Demolition ordinance sent back to committee

Dust flies in the air as demolition of I-Hall on the grounds of the old Missouri State Penitentiary continues. Funds for the work wwere provided through a state community development block grant awarded to the city in 2010.
Dust flies in the air as demolition of I-Hall on the grounds of the old Missouri State Penitentiary continues. Funds for the work wwere provided through a state community development block grant awarded to the city in 2010.

A proposed demolition ordinance for Jefferson City is headed back to the city's Public Works Committee, where it will be heard again after the full City Council held a work session on the ordinance Monday night.

The committee will meet June 22 and could make a decision on forwarding the ordinance onto the full council for debate.

The Historic City of Jefferson organization introduced the ordinance to the Historic Preservation Commission in September 2015. The commission worked on it for 18 months and approved its version in February.

Last month, the city's Planning and Protective Services Department took public comments on the proposal - 34 in favor and 12 against. After the ordinance was introduced and discussed at the April Public Works meeting, committee members said they wanted a council work session to resolve any issues, preferably before work begins on the city budget this summer.

Among the requirements of the proposed ordinance, establishing a "Historic Preservation Commission Boundary" drew the most comments.

The proposed boundary would cover Belair Drive on the west, Stadium Boulevard on the south, Grant Street on the east and Missouri River on the north. All other properties not within the designated boundary would not be subject to the historic preservation review, unless designated as a local landmark, local historic district and/or on the National Register of Historic Places.

At Monday night's work session, city planning and protective service personnel said after a further review of public comments, the city could adopt the boundaries already in place for the Old Town area, which are very similar to the proposed ordinance. The Old Town boundary is an established area and has received federal funding.

Age of the structure considered for demolition also drew a lot of discussion. Currently, a site is considered for historic preservation if a property is 50 years or older, the standard used by federal agencies as a threshold for review properties for historical significance.

Planning staff at Monday's work session suggested if demolition review is to be for a very large area, city leaders may look at increasing the property age to 100 years for historic consideration. The staff cited other Missouri cities historic preservation efforts and noted Independence has a process applicable to all structures within the city more than 100 years old.

The Jefferson City proposed ordinance would apply for reviewing properties 50 years and older, but a potential change discussed was using a tiered system: For structures 50-75 years old, the review would be similar to what is currently in place. For structures 75 years or older, there would be a more intensive review that could send the matter to the City Council.

Other items in the proposed ordinance:

Continuing to allow the Historic Preservation Commission 60 days from an application's submission to provide a recommendation on issuance of a demolition permit. HPC denial of a permit would forward the application to the council.

If the council rejects the HPC recommendation, the permit would be suspended for at least 30 days so the commission could explore other avenues to save the property.

If the City Council affirms the denial recommendation, the applicant could appeal to the Circuit Court.

"If you look at the ordinance we are proposing, as far as the Historic Preservation Commission goes, nothing changes," Historic Preservation Chair Art Hernandez said. "The only thing that would change is that if we say the property has historic qualities that need protection, the appeal process begins with you (the city council), but it doesn't end with you. Right now, there is nothing to stop a person from applying for a demolition permit and going ahead and destroying a property. Current ordinance has nothing that allows my commission to say 'City Council, please stop this."

Hernandez added no one complained about the 50-year threshold when the commission approved the proposal in February. He also said he had argued for the boundary to encompass the whole city, but said he was in the minority of the commission vote.

Speaking on behalf of the local Home Builders Association (HBA), Heath Clarkston said they and the Jefferson City Area Board of Realtors support historic preservation and working to get things like the Historic Preservation Tax Credits. He said HBA would support the Old Town boundaries, not citywide which would bring in a lot of properties.

"The issue is delay," he said. "Delay is a problem for builders and a problem for Realtors because people can decide not to move forward. I like getting rid of the 30-day stay, not because I think it's a problem. But I think it is just another delay that could cost us contracts and could keep people from purchasing or remodeling a home.

"We are talking about private property rights," Clarkston added. "I think we always need to think in the back of our mind, if that was our property, versus, what would we want to do with it."