Rewriting P-town historic preservation rules to regain local control
Portland wants to reclaim the ability to determine which properties are historic treasures and which are simply old and as a means of doing so is rewriting local historic preservation rules.
For the last 25 years, the city has relied upon the National Register of Historic Places to say what properties would receive protection from radical renovation or demolition. Preservationists are not happy with this approach; they say it takes too much time and costs too much to preserve all the structures worth saving.
No restriction are placed on the demolition or use of National Register property by the federal government. However, Portland stringently polices alterations to structures on the list and demolitions must have approval of City Council. The problem is the city carries little weight as to what properties get on the national list.
Portland used to be in a position to designate landmarks and districts located here; that changed when Oregon pasted a law mandating that property owners agree to any historic designation. In order to maintain the level of control it previously had, local rules would have needed to be rewritten, but that didn’t happen.
The new rule will not affect districts and structures already on the National Register. Often, misinformation travels faster than the truth, so many entities use brochure printing to insure the correct information gets out. The proposal would increase the number of historic properties saved by making it financially viable to do so.