Jamestown commissioners review draft local preservation ordinance; raise questions on consent, costs and staffing

Jamestown Planning Commission members discussed a draft local preservation ordinance during a recent meeting, reviewing the ordinance's purpose, how local designation would be created and what impacts it could have on property owners and development.

The draft ordinance is intended to enable local historic designation and create a preservation board or commission; passage of an LPO would also allow Jamestown to pursue certified local government status and access state preservation funds, a staff member said. "The LPO is just the enabling legislation to make anything else related to that on the local level possible," the staff member said.

Commissioners said the draft (described in the meeting as roughly 50 pages) needs clearer language on property-owner consent, incentives for owners to nominate or maintain historic properties, and how the city would staff and enforce any new rules. One commissioner asked whether local nomination would require property-owner consent; staff answered that national designation typically requires owner consent and that the local draft’s consent provisions were not clear in…