Stakeholders Losing Their Grip

The National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 passed by the US Congress requires that all federal agencies, including HUD, take into account the effects of projects that include their involvement, funding, permits, and/or approvals on historic properties.  The historic preservation review process is mandated by Section 106 and provides valuable opportunities for all stakeholders to play a part in the planning of those projects.  If adverse effects to historic properties are determined, then there is a formal mitigation process agreed upon by all parties and usually results in making these important projects a better fit into their historic built environments; win-win situations.  Property owners who have voluntarily agreed to have their exterior improvements under the control of the city’s Heritage Commission deserve to be included in the early discussions and planning stages of adjacent properties.  It’s good community planning, it builds neighborhood/public support, leads to more successful projects and neighborhoods, and can encourage the expansion of our local historic districts and programs.  Successful communities that are proud of their history and place value on their historic resources understand this and use it as a tool for community betterment.  And then there is the City of Independence.  Recently, two publicly funded projects, Heritage House Apartments and Palmer Senior Housing, were planned and designed without the input of major stakeholders and neighbors directly affected by them.  Meetings and decisions were made behind closed doors.  Official votes of the City Council were conducted without even allowing opportunities for open public comments.  Heritage House is an 11-story, 166-unit, low-income housing complex that includes Section 8 housing assistance.  Neighborhood meetings were promised, then that promise was broken.  For Palmer, a neighborhood meeting was conducted, but only after the design was finalized while never bothering to contact two churches during the planning/design phases whose parking facilities will be impacted.  Palmer is the school building abandon by the Independence School district that was contaminated with toxic mold after their failed attempt to restore and occupy the space.  While City Hall makes strict judgments and mandates on the property owners for the tiniest level of detail within the small local historic district while ignoring their concerns on big picture items, they should not be surprised to witness little support for the expansion of our historic preservation program and the incremental disinvestment of our historic housing stock.  We have multiple examples of where projects that have disregarded historic preservation interests have eventually failed.  And as the city starts a campaign making proclamations that we have “Real People,” they need to understand that people have real opinions and can provide valuable input when given the opportunities, especially people who are taking risks in investing with their own money, without government subsidies, in our community’s historic neighborhoods.  “Real Progress” occurs when all stakeholders participate in the preservation and revitalizations of their neighborhoods and are included in the planning of these large publicly funded projects by out-of-town developers.  Otherwise, the current trends will continue to drive owner-occupied investments and young families away from the heart of Independence.