Board recommends city amend rules to allow adaptive reuse of historic places of worship as single‑family residences

The Delray Beach Historic Preservation Board voted to recommend City Commission approval of two related measures to allow adaptive reuse of historic places of worship as single‑family residences within community‑facility (CF) zoning, provided the historic structure is preserved and any modifications comply with the city’s historic‑preservation standards.

Planner Rebecca Dossery and applicant representative Jeff Costello described the changes as narrowly tailored: the comprehensive‑plan text amendment would add policy support for adaptive reuse of historic places of worship as residential uses; the LDR amendment would add the new principal permitted use and apply development standards from the R‑1A single‑family district (for consistency) while exempting some CF‑specific rules that do not apply to existing historic buildings.

Why it matters: The change creates a regulatory pathway for owners of historic church buildings in CF zones to convert those contributing structures into a single‑family residence while keeping the historic resource on the map for heritage and visual compatibility review. Staff said the amendment has limited applicability — only a handful of historic places of worship in CF zoning would meet the criteria.

Staff and the applicant emphasized that the change is limited to the historic structure itself; it does not automatically permit additional new residential development on other parts of a parcel or override other applicable site standards. Rebecca Dossery said the amendments include definitions distinguishing “historic place of worship” from general “place of worship” and that any future site changes would be subject to COA review and the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards.

Board members discussed public‑access concerns and site constraints such as setbacks, parking and flood‑elevation requirements. The board asked whether historic features like steeples would be protected; staff said tall historic elements would remain and would not be subject to forced removal. Staff also suggested the board could consider requiring an interpretive marker as part of an adaptive reuse condition; the board encouraged that idea but left detailed policy language to staff and commissioners.

The board voted to recommend approval of both the comprehensive plan text amendment (ordinance O8‑25) and the LDR amendment (ordinance 07‑25). The roll call vote was unanimous among attending members. The measures now move to the City Commission for action.