NEWPORT, R.I. – Members of the Historic District Ordinance Review Task Force are planning to meet with city staff to over the next few weeks to discuss concerns held by the city solicitor’s office about a plan, that if adopted could mean wholesale changes to the operation and composition of the Historic District Commission.
Citing concerns over compatibility with state law, Solicitor Christopher J. Behan recommended in a Nov. 13 memo to councilors that the Historic District Commission, and not the City Council, adopt several proposed amendments to the city’s Historic District Ordinance.
“This office and staff believe that the better approach to take is to not adopt the Task Force’s recommendations as revisions to the ordinance, but rather use them as standards, guidelines, rules or regulations to be adopted by the Historic District Commission. This way, most of the recommendations can be put in to practice and we will alleviate many conflicts with the enabling legislation that exist if they are adopted as part of the ordinance,” Behan wrote.
The recommendations were compiled during a more than year long process by the members of the Planning Commission and ad-hoc HDC Ordinance Review Task Force.
According to Behan, the state enabling legislation which pertains to Historic Districts “confers authority to the HDC to enact standards for the granting of Certificates of Appropriateness along with the authority to amend the same from time to time. The Task Force’s version has the council adopting the standards in the form of the Newport Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties. The enabling legislation does not specifically provide the council with the authority to adopt standards but it looks like the council may desire to do just this.”
“We attempted to harmonize these competing interests,” Behan wrote.
But what effect the solicitor’s opinion may have on the efforts to reform the oft-maligned HDC process, has yet to be fully vetted in a public forum. Task Force Chair Mark Horan expressed his eagerness to sit down with the city’s legal team and do just that.
“We are pleased that the council has allowed this group to meet with the solicitor on his recommendations,” he said on Wednesday. Of particular note for Horan is the solicitor’s recommendation that a provision empowering staff to issue minor application approvals be stricken from the reforms. According to proponents, the provision is a central aspect to the city’s aim of making the HDC review process more user-friendly.
Paige Bronk, director of planning, zoning and development for the city, expressed similar thoughts in an interview on Tuesday. However, he also added that overall, he’s pleased with the progress that has been made. “Everyone,” he said, “the administration and the council – seem to all be heading in the same direction.”
Meetings between Task Force members and the solicitor’s office are anticipated to begin soon, concluding in time for the council’s Jan. 27 meeting.
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Newport, RI
