Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Historic Preservation topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Board advances creation of DeBose Park Historic District; ordinance passes first reading
Summary
The Board of Supervisors passed on first reading an ordinance creating the DeBose Park Historic District, a narrowly drawn district of about 87 buildings north of DeBose Park.
Supervisor Scott Wiener presented an ordinance to amend the Planning Code to create a new DeBose Park Historic District immediately north of DeBose Park, bounded by Waller, Steiner and Scott Streets and including three short dead-end streets.
Wiener said the proposed district includes about 87 buildings with many intact Victorian facades and that it is the first new historic district before the board in nearly a decade. He described a multi-year community process that included surveys and community meetings and said the district was "narrowly drawn" to cover only character-defining features, primarily façades, and to avoid extending into non-character-defining areas.
Among the features Wiener highlighted was a newly crafted administrative certificate of appropriateness that would allow staff to approve non-major changes without sending every request to the full Historic Preservation Commission. Wiener also referenced earlier legislation to improve access to the Mills Act for owners of historic homes as an incentive to maintain properties.
The ordinance passed on first reading "same house, same call," the president said. Wiener acknowledged that support was not unanimous among residents but urged the board to approve the narrowly drawn district.
