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City Planner Crafting Historic Preservation Commission Ordinance
By: Katie Doup
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Last week the Athens City Planning commission approved a project to allow the Bella Vino building to be demolished in order to build new apartments.
That action started a lot of arguing about the city's zoning code and concern about the loss of a historic building.
It may be too late for this project, but City Planner Paul Logue is working on new legislation that would govern historic preservation matters.
Logue is drafting an ordinance to present to City Council that would establish a historic preservation commission.
He says that as a property owner, you still have property rights, which means you would be able to tear down your building if you chose to. "There might be a review process that's put in place to try to talk about that before it happens to see if an alternative can be made, or if there's another buy that might be out there that wants to preserve something and see if a deal can be worked out," said Logue.
Logue says he's not sure when his proposal will be ready for council consideration.