City Council Reviews Proposed Historic Ordinance September 30

Within a week, Mackinac Island will have an ordinance in place to protect its historic buildings from demolition, said Mayor Margaret Doud during a joint meeting of the City Council and Planning Commission. Her promise was followed by spontaneous applause from more than 30 residents and business owners attending a Tuesday, September 22, special meeting. Two nights later, a Historic District Ordinance was introduced at a City Council meeting. The ordinance was reviewed during a special council meeting Wednesday, September 30.

The proposed ordinance is designed to allow the city to establish a Historic District Commission and would "safeguard the heritage of the City of Mackinac Island by preserving districts which reflect elements of its history, architecture, archaeology, engineering, or culture," states the document. The preservation would be accomplished by regulating "construction, addition, alteration, repair, moving, evacuation, and demolition of resources in historic districts."

Facing the potential tear-down of another historic structure, McNally Cottage on Market Street, the Island is concerned about losing its National Historic Landmark designation. The prestigious designation is given to property that, according to the National Historic Landmark program, "possesses exceptional value or quality in illustrating and interpreting the heritage of the United States."

Already on a watch list by the National Park Service, which administers the program, Mackinac Island is endanger of having the designation taken away completely if historic buildings continue to be demolished or altered to the point of compromising the city's historic integrity, said state and federal preservationists attending the meeting.

"As you know, we have some very tough issues to deal with," said Mayor Doud at the Tuesday meeting. "I know McNally Cottage is one, that's the one in the forefront right now, but there is definitely going to be more as we come down the line. If you walk up and down Main Street right now and look at the old buildings that we have down there, some of them are in very much of disrepair because we cannot get the owners to do anything with them. They are going to become another issue. What happens? How are they going to be preserved? Where is the money going to come from? Is it going to be up to the city to condemn them? I think these are very, very tough decisions that we are facing."

Last month, owners of Mc- Nally Development requested zoning approval from the Planning Commission to demolish the McNally house on Main Street and replace it with a three-story hotel and retail complex. The Planning Commission tabled the request until its Tuesday, October 13, meeting.

With no ordinance in place to prevent the removal of the structure, the commission's hands are tied, and the company is expected to move the project forward, unless the city acts quickly and adopts a demolition ordinance. If an ordinance is adopted, no property would be exempt, including the McNally house, said Nan Taylor, field representative with the National Trust for Historic Preservation and Amy Arnold, a preservation planner with the State Historic Preservation Office. Both preservation experts attended Tuesday's meeting.

"I think you have to think about why people come to Mackinac Island," said Ms. Arnold. "I think they come because it looks historic and if you start letting that ebb away, then word-of-mouth, people are going to start saying, 'It's changed. It's not how it was 20 years ago. Why bother to go?'

"To me, it's your livelihood, so it is something you want to protect," she said.

The only way to protect buildings from demolition, said Ms. Taylor, is to adopt a Historic District Ordinance and establish a Historic District Commission.

"As important as the National Register or National Historic Districts are, they ultimately do not protect a building from demolition," she said.

Once the ordinance is adopted, the city has up to one year to establish a Historic District Commission. Until then, a moratorium is placed on all demolition and no building is grandfathered, said Ms. Arnold.

The local Historic District Commission can approve demolitions, she said, if a building is unsafe, damaged, or if tearing down the structure is for the benefit of the community. For example, in Grand Rapids, a hospital did not want to make any more payments on an historic building and sought approval to demolish it. The request was denied by the city's Historic District Commission. Two years later, the hospital came back with a request to put in a cancer center. The center, reasoned the Historic District Commission, was more important to the community, and it then approved the demolition.

Local residents are appointed to serve on the Historic District Commission, said Ms. Arnold, and it adheres to the Secretary of Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation. The key to using the 10 general standards, she said, is to repair rather than replace, retain as much historic material as possible, and to avoid creating a false sense of history.

The objection most heard by property owners over the development of a Historic District Commission relates to property rights, said Ms. Arnold. In some places a person has bought property, changed it, and then sold it, leaving a permanent negative impact on the community. The Commission eliminates that from happening, she said.

"I think you just have to realize that there has to be a balance in a place where there are historic resources," said Ms. Arnold. "You are just stewards for a time. . . . so the community has to balance how important their history is to their livelihood and how important the protection is against property rights."

"Everyone is regulated every day," she continued. "This is nothing new."

Other communities that have Historic District Commissions, she said, have found banks more interested in investing, knowing that the community was protecting all of the structures in an area.

As a National Historic Landmark and by establishing a local Historic District, property owners can take advantage of state and federal tax credits for rehabilitation work on their property, said Ms. Taylor. This may help to serve as an incentive to owners to preserve their property, she said.

The National Historic Landmark status allows commercial property owners to take advantage of federal tax credits and having a local Historic District would make the district eligible for the state tax credit for rehabilitation.

City officials said they would like to work with Ms. Arnold to set up a presentation about the tax credits.

Basically, she said, for federal tax credit, the owner must spend $1 more on rehabilitation than the acquisition price of the building to receive a 20% tax credit. To get a state tax credit, the property owner only needs to spend 10% of the state equalized value of the property to receive up to 20% state tax credit. This can be taken in addition to the federal tax credit for a total of up to 45% in tax credits.

Ms. Arnold reminded city leaders and those attending the meeting that designation as a National Historic Landmark is important.

"It is really an outstanding thing to be a National Historic Landmark," she said. "There are thousands of them on the National Register of Historic Places, but to be a National Historic Landmark you have to meet specific criteria. It is something very significant."