On Monday night a resolution on historic buildings was sponsored by an unusual five City Council members, and it passed 8 to zero.
The idea is to pursue an updated historic building survey by instructing City Manager Jason Gage’s office to provide a cost estimate for listing out all of the city’s historic structures, and to seek a preservation grant to pay for a survey.
Zone 1 Councilwoman Monica Horton, who represents northwest Springfield where many vintage buildings are located, talked about the new survey as a way to figure out if Springfield needs a new ordinance to fight against so-called demolition by neglect. That’s a scenario where a property owner lets a historic building deteriorate beyond saving in order to replace it with new construction.
The city could also opt to tweak existing ordinances to better care for historic buildings, Horton said.
She added, “There was a realization that there was a need to have an accurate inventory of the number and condition of buildings in historic districts such as Walnut Street, sections of downtown, Midtown neighborhood as well as historic C-Street.”
The current list of Springfield’s historic sites and landmarks counts roughly 150 buildings.
