By Angela Marshall
Members of Rockville Centre's Historical Society and Mayor Eugene Murray met with a representative of the Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities to discuss the possibility of setting up a landmark ordinance in Rockville Centre.
Liz Boylan, a Rockville Centre resident and SPLIA member, organized the meeting because she wondered how such an ordinance would work and what it would mean to the village. Boylan has long admired the historic homes and buildings spread throughout the village.
SPLIA representative Charla Bolton said that landmarking is a preservation tool and a form of zoning.
Landmarking can be done to a single building or an entire section of a community. Bolton recommends the later because she said historic districts are more equitable and help maintain neighborhood character.
An historic district is usually made up of homes that are all over 50 years old or have architectural significance. While there can be some newer homes in the area, Bolton said it is best if they make up less than 10 percent of the homes within the district.
Municipalities with landmark ordinances designate an oversight board. Bolton stressed that the board must take its job seriously if the ordinance is to work.
One of the most important factors in deciding how a landmark ordinance will function in a community is whether it will require owner consent to landmark or not. "It's a tricky issue," Bolton said.
Many people oppose having their property landmarked without their consent, fearing what it means to their ability to change their property and resell it.
Much of Bolton's talk was spent explaining what she calls the misconceptions of landmark ordinances. "It does not freeze your property from being changed," she said.
When a person with a landmarked home wants to make an addition or change to the outside of their home, they would go before their municipality's landmark board with their request. The board would weigh the pros and cons of the change and make a decision about whether the person is allowed to make the change, much like a zoning board of appeals gives variances.
Local landmark ordinances do not cover the inside of a home. "We are not living in museums," Bolton said. "We are living in houses."
The benefit of living in an historic district does not come in the form of major tax benefits, but in an overall increased value of the whole area. "It is a community advantage," Bolton said.
She said the idea of being an historic district must appeal to the residents or there will be problems. She has seen people deliberately let their home fall to ruin in order to get around landmark ordinances.
"There is no possibility of doing this without neighborhood support," Bolton said. If people aren't behind it, she said, "there will just be a hue and cry."
In some villages, like Sea Cliff, ordinances are adopted willingly. In others, they are rejected. All of the towns on Long Island have landmark ordinances. "The villages are really mixed," Bolton said. She believes between 30 and 40 villages on the island have landmark ordinances.
Bolton took a tour of the village prior to the meeting and said she saw some great old homes clustered in a number of neighborhoods. She was impressed by the overall maintenance of the homes and credited the village laws for being protective.
Before a landmark ordinance can really be considered, the village or another Rockville Centre organization like the Historical Society would have to complete a survey of the village's older homes and buildings.
Members of the Historical Society said they would discuss the project at an upcoming meeting.
