Do Winter Park's historic districts need work?

All Winter Park residents Daniel and Mary Grace Gordon wanted was a new black aluminum gate and railing on the front deck of their house in the College Quarter historic district, but a simple request turned into a greater discussion of how architectural rules should be set within historic areas of the city.

The Gordons came before the City Commission on Monday looking to appeal a decision made by the city’s Historic Preservation Board, which rejected their request for a gate and railing back in February due to the black aluminum material not being allowed under the historic district’s architectural rules.

The Gordons’ home isn’t considered historic, but under the city’s historic preservation ordinance, homes in a historic district must go before the Historic Preservation Board to have any alterations or additions approved, whether they’re a contributing historic home or not.

Winter Park City Commissioners made significant changes to the city’s historic preservation ordinance last December to help boost preservation of historic structures in the city. The changes made the process easier for a neighborhood with historic homes to be named a historic district – a title that offers a barrier of protection to historic buildings.

Making the process easier however left some residents believing their property rights could be infringed upon by a board telling them what they could and could not do with their home.

In order to form a historic district, the city’s previous ordinance required two-thirds of the residents within the proposed district to vote in favor. That percentage requirement was changed in December to 50 percent plus one — a simple majority vote.

City Commissioner Pete Weldon recently presented the Commission with another series of proposed changes that included bringing back the two-thirds threshold.

Mary Grace Gordon, a member of the historic districts overseeing board, pleaded with City Commissioners on Monday to allow the gate and railing, adding that several residents living within the district see no problem with the new features.

“We want the black aluminum railings because it’s a consistent look,” Gordon said. “All of our fixtures are black…. We would like to coordinate that.”

Gordon added that the historic district board hopes to find a way to revise their rules and regulations on home facades. Planning and Community Development Director Dori Stone said that there’s currently no process in place to make those rule changes, and it will have to be explored.

But Mayor Steve Leary said he would be voting ‘no’ to the requested gate and railing, reasoning that the existing rules in the historic district should be the final word. He added that the language regarding historic districts in the historic preservation ordinance needs more work, and that this issue is a testament to that.

“The challenge is the rules that were set in place by this district,” Leary said. “The district approved these sets of rules on themselves.”

“Therein lies the problem with districts, especially with people who vote against being included in the district.”

Weldon said the Commission should be lenient with this request, as the historic preservation ordinance rules clearly need to be updates.

“To put our citizens through this kind of process is just over the top,” Weldon said.

The requested gate and railing were approved by the City Commission by a vote of 4-1, with Leary voting against.