Busy, but not so busy...

...that I can't comment a little on the town's efforts to protect its historic structures. Otherwise, posting has been light since I have begun auditing a biostatistics class for all intents & purposes & will continue to be light for some time. Statistics is a harsh mistress.

The mayor via Facebook was kind enough to share this article from Preservation Magazine, published by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Make a donation & you too can be a subscriber.

The mayor is quoted extensively throughout the article, discussing the town's efforts to create a local historic district to protect some of the historic structures.

This month the group, with the help of outside consultants hired for $40,000, will determine the boundaries for the district as well as design guidelines historic homes must meet. The group hopes to secure approval by the North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office by the end of July.

It will be interesting to see what design guidelines historic homes must meet, as any guidelines that are devised will undoubtably trample on the property rights of the owners.

Butch Kelly, a Waxhaw resident and owner of a historic property, states as much:

But not all historic homeowners are thrilled with the prospect of more protection. Butch Kelly, a Waxhaw resident for 22 years, says the local district would infringe on property rights. "We do not want any more government control of our property," Kelly says. "We don't want them to tell us what color they can paint our house, or 'You can't do this,' or 'You can't do that.'" Kelly's own house was built in 1855, he says. "They were going to bulldoze it 22 years ago, and I saved it," he says. "That's my particular license, rights, and beliefs, but I don't think [that] should be forced on my neighbor."

Mayor Gardner & Denise Kuntz, chairperson of the Waxhaw Historic Commission, provide their opinion on potential paint regulations for what it's worth.

Kuntz and Gardner maintain that Waxhaw's historic guidelines will be flexible. Possible guidelines might include regulating the pitch on certain roofs so as not to damage structures, for example, Kuntz says, but the commission has no plans to enforce personal decorative choices like paint color.

"It looks like where Waxhaw's going to end up is pretty much down the middle," Gardner says. "We don't want to tell people what color to paint their front door, but at the same time we don't want to allow for the loss of or complete distortion of the historic structures."

It would have been far more informative to hear what kind of guidelines they prefer or expect to be put in place than disputing one relatively minor one offered up by a concerned citizen. Could a porch be screened in? Columns removed? Answers to those questions would be far more beneficial in my opinion than roof pitches, but I suppose we'll have to wait until the end of July to see what kind of guidelines are proposed.

Read the whole thing.

Exit question: what three historic properties have been torn down in the last three months? I recall the hubbub when the house behind Waxhaw UMC was demolished, but do not recall hearing much about the destruction of any other historic properties.