Thursday, February 08, 2007
Historic district is sound public policy
From the RoundTable blog
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Warner Dalhouse
Dalhouse lives in Moneta and is chairman of Hometown Bank.
There has been quite a bit of healthy and illuminating dialogue recently about the process and the guidelines for repairing and maintaining homes in the historic district of Old Southwest, including an editorial, a helpful op-ed piece by Lora Katz, chairwoman of the Architectural Review Board, and a neighborhood meeting held the evening of Jan. 17 at Highland Park School. But not much has been said about why we have such a district and why it is important to maintain the character of the district.
We are fortunate that we have the second-largest historic district in Virginia. We have such a district because the residents of the area requested it to protect their mutual interests. It is sound public policy.
Older cities like Alexandria and Fredericksburg have many remarkable 18th century buildings, some covered by aluminum facades before enlightened self interest put guidelines in place to stop such short-sighted "modernizing." Richmond and Lynchburg also have historic districts designated to protect the character of their unique neighborhoods.
Roanoke doesn't have buildings as old as those, but we do have Old Southwest and the City Market area, both unique to Western Virginia.
Those designated historic districts are not capricious, unreasonable barriers to maintenance and repairs, or even to expansion. They are there to enhance and sustain real estate values, first of all, for the residents of the district but also for the community at large. They protect the unique, irreplaceable character of the districts and give character and charm to the entire city.
Old Town in Alexandria, Georgetown in Washington, D.C., Pacific Heights and Russian Hill in San Francisco are absolutely irreplaceable in those cities. Our impressions and memories of those cities are indelibly affected by our awareness of those historic areas.
Can you imagine those iconic pale blue, yellow and green frame houses clinging to the steep hills of San Francisco ever being renovated to some other appearance? They are as much a part of the character and charm of that city as the cable cars, so tenaciously retained there in spite of the cost and hassle of keeping them.
Roanoke was chartered in 1882. The railroad had just come to town. The Old Southwest area was created during the following years, when we were known as the "Magic City" because of the rapid growth caused by the railroad. Many of the houses were built decades later but, in whole, constitute an appealing and unique part of our relatively young city.
The urge to preserve the character of the district by preserving the historic appearance of the houses is not some mindless impulse for preservation. It is to protect the value such an architectural gem constitutes for the entire city, but especially for those who live there.
The historic guidelines serve to sustain and enhance property values, not destroy them. Not to preserve the district would damage property values for those who live there and play by the rules, and would destroy a major element in the character of the city.
Aubrey Hicks brought his unfortunate circumstances on himself by deliberately trying to circumvent the Architectural Review Board and the guidelines. He was aware of the conditions of the historic district when he moved onto Day Avenue. The ARB has not been unreasonable. It would have liked to have guided him to an acceptable solution such as less expensive architectural asphalt shingles, but he put the board in an untenable position by being duplicitous. Now, apparently, the courts will decide.
Beginning with the McGuire Building, the old farm implement building which now constitutes the core of Center in the Square; the Shenandoah Hotel, which extended the market retail area to Williamson Road and provides living space for the out-of-town actors of Mill Mountain Theatre; the essential restoration of Hotel Roanoke, certainly the critical heartbeat of downtown; the creation of the Higher Education Center from the N&W general office building; the miraculous transformation of Jefferson High School into Jefferson Center and the Shaftman Performance Hall; the conversion of the old Raymond Loewy designed N&W passenger station into the Convention and Visitor Center and the O. Winston Link Museum, surely one of the finest small museums anywhere; and the heroic saving of the Grandin Theatre, which spawned a resurgence of commercial development in the Grandin Road area, we have proven the economic value of the preservation of our historic heritage.
Old Southwest is a wonderful neighborhood and a significant part of our heritage and character. It makes eminently good economic sense to guard and enhance that value for everyone by sensible and consistent application of the guidelines of the historic neighborhood overlay district.
