Members of the Mount Vernon Historic Preservation Commission will be discussing how they will address demolition concerns.
The city of Mount Vernon passed a demolition ordinance in 2017, after two historic buildings near Cornell College were demolished without enough notice to save them.
The ordinance spells out that any proposed demolition of a historic building should be reported to the zoning administrator, who will let the Mount Vernon Historic Preservation Commission know. The commission then has 14 days to review the application and determine if the building can be demolished or if there are other options to explore if the building should be one that is determined as needing to be saved.
Any building that is historically significant will have a 60-day review period. Appeals can be made within 10 days of a decision.
Guy Booth was one of the members instrumental in getting that ordinance passed by the city, and the language in the ordinance spells out that notification happens for any historic building in the city to notify the commission, not just structures in a protected district.
The discussion was starting because a few homeowners are in the early stages of making preparations for the future of a garage on their property and visited with Sue Astley, president of the commission on the project. There is no immediate need for the commission to have the forms for anyone applying for demolition of a building within the community.
The garage, which was built in the 1930s, struggles to house the couples SUVS due to the tight width of the garage’s entrances without pushing the mirrors in. The garage also does not have an overhead door, which makes utilizing it in the winter more difficult.
While the garage is structurally sound, it remains unusable by the homeowners leading to them inquiring on the steps to take for the building’s future.
Astley said she believes the commission could help the couple look at abilities to modify the building as opposed to destroying and building a new garage by providing information on the costs to make the garage usable compared to destroying the garage.
Booth said he will come up with a draft form that can be completed by homeowners in the coming months.
The demolition matter will be further discussed at the commission meeting in July.
The commission will also be beginning workshops on reviewing the design review process when new members are installed to the organization, and the demolition discussion could be another of the issues for the commission to investigate then. There are no historic buildings planned for demolition at the moment, the matter on the agenda was for discussion only.