Historic zoning

A developer in Lexington, KY is caught up in a fight with the city's historic preservation office over a 175 year-old property. He is trying build an addition on a historic home in one of Lexingotn's oldest neighborhoods. He says the city is being obstinate and too picky about what he does with his property. They say that he needs to tear down the work he has already done, about $225,000 worth, and start over.

allowing him to proceed. But somehere along the way, it turns out that the city agency actually approved a different The crux of the problem is that he bought the property knowing it was going to be a historic preservation property with serious limitations, but a great location and gorgeous facade and shell. He submitted drawings for approval. He recieved a "certificate of appropriateness". The addition he is building now is differnet than the drawings they approved. Who messed up? He says they approved different plans than he submitted. THey say it doesn't matter, he is building something unapproved.

As we sit here in the very old city of New Brunswick, Rutgers has some of the only buildings from the same era as this neighborhood. Think how different New Brunswick would be if we'd saved a few blocks of old houses somewhere just off George and Albany. Historic preservation is a tough situation to deal with and we forget how much balance is involved in compromises that stop short of perfect preservation, especially if the properties are going to be used actively and/or commercially. Throw in some government intervention and you really have opportunities for conflict and loss by all parties.

It will be interesting to see if this one gets resolved well. But that seems particularly unlikely right now. Read the article and comment.