More Conversation about Neighborhood Conservation Districts in Fredericksburg
But no steps yet towards a formal process.
By Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
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Yard signs in front of many houses in the College Terrace neighborhood express support for conservation districts, but as yet there is no formal process in place in Fredericksburg for establishing one.
The city’s historic resources planner, Kate Schwartz, gave a presentation on the issue to City Council at a work session on Tuesday and said staff are looking for direction on how to proceed.
Conservation districts are zoning tools that can be used in historic areas to preserve existing neighborhood character and protect against development pressure, demolition, and infill.
The goal in Fredericksburg, Schwartz said, would be to “preserve what we have, but also find ways to create new places with character.”
Another eventual goal, she said, could be “gentle, incremental” increases in density through incentives to adapt, rather than tear down, existing structures.
The city of Charlottesville implemented a historic conservation district designation in 2017 and it has been applied to three of the city’s neighborhoods. Schwartz said Fredericksburg staff have been looking at Charlottesville’s guidelines for inspiration as well as “lessons learned.”
“We want to center on the existing context, rather than redefining neighborhood character,” she said.
Fredericksburg’s new draft comprehensive plan recommends conservation districts as a way to “ensure older residential areas continue to be distinctive and attractive” and to create “high-quality urban neighborhoods while providing a venue to achieve modern housing goals.”
The districts would be overlaid on existing zoning by recommendation of the city’s Architectural Review Board with the support of the neighborhood, Schwartz said.
The ARB would use a number of criteria to determine if a neighborhood is eligible for the conservation district designation—such as building age, state, and national register eligiblity; whether the buildings are associated with a historic person or event or significant architect; whether they represent the culture and heritage of Fredericksburg; and whether the buildings, “when viewed together, possess a distinctive character and quality or historic significance,” according to the presentation.
Within a conservation district, all residential types that exist within three blocks of the established district would be permitted. The construction of new buildings would be regulated unless they are concealed from street view, and wholescale demolition of “contributing structures” would be prohibited.
The city’s planning and building staff would review construction within neighborhood conservation districts and there would be the option to appeal decisions to Council, according to the presentation.
Schwartz said that “in order to meet modern housing goals,” there could be the incentive to add up to one additional housing unit for preservation of an existing structure, and up to two units for making “housing affordable up to 80% [of the area median income].”
There would also be the option through the special use permit process to exceed density regulations “in a form that exists in the neighborhood”—such as, in the case of College Terrace, the construction of cottage courts like those on Franklin Street.
Following Schwartz’s presentation, Councilor Jason Graham said he worries that conservation districts are too restrictive.
“Our downtown with the grid pattern—that is what’s proven to be able to absorb density much more easily than suburban patterns,” he said. “What I’m concerned with is it would make growth in this area so difficult that it wouldn’t be cost effective to try to do it. I have concerns we’re going to prevent a changing outline of our hosuing stock downtown.”
Councilor Will Mackintosh said he’d want to see the city’s residential zoning match the built environment in some of the older neighborhoods that might be eligible for conservation districts.
“One of the impediments to historically sensitive infill is that when residential zoning was put in in the 1980s, they came up with density numbers that are significantly below what [was already] built,” he said. “It doesn’t make sense that the zoning code is set up so most of our beloved neighbohroods are all noncomforming. I would want to see that match.”
Mayor Kerry Devine said on Tuesday the issue of conservation districts will require more discussion, and Schwartz told the Advance in an email Wednesday that “there will likely be another work session to get a bit more direction from Council on this.”
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