News

Historic Landmarks ordinance advances

Historic Resources Commission members Don Wilson, center, and Stephen Fosberg worked for years on the historic landmarks ordinance.

By Bill Moss, Published: January 27, 2015

After seven years of work, a proposed Historic Landmarks Ordinance won the unanimous endorsement from the county Planning Board and goes to the Board of Commissioners.

The county's Historic Resources Commission received a lukewarm reception last year when a county planner submitted a report showing how many structures were older than 50. The total was 12,734.
"They could see dollars with wings flying out the window," said Don Wilson, a historic preservation architect who prepared the presentation along with fellow Historic Resources Commission members Stephen Fosberg and Terry Ruscin.
The report last year left the Planning Board members with the impression that the historic board could nominate hundreds of homes for historic landmark designation, which entitles the property owner to a 50 percent tax break.
"The former staff member showed that we had 450 or 460 homes over 100 years old and (Planning Board members thought) we were going to make historic landmarks out of all of them," Wilson said. "We even tried to clarify it but the damage had been done."
In its new presentation, the Historic Resources Commission eliminated homes more than 50 years old but less than 100 and said it would only consider structures already on a state study list for historic designation.
"We showed five or six pictures of structures we're considering and we made it very clear that we'd be lucky to get all six because it's expensive for homeowners" to pay for research. The owners of "The Meadows," the historic Blake house in Fletcher, and a church member from Saint Paul's Episcopal Church in Edneyville spoke in favor of the ordinance.
The proposed ordinance next goes to the Henderson County Board of Commissioners, which created the Historic Resources Commission in 2008 to recognize the county's history by "preserving districts and landmarks (that) embody important elements of its culture, history, architectural history, or prehistory."
"It's a great relief to all of us after so many years," Wilson said. "We feel like we're making progress and it's basically because of (county staffers) John Mitchell and Chris Todd. They started paying attention."