Hartsville historic preservation ordinance gets first approval
By JIM FAILE
Hartsville City Council gave preliminary approval to a proposed historic preservation ordinance for the city at its regular monthly meeting Tuesday.
The measure passed on first reading with a unanimous vote.
The ordinance is aimed at protecting designated historic properties in the city to preserve their historical character and exterior features.
It is also intended to position the city to apply for Certified Local Government status from the state, and that would make the city eligible to apply for grant funding for local historical sites.
The city can qualify for Certified Local Government status only if it has a historical preservation ordinance on its books, officials said.
Twenty-five other municipalities in South Carolina currently hold Certified Local Government status.
The federal government sets aside funding exclusively for Certified Local Governments.
Those grants account for about 10 percent of South Carolina’s total federal funding allocation for historic preservation. That usually amounts to $50,000 to $60,000 annually that only Certified Local Governments may apply for.
Council approved the measure unchanged from its last revision by city planners and the Hartsville Planning Commission.
The ordinance designates five individual properties as historic. They are the Coker Experimental Farms site, Lawton Park and the Lawton Park Pavilion, the old Hartsville railroad depot, the John L. Hart Cottage and the Hartsville Museum.
An earlier version of the ordinance designated additional properties as well as two historic districts. Those additional properties and the districts were removed from the ordinance as it was revised.
The ordinance places restrictions on alterations that can be made to the exteriors of properties that are specifically designated as historic properties under the ordinance. It grants certain exceptions in some cases such as when enforcement would impose an undue hardship on a property owner.
While council could have opted for a more restrictive ordinance such as Charleston’s historic preservation ordinance, according to Director of Special Projects Adam Mathews, it chose a less restrictive one modeled after the ordinance in Darlington which has been in effect for a number of years.
The ordinance will establish an Architectural Review Board to review and recommend to council the designation of historic properties and historic districts and to review plans for construction in any designated historic districts or alterations to individual historic properties.
Aside from the five properties designated in the ordinance as historic properties, any future designations will have to be made by council on the recommendation of the review board.
The city’s existing Design Review Board will serve as the Architectural Review Board. The Design Review Board already reviews proposed plans for exterior changes to structures in the city’s B1 zoning district – the central downtown business area.
The ordinance spells out the criteria for designating a property as historic. It also requires notification of owners of properties that may be proposed for historic property designation and provides for public hearings and appeals to council for owners who object to having their property designated as historic.
Officials said that while the city may approach a property owner about having a property designated as historic, it is unlikely the city would pursue the designation if the property owner objects.
The ordinance will come up for final approval when it is presented for second reading in January.
In other business, council gave final approval to an ordinance for the purchase of just over 16 acres of land adjacent to the Hartsville Airport for $125,000 and an exchange of two smaller parcels owned by the city, one just more than 2 acres and one about 3.3 acres.
The land acquisition by the city will allow for the expansion of the runway safety zone, officials said.
Members also gave first-reading approval to an ordinance to renew the lease of the former Hartsville Manufacturing Co. warehouse on Washington Street to Darlington County Habitat for Humanity for its resale store and extended the lease to 10 years from its previous three-year term.
And council gave first-reading approval to an ordinance creating a sign overlay district under the city’s zoning code for large lot or campus developments in the city.
Members also approved a resolution waiving business license fees for vendors at the Good Living Marketplace through 2012. The outdoor marketplace is held once a month, usually on the first Saturday of the month, on Cargill Way in downtown Hartsville.