By KRWG News
Las Cruces – From The City of Las Cruces: The city will hold a public input meeting on the proposed Demolition Delay, Reuse and Adaptive Reuse Ordinance for Historic Structures. The meeting will be held on Tuesday, September 1st from 6:00-7:30pm inside City Hall, Council Chambers, 200 N. Church Street.
The ordinance would require the property owner/permittee to honor a 60-day waiting period prior to the demolition of structures that are registered historic buildings on the state and federal historic registers. The grace period gives interested individuals an opportunity to contact the property owner and propose alternatives to demolition like encouraging its reuse or perhaps selling the property to someone interested in preserving the structure. These alternatives are purely voluntary on behalf of the property owner. Currently, property owners may apply for a demolition permit and demolish a registered historic structure immediately.
The ordinance would also provide substantial flexibility in the use of registered properties to provide options in lieu of demolition. For instance, parking requirements for businesses that occupy a historic structure are more lenient in application, limited deviations to numerical requirements of the 2001 Zoning Code may be entertained administratively, or uses that are typically not allowed in an area may be requested and acted on by the Planning and Zoning Commission. All these issues and more are intended to allow for the reuse of historic properties to keep them from being demolished. The proposed ordinance can be viewed at www.las-cruces.org/cd/.
For more information, contact Carol McCall, Planner at 575/528-3209 or cmccall@las-cruces.org. The TTY number is 575/528-3016.