My thanks for HDC Resident Fee return to $-0-
Residents of the Historic District may have noticed that effective July 1 of this year, their HDC application fee returned back to $-0- (from the $25 fee newly introduced last year).
It’s a topic I approached Mayor Sydnor about during last term, and I wanted to be sure to share my sincere thanks to him for his openness to converse about and to collaborate together on. A few residents had brought the original change to my attention, and I wanted to look into further on their (and their neighbors') behalf –
For those who may not be familiar, residents in the Historic District have an added step to complete when they go to do a home maintenance or improvement item to the exterior: Most things in this category (e.g., re-painting faded shutters) require pre-approval of the Historic District Commission (HDC) before work can begin. And upon HDC approval, many must undergo a second step applying for permits and paying permit fees (e.g., a fence permit).
In practice, this can translate into paying twice for the same improvement project, or even just paying to do regular house maintenance.
It’s important share: there’s good reason for the HDC approval step – it helps preserve the look-and-feel of our Historic District, enabling the important goal of retaining a touchstone to Laurel’s past.
What I hoped to achieve by returning the HDC resident fee back to $-0-, however, was to signal that we, as a City, recognize residents in the Historic District already have an added burden of an additional approval step, and that we want to encourage them in the maintenance their homes by avoiding layering multiple fees for the same thing, or charging fees simply for doing regular home maintenance.
So my deep thanks again to Mayor Sydnor for your collaboration, and a warm encouragement to all residents of the Historic District as you help to preserve a bridge to our City’s history!
