Bill sets guidelines on historic districts

A House of Delegates committee has proposed a bill that would establish guidelines for forming or expanding local historic districts.

House bill 1137, a substitute amendment proposed Friday by the Committee on Counties, Cities and Towns, would require localities to identify and inventory landmarks within a proposed historic district before it’s established or expanded. It would also mandate a majority of properties within a proposed historic district must be considered historic.

In addition, the bill would require communities to establish criteria for inclusion in a historic district and allow public input from affected property owners before an area is included. Also under the bill, local historic district boundaries could be adjusted to exclude properties along the perimeter that do not meet criteria.

“What we’re trying to do is try to strike the right balance between property rights versus an overall community right to designate a historic district,” said Chip Dicks, an attorney for the Virginia Association of Realtors, which, along with other organizations, provided input for the substitute amendment.

Organizations that assisted with the amendment include the Virginia Municipal League, Virginia Association of Counties, Virginia Department of Historic Resources and preservation groups.

Upgrading or remodeling a property in order to meet historic guidelines can be costly and time-consuming, requiring approval from an architecture review board, Dicks said. Inclusion in a historic district can yield tax benefits.

The committee proposal is a substitute amendment for a previous bill introduced by Delegate Danny Marshall, which would have allowed property owners to opt out of inclusion in historic districts. Current law allows a locality to establish a historic district in an area without a majority of historic properties.

“The bill has changed considerably for the better and to the approval of preservationists,” said Sonja Ingram, field representative for Preservation Virginia.

“The whole purpose of a historic district is to have a mixture of historic structures, streets, open space and landscaping that together define the historic character of an area,” Ingram added.

Danville has one local historic district — the Old West End. The others are national and state districts, Ingram said. Structures located within local historic districts must follow guidelines established for those districts.

There are three types of historic districts — local, state and federal. The committee’s bill would only apply to local districts.

For example, if a community wanted to establish local historic designation for a six-block section, but two blocks did not have majority historic properties, they would not be included, Dicks said. However, property owners with historic real estate in those two blocks could petition their local government to be included, Dicks said.

Marshall said the House will vote on the bill Tuesday.