Historic Zoning

If you never work on your house, then you probably don't think much about zoning. To make up for that, people like my neighbors think about zoning A LOT.

Here's a map of the area where I live:

As you might guess, R-zoning is residential. R-1A is for single-family homes and duplexes (maybe some other house-like apartment buildings). O is for offices, C is commercial, and I is industrial. The number designates the "density."

The important part here are the diagonal lines -- any area that is shaded in with diagonal lines also carries the overlay zoning of H-1, which is historic zoning. My house is in one of those medium-yellow islands of R-1A without H-1, so I do not need to get permission from the Historic Zoning Board before making exterior changes. This is good because it's one less hoop for me to jump through. I would say that it's also bad because some of the stupid things that previous owners did were clearly inconsistent with the guidelines; however, since their work isn't anywhere near being up to code, I would guess that they didn't even have a building permit, so bureacracy probably wouldn't have come to the rescue.

Here is the great part: if you're in the historic zoning, then you need approval for every exterior change (down to small details -- like the color of the mortar when you have brickwork repointed). However, the city law director recently informed the city council that, in his opinion, you can un-zone your property out of H-1 JUST BY ASKING. That's right: anyone who doesn't want to comply with the historic guidelines can just ask the city council to remove the property from the H-1 overlay, and the rules will no longer apply!

My neighbors have whipped themselves into a frenzy: Call the city council! Hold a meeting! Call the zoning board! Email the entire neighborhood! This MUST BE STOPPED!

I am waiting to see a schism: wealthy gentrifiers versus absentee landlords and everyone else with a lack of patience about the historic rules. I will watch this from the sidelines -- unless someone tries to take away my right to install storm windows.