor their legacy. For those that will stand in our tribute, I welcome them with an open-mind.  But neither structure should ever be built on top of structures that define what came before us.

If you’re in favor of saving this rare 1989 city landmark, you can sign the petition here and follow progress at the new Save the Library blog.

(Photo courtesy of Wizum on Flickr)

h/t: Pecanne Log

InDecatur morns the loss of Decatur High Stadium, with a full report from last night’s Decatur City Commission meeting where commissioners approved a new master plan for the high school complex.

Green space seems to be a key concern of the DHS master plan, with the biggest change being the replacement of the current parking lot behind the stadium with plans for a quad in the long term. See InDecatur’s post for many more details of the meeting including a bizarre altercation between the mayor and a resident identified as “Paul”, who “implied he knew why he was not being given the respect the Commission usually offered others, and would make that public.” Uh…OK.

David goes on to accept some of the blame for the stadium’s demise, along with other DHS alums. “We, the alumni of DHS and friends of history, have to take some blame here. Had we started a SAVE OUR STADIUM campaign back in late summer, when we first learned of the plan, and had we developed and presented alternative plans, this travesty might have been prevented.”

I, for one, like the new plan’s inclusion of more green space and the new auditorium, but do believe the stadium might have been saved through remodeling and incorporated into the new plan rather easily. Especially if the new men’s and women’s locker rooms, which was a main justification for a new stadium, will be housed in the new auditorium anyway [according to inDecatur].

The Decatur Stadium issue is a perfect example of the struggle preservationists are currently having with themselves over their own philosophy. For 50 years, preservationists have waved the flag of mixed-use development, maintaining green space and retaining character, because these were the qualities of the downtowns and neighborhoods that were under attack by urban renewal.

Today, the argument has been turned on its head.

Read the rest of this entry »