Historic Districts
The purpose of Traverse City's Historic Districts is to safeguard the heritage of the City and the region by preserving the City's cultural, social, economic, political or architectural history. Strengthening the local economy and improving property values, while fostering civic beauty in the City are just a few of the goals outlined in the section of the City's zoning ordinance devoted to the Historic District Areas. Heather Edwards of the HDC, describes a historic district as, " a collection of resources that have a historic, cultural, architectural and some cases archeological significance in the community. A collection like this can be contiguous, a lot of streets together, or not contiguous, scattered throughout the community."
The duty of the appointed seven-member HDC is to protect the areas designated by the City Commission as Historic District Areas and to investigate and recommend areas that would be valuable historic districts, historic landmarks and conservation districts. Currently the City has designated three historic districts, which include the Boardman Neighborhood, Central Neighborhood, and the Downtown Neighborhood. See the map to the right.
Ms. Edwards believes that City's Historic Districts provide three main benefits to community members including, "1) a uniformity of treatment...or a treatment of due process for every individual in the Historic District, 2 ) the stabilized and increase property values that always result from Historic Districts, and 3) a record of the evolution of the built environment in the designated areas."
The State of Michigan, however, does not recognize the City's ordinance because they believe it is too lax. Amy Arnold from the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) says, "The Traverse City ordinance had a number of problems such as improper procedures for establishing a local historic district, requiring a majority of property owners to approve the establishment of a district, not clearly stating that the HDC must use the Secretary of the Interior's Standards when reviewing projects, and only reviewing work that requires a building permit even though PA 169 states "all work to the exterior is reviewed by the HDC" and "work" is defined in the Act. It became clear that in order to be consistent, ensure due process for all residents in Michigan's Local Historic Districts (LHD), and to support defensible decision-making in Michigan's LHDs, the SHPO had to comment on the issues in the Traverse City ordinance that were not pursuant to Public Act 169, Michigan's Local Historic District Act".
As stated above, one of the problems sighted by SHPO has to do with exterior changes made to homes and businesses in the Historic Districts. For example, a property owner may change the siding or an exterior light without the permission of the Traverse City HDC. However, if a building permit is issued the oversight of the HDC is required. Unfortunately, the lack of state recognition means City residents are ineligible for State aid. Ms. Edwards says that, "any property owner, in Traverse City's three historic district, who could be taking from 10-25% of their state income tax as credit are not eligible for it."
Ms. Edwards thinks that the Traverse City residents should address this problem with the Historic District Ordinance. She suggests, "forming a subcommittee of sorts, where they sit on what's called a Historic District Study Committee; that is also appointed by the City Commission. They are a group of people who live or work in the city, as merchants, home owners, business owners, and neighborhood associations groups, who get together and make recommendations and suggest ways to implement them."
To hear the entire interview with Heather Edwards, click on play button below:
