Council sends historic-preservation code rewrite back to review after public concerns

The Jefferson City Council voted to send a draft ordinance that would create a new Chapter 15A of the city code on historic preservation back to the Historic Preservation Commission and Planning and Zoning Commission for additional review, with a council report due within 90 days. The motion followed more than two hours of public comment and discussion about whether protections should be based on formal historic designation or simply on a building’s age.

City Neighborhood Services Supervisor Rachel Cinzi, who led staff work on the revision, told the council the rewrite consolidates preservation language scattered across the municipal code, aligns local rules with the Secretary of the Interior’s standards, and creates a formal certificate-of-appropriateness process for designated local historic districts. “We wanted to make sure that our local code did not conflict in any way with the Secretary of Interior standards,” Cinzi said.

Supporters who testified during public comment said the rewrite will make review procedures clearer and help owners access grants and tax credits tied to nationally recognized preservation standards. Donna Dietz, a stakeholder who said she worked on the committee that drafted the code, told the council the ordinance “is very clear cut. It tells you what you need to know, when you need to know it, and how to get it done.” Steve Viley, who said he served on the review commission, asked council to reconsider the threshold required to apply for a local historic district, urging a lower threshold than the current draft’s 51% owner consent requirement.

A central point of dispute at the meeting was whether demolition review should apply automatically to any structure older than 100 years (an age-based trigger) or only to properties that have completed a formal historic designation process. Cinzi explained staff and the stakeholder committee recommended a designation-based approach so owners would be eligible for federal incentives tied to designation. “Historic properties have gone through a formal designation process,” she said. “If a building is old, it’s just old. Historic designation means something.”

After extended deliberation and an amendment requiring a council report no later than 90 days after the referral, the council adopted the motion to send the bill and related draft substitute back to the two commissions for further review. The record shows the referral will allow the commissions to revisit the 51% threshold, the 100-year demolition review question, and the department director’s proposed 15-day administrative-decision timeline for some approvals.

The council’s action does not adopt the draft code; it pauses final action while staff and the commissions evaluate changes requested during the meeting and in recent public comment. The city’s stated next steps are for Historic Preservation Commission and Planning and Zoning to consider the draft and any amendments and return recommendations to council, which has directed staff to ensure the city receives that report within 90 days.