Recommendation to request City Attorney to prepare an ordinance to designate a new historic district for 19 properties located on the 6000 block of Walnut Avenue, bounded by 61st Street to the north and 60th Street to the south, specifically addressed as 6001, 6002, 6012, 6017, 6018, 6023, 6024, 6029, 6030, 6037, 6038, 6043, 6044, 6049, 6050, 6055, 6056, 6067 and 6068 Walnut Avenue, as a Historical Landmark District.  (District 9)
Motion carries. Next, we'll move to item 31 with the clerk. Please read the item. Report from Development Services Recommendation to request City Attorney to prepare an ordinance to designate a new historic district for 19 properties located on the 6000 block of Walnut Avenue as a historical landmark. District. District nine. Yes. Is there any public comment in this item? Some council comment? Yes, Mr. Richardson. Thank you. I want to I want to acknowledge this this moment and share some context with the council. So this is you know, it's an important moment. This is an opportunity for us to expand the geographic diversity of our landmark districts around the city. It's the first landmark district in North Palm Beach, which makes up about 20% or a fifth of the city. Currently, there are historic districts. There are large historic districts in districts one, two, three and seven. There are some smaller districts in four, six and eight. There are no historic districts in districts five and nine. And so this action tonight actually does two things. It's a great step in working to address both postwar post-World War two history in our city and secondly, working class history. And and so this neighborhood tonight, within the Grant neighborhood, it's a part of a larger movement, really led by the residents, one here in the audience, Jeff Rowe. And I want to recognize the president of the Grant Neighborhood Association. And he's in he lives on Walton on Walnut Avenue. Really, this is a part of an effort for that to preserve the character of their independent, independent block. And I really applaud the work that they've done to really equitably explain and expand the city's historic preservation program, to include a broader range of geography, demographics and cultural history . So the cohesive collection of properties on this block really represent a certain period, you know, around the 20th, when the automobile allowed us to leave from the city center and really expand to other areas of town. And so the houses have a certain character, their two bedroom, one bath. And those things are changing now that the demands of the neighborhood are changing. We still want to preserve some of that unique history of that block. And so that conversation has already begun, and that's the appropriate use for this designation process. And then there's a there are benefits that a lot of people don't really recognize with. There are obviously challenges, but there are benefits as well. And so, one, it creates a deeper sense of pride of ownership in communities where properties invest their time and energy into the community as a whole and create a positive ripple effect. Secondly, you know, hopefully this this this helps us to acknowledge that an entire area of town, largely districts 95, which all were built around the same time, this is this is the first of a whole effort to begin recognizing those histories, which were largely made up of not not affluent or wealthier neighborhoods, but really working class communities and their their history. And then the financial benefit is that being a historic district offers these homeowners the opportunity to apply for the Mills Act and receive a reduction in their property taxes, which they can use. They can use that retained income and invest in necessary improvements to their property that highlight that historic character and contribute to neighborhood beautification. So I know that we these things typically come and go on our council agenda, but I wanted to sort of lift this up that this is the beginning of a new wave of a major sector of our of our our city, getting into the process of recognizing historically landmarked districts. So so thank you. And I move to support it. Yes. Councilwoman Mongo. Okay. Fine. Could you please cast your vote? Yes. Have. I. I call pan coming in when like I speak on this item. Yes. Please come down to. Closer next time. Thanks for considering this. We actually started this about three years ago and we thought, well, we got a lot of old homes and Grant, they're all coming up 100 years old. Let's do all of Grant neighborhood. I wish Chris was here because. In money, many little nuggets of wisdom. He said, no, that's going to be a little bit too big to get your arms around. Why don't you focus on a smaller area? So that's what we did, which turned out to be a pretty wise decision. Because our neighbors didn't really know. What it meant to have an historic district. One of them, for example, thought, well, if it's historic. Does that mean that we have to maintain the interior of the house, sort of a museum quality? We said, no, no, no, you don't have to do that. You can leave all the laundry on the on the couch. But anyway, there was a benefit to this that we never saw coming. And that's that shortly after we started this. And in the process of doing it, we all got to know each other pretty well. But we also launched the disaster preparedness effort, and because we knew each other pretty well. We were able to get that all done in about four weeks. And I think we became then. The second street in Long Beach to finish that disaster preparedness. So anyway, thank you again, Rex and Chris isn't here, but thanks to him and to Gina, Casi removed. Thanks again for considering this. Thank you. Next week, you. Thank you. Thank you and thank you. I'm very supportive. I'm Jacqueline Case. I'm a realtor. I support the historical districts. I'm also a board member of Long Beach Heritage. And I've been working with Christopher Koontz and a lot of other folks from the city to educate my industry about historical districts and how important it is for them to have an understanding of why it is important that we know what we can do and not do in these districts to support them. Because you're right, they actually do bring so much more value to our community, and even my industry doesn't really understand that completely. So I'm grateful that I happen to be here. And you happened to be talking about this. And I support and I thank you for thinking of and continuing to open your ideas for more historical districts and also landmarks. Thank you. Now. Could we please catch the votes?