Now for some actual news, and good news at that. I really hope this passes. Mobile needs more nice residential areas near downtown. Plus these old homes are so amazing and should not be left for crackdealers, etc.
Advisory body approves Oakleigh expansion
Final decision is up to Mobile City Council; vote remains unscheduled Tuesday, May 08, 2007By JEFF AMYStaff Reporter
An advisory body approved Monday night a significant expansion of the area included in the Oakleigh Garden Historic District.
It would be the largest expansion of historic protection in years.
The new territory would include areas along Broad Street from Church Street south to Virginia Street. It would also include houses on Texas and Fry streets that are north of Magnolia Cemetery and south of Oakleigh's current boundary.
The Mobile Historic Development Commission voted to add the new territory. The ultimate decision is up to the City Council, which has yet to schedule a vote.
Councilman William Carroll, who represents the area, has been supportive so far but said he will vote against it if a majority of property owners and residents oppose the plan. Other council members are likely to follow Carroll's lead.
"I've had way more positives than negatives," Carroll said Monday of residents' responses. But he said that few residents overall have voiced opinions. He said a second public meeting is likely before the council votes.
Unlike in 2002, when the city proposed creating a Midtown historic district, residents will not vote directly.
The Midtown district failed, falling just short of the 60 percent majority needed. Since then, the city has added the Campground area, southwest of the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue and Ann Street, to the federal list of historic districts but didn't include local protections, which govern the exterior look of properties.
The Oakleigh proposal has been greeted cautiously by residents, many of whom were concerned that they would be ordered to make costly repairs or upgrades to their houses or face burdensome new restrictions on their properties.
"I have a feeling if this passes, they're going to be right out here telling me I have to tear this down and repaint that," said Tom Godwin, owner of Friendly Pawn at 312 S. Broad St.
Proponents downplayed those fears at a meeting last week, saying the Historic Development Commission, the city agency that enforces historic district rules, does not plan to try to force property owners to make upgrades.
"We're not going to be starting with someone who needs a little maintenance," said Devereaux Bemis, the commission's executive director.
Bemis told the roughly 100 attendees at the meeting that approval of most work was relatively routine and that the commission had stock plans to help people preserve or enhance historic buildings.
Supporters also emphasized that restrictions meant residents would have less cause to worry about a neighbor doing something undesirable.
One reason for the proposal is the Bring Back Broad initiative, a plan to make changes to Broad Street in an effort to slow down traffic and make the street more attractive.
Palmer Hamilton, an Oakleigh resident and redeveloper, is the prime mover behind Bring Back Broad, which is being financed with $2 million in federal money that Hamilton helped secure.
Hamilton said the project will be enhanced if the historic properties bordering the street are protected and can't be developed into something that would contrast with the street improvements and surrounding neighborhood.
As plans were being drawn for Bring Back Broad, a developer proposed building a convenience store and gas station on an empty lot near the corner of Broad and Elmira streets.
"I would say that was certainly a bit of a wake-up call," said Jaime Betbeze, an Oakleigh representative to the historic commission.
The developer has since dropped the plans in the face of neighborhood opposition. The other main reason cited by expansion backers is that the new lines would clear up confusion along Texas Street about which parcels are in the district and which are not.
Right now, both sides of the west end of Texas are in the district, as well as parts of three other blocks of the north side of Texas. All parcels bordering Texas Street would be taken in, as well as all parcels along Fry Street north of Magnolia Cemetery.
In recent years, property values in Oakleigh have grown strongly, which backers attribute to the historic protections. One study has shown that properties in Alabama historic districts have appreciated more rapidly than all properties in the same general areas, a finding touted by preservationists.
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Increasing values, though, raise fears of gentrification -- that poorer, black residents will be pushed out by richer, white newcomers.
Carroll addressed that fear at the meeting last Tuesday, saying he didn't want this to be like the mass displacements and demolitions that accompanied urban renewal in the Down the Bay neighborhood just east of Oakleigh.
"Do not get it in your minds that we are trying to move you out, come in and displace you, make you fix your houses immediately," Carroll said last week. His house is inside the current Oakleigh boundaries.
On Monday, Carroll said some homeowners had gotten letters from HomeVestors, a company that buys houses and tries to resell them for a profit. He said those letters, arriving while the expansion was being considered, had caused further concerns about displacement.
Hamilton, the leader of a group that has renovated some Oakleigh homes and built new ones in historic styles, said improving housing close to downtown is important for Mobile's tax base and long-term viability. He said some people who move in have higher incomes than those who moved out.
"I think there's a perception of gentrification, and not that some of that isn't going on, but I think it's overstated," Hamilton said.
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