 |
||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Although it is very important to develop and use design guidelines to help administer the local preservation ordinance, understanding their usefulness and limitations at the outset can help prevent misunderstandings down the road. Take this summary to heart!
Guidelines Can
Explain,
expand, and interpret general design criteria in the local preservation
ordinance.
Help
reinforce the character of a historic area and protect its visual aspects.
Protect
the value of public and private investment, which might otherwise be threatened
by the undesirable consequences of poorly managed growth.
Indicate
which approaches to design a community encourages, as well as which it
discourages.
Serve
as a tool for designers and their clients to use in making preliminary
design decisions.
Increase public awareness of design issues and options.
Guidelines CanNOT
Serve
the same legal purpose as the design review provisions of the ordinance.
An ordinance is a law, but local design guidelines are typically not laws.
Limit
growth, or regulate where growth takes place. Guidelines address only
the visual impact of individual work projects on the character of a local historic district.
Growth itself is a separate issue that must be separately addressed through
zoning ordinances and preservation planning.
Control
how space within a building is used. They usually deal only with the exterior,
publicly visible portions of buildings, not with how interior space is
laid out or used.
Guarantee
that all new construction will be compatible with a historic area or the
guarantee creativity that is essential to the best sorts of sensitive
design.
Guarantee
"high quality" construction. Since materials are generally not
specified in the design guidelines, the final visual results, again, cannot
be guaranteed.
---------------------------------
What Guidelines Can and Cannot Do For Your Historic District. Excerpted and adapted from Design Review for South Carolina Historic District Commissions by Winter & Co., 1988.