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Residents, preservationists clash over plan to shift commercial historic reviews to planning board
Summary
A public hearing on TA-24-04 drew competing views: downtown owners urged moving nonresidential certificates of appropriateness to the planning board to speed redevelopment, while preservation advocates warned the change would remove trained citizen oversight and risk insensitive alterations. The board approved guideline amendments but the submission of the UDO text amendment recorded a split vote.
The Aberdeen Board of Commissioners heard more than an hour of public comment on June 24 over a proposed text amendment (TA-24-04) that would change who decides certificates of appropriateness (COAs) in the town's historic district.
Staff described the proposal as a clarification of review authority in Chapter 2 of the Unified Development Ordinance that would let the Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) retain review of residential COAs while the planning board would be decision-maker for nonresidential, commercial COAs; town staff would be authorized to administratively approve minor work. Planning staff said the changes aim to speed downtown rehabilitation and align review authority with development expertise.
The hearing split downtown stakeholders. Ryan Lemille, who owns a downtown commercial…
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