Reference this article to one posted by Steve Carender on PL for those w/out
PL and/or web browser handy. I agree w/ Dan Becker's response, " article
contains some of the most positive PR I've ever read in the general media
regarding the efficacy of a preservation program."
Endangered division
`Hypothetical' budget cut kills preservation staff
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Thomas C. Hall Staff Reporter
The District government has put its Historic Preservation Division on
the hit list of services to be eliminated if budget cuts become
necessary.
The action has stirred up a hornet's nest of opposition from
preservationists and planners.
"It's pretty far-fetched that the city would even consider this," said
Patrick Lally, chairman of the D.C. Preservation League's government
affairs committee. "Historic preservation is one of the key building
blocks of economic development in the District, and it's a huge lure for
tourists."
The Historic Preservation Division's seven-member staff helps builders
comply with District and federal historic preservation regulations by
giving professional advice. The staff also supports the work of the D.C.
Historic Preservation Review Board, whose members are appointed by the
mayor to review projects within the city's 32 historic districts.
Chief Financial Officer Anthony Williams recently directed city
department heads to identify programs that could be eliminated if budget
cuts were implemented for fiscal year 1999, which begins Oct. 1, 1998.
Departments were told to prepare budget-cutting scenarios of 2 percent
to 4 percent, to give the financial control board more flexibility in
restructuring the city's overall budget.
The Historic Preservation Division and the Weights and Measures Branch
were identified by D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs
Director W. David Watts as the first to go under any budget reduction.
"It's just a drill at this point," Watts said. "It's only a hypothetical
cut."
Watts said he knows any cuts in historic preservation would be
controversial, but so would cuts in public safety services within his
agency, such as fire marshals and public health inspectors.
"Historic preservation is more of a quality of life issue than a public
safety issue," Watts said. "We're already cut down to the muscle, and
even down to the bone is some areas, but if something has to go, that
would be it."
The total operating budget for DCRA next year is $19.3 million. The
Historic Preservation Division's budget is just under $1 million, but
any reduction would also cost the District federal matching funds.
The U.S. Department of Interior, under the National Historic
Preservation Act, disburses funds to local governments. The District has
$202,000 unspent in federal historic preservation funds from last year
and will receive another $313,000 this year.
Watts said elimination of the city's historic preservation staff would
not change local and federal requirements to comply with historic
preservation guidelines.
But real estate attorneys said the proposal would damage the city's
development process, not streamline it.
"The law would still be in place -- there just wouldn't be any staff to
support it," said zoning attorney Chris Collins of Wilkes Artis Hedrick
& Lane. "The problem isn't the law -- it's the process, and the process
would suffer."
Lally, who runs New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's Washington office,
said the District's historic preservation staff and budget should be
augmented, not reduced or eliminated.
"The best developers admit that the historic preservation process
improves and strengthens their projects," Lally said. "The bottom line
is, if the cost of making the architectural changes were prohibitive,
developers would not be making them."
Collins agrees.
"The city's historic preservation staff provide a valuable service to
developers," Collins said. "They work with us to help our projects
comply with the laws -- they really don't work against us."
The District's Historic Preservation Division helped Abe Pollin on his
recently completed MCI Center, for example, and it is advising developer
Douglas Jemal on the renovation of several storefront shops in the 700
block of Seventh St. NW, opposite the new sports arena.
Most projects get historic preservation review and administrative
approval by the city's staff. Controversial or unusual projects are
referred to the Historic Preservation Review Board.
Dorn McGrath, an urban planning professor at George Washington
University, said the city's Historic Preservation Division's
professional staff is more valuable than the appointed board they serve.
"They are among the handful of people in the city government who know
what they're doing," McGrath said. "It would be utter nonsense to leave
historic preservation up to a bunch of amateurs."
© 1998, Washington Business Journal
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