Winter Park approves incentives for historic home owners

Winter Park wants your historic home on the city’s historic registry – and is willing to open its pocketbook to make it happen.

Winter Park City Commissioners approved three new incentives during their meeting last Monday to encourage residents to create a historic district in their neighborhood or put their homes on the city’s historic registry – a list of resources that are offered a barrier of protection from redevelopment.

The three incentives include the city reducing permitting and building fees by 33 percent, paying a matching grant of up to 50 percent for home exterior improvements up to $25,000, and assisting with the cost and paperwork for putting a home on the National Register of Historic Places, a list that offers yet more protection to historic homes.

A house must cost less than $400,000 based on the Orange County Property Appraiser’s office to qualify for the exterior improvement incentive.

“We realize this is a start,” said Dori Stone, Winter Park’s director of planning and community development. “We realize these are a way to dip our toe into that incentive water and see if we get any takers.”

Two other incentives were also proposed to the City Commission, but were sent back to city staff for adjustment because of cost concerns for the city. Those included the installation of new streetlights for historic districts and the city picking up the cost of electric undergrounding for a historic home.

“It was about the potential dollar impact,” City Manager Randy Knight said. “If you had a 50-home subdivision or a 100-home subdivision that wanted to be a district and it was $3,000 per service drop, all of the sudden you’re paying $150,000 [or $300,000.]”

“[The City Commission was] worried about how big that financial commitment could be.”

Community feedback over the incentives was positive, with residents hoping they would result in more historic homes being saved under the city’s registry.

“We as an organization support actions that encourage the conservation of historic structures,” said Christine French, the new recently appointed executive director of Friends of Casa Feliz. “We also support actions that ensure the integrity of the collection of homes and commercial structures that keep Winter Park unique.”

“I would also like to add that the city might consider efforts to make sure that the public knows that these incentives are available.”

“I support these incentives and I urge you to vote for them,” former Winter Park Mayor Joe Terranova said. “I think it’s important that we support the historical buildings that we have in Winter Park. I think it’s also important to understand just what our definition is for ‘historical’ – and not just based on age.”

“All of you know I’m old, but I don’t think I’m ‘historical.’”

The incentives are a step toward encouraging historic preservation in Winter Park after the City Commission wrestled with its own preservation laws over the past several months. Winter Park Commissioners approved a series of changes back in December to make the process easier to create historic districts by lowering the required voting threshold to form one in a neighborhood – a two-thirds vote lowered to a simple majority vote of 50 percent plus one.

But any alterations or demolition of historic homes within a district would first have to go before the city’s Historic Preservation Board for review – causing residents to be concerned about their property rights being infringed upon. Some City Commissioners also felt that the process would pit neighbor against neighbor and create a divisive issue.

The City Commission reversed the changes made in December earlier this year, restoring the voting threshold to two-thirds once again.

Winter Park will see if the incentives offer a better alternative. The city has tentatively earmarked $50,000 to pay for the incentives during the upcoming fiscal year as a trial run.