Old Town Cape seeks lower hurdle in establishing historic districts

~ Officials say that would help preserve historic buildings and increase property values.

A downtown redevelopment group wants the city council to make it easier to establish local historic districts.

Officials with the Old Town Cape redevelopment organization say that would help preserve Cape Girardeau's historic buildings and increase property values.

Property owners in a local district would have to comply with architectural design rules intended to preserve the exteriors of commercial and residential buildings.

Old Town Cape wants the city council to allow districts to be created with the approval of 51 percent of property owners in the affected area. The current threshold -- 75 percent -- makes it nearly impossible to secure enough support to establish local historic districts, said Tim Arbeiter, executive director of Old Town Cape.

Arbeiter said lowering the percentage of property owners needed to establish a district ultimately could lead to creation of historic districts along Main Street, Broadway and the Good Hope neighborhood adjoining the downtown. The Sunset neighborhood, south of Southeast Missouri Hospital, is another possibility, Old Town Cape officials said.

Those neighborhoods are within the 130-block area served by Old Town Cape.

"We are not asking to put districts in place right now," Arbeiter said. He added that input from property owners would be needed to establish any district.

The city defines historic buildings as those which are more than 50 years old, the same definition used by the federal government.

The city's Historic Preservation Commission unanimously backed the percentage change at its meeting in September. The planning and zoning commission will consider the proposal when it meets at 7 p.m. Wednesday at city hall.

Final approval rests with the city council.

Historic preservation consultant Terri Foley of Cape Girardeau, who co-chairs Old Town Cape's design committee, said local districts would encourage property owners to restore their homes and businesses.

"It tells the community that these property owners want to keep the historical atmosphere," she said.

Local districts serve to protect the architecture of a neighborhood, Foley said.

"When you get preservation at the local level, then you have preservation in its best form," she said.

Cape Girardeau has four National Register-recognized historic districts. But it has no local districts that would better protect a neighborhood's architecture through design regulations, preservationists say.

Old Town Cape and the city's historic preservation commission have a set of guidelines for preserving and restoring the architecture of old buildings. The guidelines are voluntary.

If a local district is established, property owners would have to abide by those and any other rules approved by the city council.

Property owners in a historic district would help craft the design rules for their neighborhood, said historic preservation commissioner Scott House.

"All this is basically about empowering people within an area to do the things they want to do," he said.

The council would have to approve the boundaries of each district and approve any future expansion of such districts.

While each district could have its own rules, spelled out when the district was created, Arbeiter said, some preservation guidelines governing the exterior of historic buildings probably would be standard.

One such rule would ban pressure washing of historic brick buildings because it damages the bricks, he said.

Arbeiter said Old Town Cape would like to see the historic architecture of buildings preserved both inside and out. But he said any district regulations would focus on building exteriors.

"We just want to protect what people see," he said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123