Editors Note: The Barbara Baer Capitman archives “Historic Threads” project is partly sponsored by the Department of State, Division of Historical Resources and the State of Florida.
Miami Beach’s City Commission approved a new historic designation by a unanimous vote, over objections and threats of a lawsuit from historic preservationists. The law gives property owners a six-month delay before demolishing a building, allowing a majority in a district to try to persuade others to preserve their property. After six months, dissenting property owners are free to demolish their buildings and are removed from the preservation district.
County preservationists, however, criticized the law as too weak, arguing that it applied only to the Art Deco district and didn’t provide enough protection for private homes. They recommended that the city adopt a stronger ordinance similar to the county’s, where the decision to preserve a building is made by city officials, not property owners. Despite these concerns, Commissioner Bruce Singer urged the City to give the new ordinance a chance to work before deciding to change.
Excerpts and quotes from the article are highlighted below in blue.
Although costy preservationists threatened to sue the city over the city’s proposed historic preservation law last week, the Beach City Commission unanimously approved the new ordinance which allows property owners a six-month delay before demolishing their building.
The new law means that if a majority of property owners in a district agree to preserve their area, they have six months to convince opposing property owners in their district to preserve their buildings.
The law originally called for 100 percent owner approval before a district could be historically preserved. If one owner in a district disagreed, it would have prevented the rest of the district from the historic designation.
County preservationist Ted Baker said the city’s ordinance isn’t strong enough and should be tailored to the county’s law which doesn’t allowproperty owners to decide whether to preserve their building. It leaves the decision to city officials.
Baker criticized the Beach’s law as being weak because he said it only deals with buildings in the Art Deco district and not with private homes. If the citywanted to preserve a private homeowner disagreed, the city would have no recourse, Baker said.
