The Virginia Department of Historic Resources boards unanimously voted to expand the boundaries of the Manchester Residential & Commercial Historic District and create a separate historic district for the Blackwell neighborhood during a joint meeting at New Life Deliverance Tabernacle on Wednesday.
The decision follows two postponements and a revision to the original nomination proposed by a developer in May, which engulfed the Blackwell neighborhood within the proposed Manchester expanded district. By June, Department of Historic Resources Director Julie Langan said, she decided it would be “premature to move forward” with the proposal, after significant resistance from members of the Blackwell community in South Side.
“Since that decision was made — like I said — we’ve attended countless meetings and twice went door to door,” Langan said. “Simultaneously to that, we received some really useful guidance from the National Park Service,” which recommended splitting the nomination into two separate historic districts.
The result was the new proposal that the State Review Board and Board of Historic Resources voted in favor of Wednesday.
“Today, we’re considering two nominations,” Langan said,adding, “DHR has really acted in good faith to respond to the concerns we’ve heard.”
Langan noted that as of Wednesday, the boards had not received any notarized objections from directly affected homeowners, but had received two letters of opposition from adjacent property owners, which were given to board members in addition to comments in support of the proposals.
“You can see the turnaround in the attitude of the community, because of the work of the community liaison and historians,” said Lauranett Lee, a member of the State Review Board. “That’s making the difference in how we understand these historic designations.”
The joint meeting included a presentation of both historic district proposals, followed by respective public comments and then a vote by the boards. The expanded Manchester District proposal yielded no public input either for or against. The Blackwell public comment period was more lively, as several of the roughly 40 people in attendance contributed their thoughts and ideas.
“I was attracted to this matter by news reports,” said Marty Jewell, a former City Council member. “It freaked me out that there was talk of obliterating the name ‘Blackwell.’ But then to learn that the residents had not been notified that this historic area was coming across Hull Street was another frightening prospect.”
Jewell said he thought the larger conversation should be about the process of designating an area a historic district.
“It seems residents are more reconciled to the historic designation,” Jewell says. “But now that folks seem to be reconciled, I want to offer that perhaps a good enough heads up be made — maybe even earlier than your mandate — so we can get in these neighborhoods door to door and we can educate these residents as to how to reduce harms.”
For Blackwell homeowner Amy Wentz, the process was the most important part of the decision made Wednesday, too.
“I was never necessarily against [the historic district designation] or for it, because at the time — I've since purchased property in Blackwell — but at the time of my being vocal about it, the issue wasn’t necessarily about being for or against it, but more so just making sure people were aware and making decisions for themselves,” Wentz says. “So, I feel like the board made a decision based on the input from the community and if that input is reflected in that decision, then I'm OK with it.”
Wentz, who attended 15 of the 20 public meetings, noted she also thinks it’s important that state legislators and city officials make a commitment to ensuring longtime residents are not harmed by the new designation.
“There are a lot of protections for homeowners, but not for renters,” Wentz said, “and there's people in this community who have been renting for 20, 25, 30 years, who may not be able to get any tax relief, but they need some type of protection.”
She suggested ideas such as landlords receiving a tax incentive to keep rents reasonable.
“We have to start thinking about out-of-the-box things if they're going to continue to support these programs,” Wentz says.
Jewell explained there are three measures he’s aware of that could help reduce harms and mitigate the negative consequences of gentrification: the city’s tax relief program for residents 65 or older, reverse mortgages so homeowners can pull out the equity from their homes and a federal program — HARP — implemented by the Obama administration after the 2008 crisis, that can help reduce monthly mortgage payments by 30 to 40 percent.
“You've got people getting phone calls every day [asking] seniors, 'Do you wanna sell your house, ma'am?' and people are just sick of it. They feel like they're under assault, getting postcards every day from developers,” Jewell says. “So, if we can't stop it, I'm trying to organize black contractors and developers to get in the game. In the meantime, we need to get the city government — they have more resources than I do — and we need to get the word out to these residents in these neighborhoods about harm reduction provisions.”
According to a January study conducted by Virginia Commonwealth University's L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs in conjunction with DHR analyzing historic tax credits in the commonwealth, the Richmond metro area ranks first in the state for the percentage of total tax credits per capita at 47.2 percent. Charlottesville was in second place at 10.6 percent.
“Projects from 1997 to 2014 clustered around several Virginia localities,” the report states. “Some of the state’s urban centers such as Richmond and Hampton Roads have seen a higher volume of tax-credit projects.”
The report says that throughout the historic tax credit program’s history, the Richmond metro area has attracted the largest number of projects with 1,320, as well as the largest sum of project costs, at $2.6 billion.
“Thus, the state's largest distribution of tax credits—$647.7 million over the program’s lifetime—has also flowed to the Richmond region,” states the report. “The post-rehabilitation uses yielded a total economic impact of $200 million across the Richmond MSA. … This economic activity resulted in an additional $5.7 million per year in state taxes and $7.1 million per year in local taxes.”
But while the cost of development is significantly eased for developers who take advantage of the designation, there are downsides for residents who do not own homes.
During the same period analyzed in the Wilder school study, the city of Richmond experienced a 22.5 percent increase in real property revenue.
The average assessed value of historically rehabilitated properties across the state increased by 170 percent after completing rehabilitation in 2014 and the average value per square foot increased by 166 percent, according to the report, but “the increase in historic property value is substantially higher than the 12 percent average increase in all property revenue in these localities.”
“People look at Richmond and say, ‘Richmond is making good use of this!’ But, the rents are high enough and the land value is high enough that some projects could be done without [historic tax credits],” the report states. “Once you reach a certain rent threshold, fat cat or no, you don’t need the credits to make [a project] work because the rent is high enough [to secure financing].”
In the Blackwell community, the assessed property value has risen considerably, and the increase is most noticeable in heightened property taxes. After the most recent assessment, the real estate tax increased 19 percent, up from 14 percent the year before.
“So while we welcome redevelopment and the revitalization of communities that have been blighted, we also want to protect those folks who have stood the test of time throughout the crime and blight to be able to afford to stay there,” Wentz says. “I think all our city leaders and state legislators should make that commitment as we start making these decisions, because I think the historic district now — once they finish Blackwell, it'll move to Oak Grove, Bellemeade.”