After a legal issue caused Newport’s Buena Vista Neighborhood designation as a local historic district to go back to the historic preservation commission, it was again approved.
The city has been working toward designating the local historic district in its west end for years, but the efforts started coming to fruition at the end of last year. In October, the Newport Historic Preservation Commission approved the designation, and the item was sent off to the planning and zoning commission. The case was supposed to be heard on Nov. 7, 2023, but was sent back to be reheard by historic preservation, which took place Wednesday, Feb. 28.
The historic preservation commission unanimously approved the historic district guidelines and the Buena Vista designation after a nearly three-hour long and, at times, heated discussion.
Residents littered the room both for and against the preservation district. Those for it said the district would help protect the integrity of historic homes and prevent them from being torn down. Those against it stated the reasonings of gentrification and too much government control over what homeowners can do with their properties.
“All it is, is just bullying,” Newport resident Antonio Hutton said. “You say I’m going to turn it into historic. Then, if it’s not up to the standard of what we deem appropriate then we’re going to take your property down the line. It’s just another harassment for people that can’t afford it.”
Buena Vista consists of the areas between the north end of West 8th Street, the south part of West 12th Street, the west ends of Brighton and Lowell Streets, and the east side of Putnam and York Streets.
The neighborhood is already a National Historic District but needs local designation for complete protection. The local designation allows the city to guide homeowners in preservation efforts, prevent exterior changes outside the city’s guidelines and halt unnecessary demolitions that may threaten the neighborhood’s structural integrity.
Those guidelines were the point of concern for residents who spoke at the meeting against the district’s designation in October, and they were brought up again Wednesday evening. One change from the October meeting is that those guidelines are now available for people to view.
“These guidelines don’t require people to work on their properties,” Newport Planning and Building Director Brian Steffen said. “This isn’t an order to work on those properties. It’s not an order to upgrade those properties. This is providing limited protection for people that are doing work to their properties in the area of applicability as defined in the guidelines.”
The Buena Vista Neighborhood, according to Newport Historic Preservation Office Scott Clark, has two unique types of architecture only found in Newport and Covington. Those are the “NKY Townhouse” and the NKY or “Newport Shotgun” home. Clark said these style homes are not seen anywhere else in Kentucky.
The guidelines are intended to focus exclusively on the exterior of someone’s home, which includes the “readily visible portion” of the building or front corners forward to the front yard. The items on a building that would fall under the guidelines include windows, doors, siding, gutters, fencing, unpainted masonry, demolition, etc.
The guidelines provide a map that shows areas of applicability.
The guidelines only involve painting if it’s for non-previously painted masonry or brick, though neon or fluorescent colors would not be prohibited.
The city stated multiple times throughout the meeting that should an item like siding, a window or a door have previously been changed that would not follow the guidelines, the homeowner would not be required to change it. The term “like can be replaced with like” is commonly used. Should a property have existing vinyl siding, it can be replaced with vinyl siding. This exception is unique to the Buena Vista designation.
Newport Historic Preservation Commission Member Mark Ramler called it a “preservation light district.”
“It’s not all that common in the U.S., but I think in this situation is very appropriate because it does take into consideration cost and different income levels to be able to preserve and maintain properties as they are,” Ramler said.
Further comments made by those against the district said they felt like the city would come to their properties and hand out fines for not complying with the guidelines.
“The people that work and have to come home and they got a fine on your door, and it’s like ‘hey, you got to get this done today otherwise, we’re going to fine you, and eventually this is going to become a lien and it’s going take your house,’” Hutton said. “This whole thing is not for the people that live here.”
Steffen said there are no fines, and the penalty in the ordinance is for a court option for extreme cases where there is no solution, or someone does work without a permit.
“In my tenure with the city, 27 years, we’ve not had a court case with a historic preservation issue,” he said.
Newport Historic Preservation Commission Member Scott Fleckinger said the fine concern is more of a code enforcement issue.
“You have to maintain it (property), and that would pertain to code enforcement more so—historic preservation is going to have nothing to do with it,” Fleckinger said. “They’re not going to come in and ask you to update your home. That is completely voluntary.”
Hutton agreed properties needed to be maintained but did not want a supervisor for what he could do with his property.
“It’s not right that people have been here—we bought these houses honestly or got them handed down generational—that’s not right I don’t need an overseer over my house,” Hutton said. “Yes, we do need to have people coming over and saying, ‘Hey, you need to fix this. Hey, you need to cut your grass.’ We need that. We do need inspectors to come through and make sure that everything is on the up and up. But I don’t need an overseer.”
The district will also create a permit process for obtaining a Certificate of Appropriateness, a document stating the proposed work is appropriate for the area. City staff said this certificate typically takes three days to receive and doesn’t cost any money.
Concerns regarding adequate staffing to support the extra 1,100 homes being brought in with Buena Vista and the timeliness of approving Certificates of Appropriateness were addressed during the meeting. Clark and his assistant approve the certificates and said they do not plan to hire additional staff.
Fleckinger said not all 1,100 people would be looking to apply for a certificate at one time.
Newport west side resident Catherine McElwain was one of the residents who spoke Wednesday in support of the local district. McElwain, her husband and Clark were involved with getting the national designation named for Buena Vista.
“My husband and I spent a lot of work when we moved here in 2015 to make this happen,” McElwain said. “And for that reason, I would like to see it continue.”
Creating a grant or loan program to go along with the designation has been discussed. The city said it should be addressed in an upcoming caucus meeting.
Now that the historic preservation commission has passed the district, the Newport Planning and Zoning Commission will hear it on March 19 at 5 p.m. They cannot make any changes; however, if approved, it will go before the city commission for more public comments, and they can make modifications.
