Old houses get look

SANGER — The fate of the city’s older homes has been bandied about for years — and whether the topic has been incubating or festering depends on who’s talking.

During a public hearing tackling the issue Monday night, some residents wanted to see more options in the city’s central neighborhoods.

Others saw only trouble in the changes.

Joe Iliff, Sanger’s director of development services, gave the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission an overview of a plan assembled by the city’s Historic Preservation Commission. Currently, property owners have few options when rebuilding a house — it must be brick or other masonry.

The city’s preservation commission hopes new guidelines will allow property owners to come closer to replicating the charm of older homes when building new.

“The zoning wouldn’t change,” Iliff said. “It changes the architectural standards.”

Property owner Barbara Hollingsworth Martin said she might be inclined to invest in restoring a historic house, but couldn’t recover her investment if a brick rental was built next door.

Similar to standards that help preserve home values in new subdivisions, the standards proposed would be adopted as an overlay to help preserve value in the city’s central neighborhoods. The preservation commission recommended the overlay be applied from First to 10th streets and from Plum to Houston streets.

Everyone who owns property in the affected area was mailed a notice about the public hearing on the proposed changes.

For now, the overlay rules would apply only to homes being built new, including those that might come after the demolition of an older home, Iliff said.

Martin told the planning commission and the 10 residents attending the hearing that the conversation about saving the city’s historic core began four years ago, after Sanger adopted its comprehensive plan.

Since then, even more older homes have been torn down and replaced with plain brick houses.

“You’re losing your charm,” she said.

The planning commission had also been wrestling with other standards for the city’s central neighborhoods, but decided to tackle only new construction for now and stem the losses to “brick boxes,” she said.

During the hearing, some residents expressed concern that the overlay meant only an additional layer of city bureaucracy. Others were concerned that the city’s historic core was being oversold.

Resident Bill Boutwell said many houses are in bad shape and create an eyesore.

Planning commission member Shelley Ruland was concerned that the overlay would have its own unintended consequence of allowing building materials that wouldn’t last.

“Wood isn’t what it used to be,” Ruland said.

The city identified about 30 homes in the central neighborhoods that could be historic, which Ruland said was not enough to create a good core.

“To have a historical neighborhood, you have to have something to start with,” Ruland said.

The planning commission directed Iliff to hold a joint meeting with the preservation commission so that some of the residents’ concerns could be addressed before advancing the proposed overlay to the City Council.

PEGGY HEINKEL-WOLFE can be reached at 940-566-6881. Her e-mail address is pheinkel-wolfe@dentonrc.com .