I have yet to hear solid reasons WHY someone is driving this designation. This doesn't "just happen" and no one does spends such time and effort just because it's an honor. Something's up. For example, stuff about how this might help prevent Crystal City from expanding are nice. Oh, really? In 2005 the Supreme Court ruled that local governments may force property owners to sell out and make way for private economic development when officials decide it would benefit the public. It wouldn't be the first time Arlington County put the interests (read: profits) of developers first. And for example, reassurances of how only local government restrictions may limit homeowner development, not a national designation, aren't entirely reassuring. I mean, is it the case that the national designation is necessary before Arlington County can then impose other restrictions? Or before County is eligible for more federal dollars for...? It wouldn't be the first time Arlington County government tried to pull a fast one. Alarm bells indeed. But I'd be happy to learn otherwise, though.

Patsy & Kurt Thiel (swimthiel@erols.com) Neighbors :^) We think the National Historic designation is just fine. That said, we have two important limitations we would like to have you all consider imposing: 1. That at no time will the Commonwealth or any other local entity designation be permitted unless a "clear" majority of current Property Owners of Record (only), vote to allow the request for designation; other than for individual stand alone properties. Further, that any agreement be codified such that it will remain revocable by a vote of the majority of current (at that time) Property Owners of Record in perpetuity. 2. That any attempt to in anyway to negate or reduce the Property Rights of Owners in this Association's geographical boundaries become a standing policy of the association. With those thoughts we leave you with these final thoughts:. The letters we received were not an easy read for most, they offer a system of opting out that requires deadline action on the owners part and most telling were sent regular mail. That causes us to have a small but persistent alarm bell ringing in our head and a feint whisper... "Give them and inch and they will take a mile." Now just why is that? Patsy & Kurt Thiel 628 South 22nd Street

Chris Mann (chris@mrmann.com) I'm getting into this late, but would appreciate it if you could add this to the listserv. Looks like you received a lot of opinions and a smattering of facts. I am in no way involved in this, just a concerned resident. I think it's best if everyone makes their own opinion based on the links I've included and the letters that were mailed out to the neighborhood. It also sounds as if this will be discussed further at the February Civic Association meeting. At this point, our neighborhood is only being nominated to the National Register of Historic Places. There's a big difference between being designated a Historic Place on the national level and on the local level. Savannah, GA is both a national and a local historic place, hence the building restrictions. Old Town Alexandria is a local historic district, hence any changes to your property have to go before the historic review board. The only restriction that the national designation puts on a neighborhood are for large changes/projects that request federal funding. The only way for our neighborhood to become a Local Historic district is if the neighborhood petitions the county's Historical Affairs and Landmark Review board. This document is a nice overview of the differences http://hpd.dnr.state.ga.us/assets/documents/nr_vs_local_fs.pdf Also of extreme interest is the actual application for designation on the national register. It is long, but details the history of the neighborhood and describes in detail each house in the neighborhood. http://www.arlingtonva.us/Departments/CPHD/ons/hp/page60196.pdf There will be a meeting on February 4th in the county board room at 7pm to discuss everything, and I believe this will also air on the Arlington County TV station. And it seems fairly easy to opt your property out of the designation. Just send a notarized letter to VA department of Historic Resources. If there is a way, I can scan in the letters and upload them to the yahoo group for those that missed them. Chris

Dawn McCoy There is an information session on historic designation Monday, February 4, 7 p.m., at the County office building, 2100 Clarendon Blvd., third floor. Both our neighborhood and Buckingham are being nominated, to join many other Arlington neighborhoods with national historic designation. This designation places no limitations on property owners with regard to any changes to their property. Local historic designation--which is what the Maywood neighborhood of Arlngton has--does require that homes are kept "historic." Aurora Highlands is not pursuing local historic designation. The solely honorific listing of a neighborhood in the National Register recognizes the neighborhood's significance in history and can help improve resale value of homes. It also opens the way for homeowners to take advantage of tax credits for doing renovation work. Many of our North Arlington neighbors have received dollar for dollar tax credits for pursuing renovation work--if they so choose. But you don't have to do renovations in the name of tax credits. You may do whatever you want to your house--even tear it down and build anew--with no penalty if you are in an historic district. There are no imposed guidelines for buildings in historic districts. Because the designation is national, if any federally funded projects would affect our neighborhood, those projects would consider how their plans might impact our neighborhood. For example if the 14th Street Bridge project now underway were to impinge somehow on our neighborhood, the leaders of that project would have to consider how it could affect our neighborhood before they move forward. Because Claremont became an historic neighborhood, a highway overpass originally planned to cut right through their neighborhood was rerouted. The list of Arlington neighborhoods already on the National Register is a testament to the programs' value to Arlington residents: Arlington Forest, Arlilngton Heights, Ashton Heights, Cherrydale, Columbia Forest, Lyon Park, Lyon Village, Maywood, Penrose, Westover, Claremont, and Waverly HIlls. Our leaders in Arlington want to ensure that Arlington's important place in history is not lost, while also providiing neighborhoods with nearby urban amenities in line with our proximity to D.C. It is kind of the best of both worlds, as many other neighborhoods have realized.

Natasha Atkins (natashaatkins@comcast.net) Sorry for the late reply. We live in one of the "historic" houses, built in 1910. At Dawn's urging, I had a long conversation with one of the county people about the benefits. Homeowners are eligible for a sizeable tax credit for renovations done within certain parameters (the dollar figure of the renovation has to be some percentage of the value of the house). If we had paid more attention to the details beforehand, we could have gotten a pretty nice tax credit for replacing all of our windows, restoring the original wood floors, and adding a screened porch. Unfortunately we chose a window style that wasn't the original configuration of panes, so that made the window component (a huge percentage of our renovation work) ineligible and we couldn't meet the dollar amount. However, should we ever decide to replace our tin roof, that in itself is expensive enough to qualify. Natasha

Paul Pismo I don’t have any answers to Sigal’s question, but have a related question. Given the current threat to the neighborhood from the Crystal City redevelopment, could we use our designation as a historic neighborhood as a way to keep Crystal City from crossing Rt. 1? To answer my own question, and based on my reading of the latest letter from Michael Leventhal, it looks like the answer is no when designated on a National level, but the answer is yes when designated at the County (or local) level. That would argue for going for County level designation, however there are other implications with that designation which would be very limiting to us home owners that would argue against it. I would appreciate confirmation of my reading of that letter. Paul Pisano

Tim Werbstein I don't know all the good and bad implications, if any, but you should be able to find them out from Virginia's "State Historic Preservation Officer" (SHPO). Sometimes local communities, such as cities but sometimes states, link these designations to obtaining permits for alterations or new construction. In most of the country, however, designation is essentially honorary; it has few if any associated controls, and is poorly enforced and easily challenged even where there are controls. Tim Werbstein These links may help: Website of the Virginia Department of Historic Resources: http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/homepage_features/ContactUs.htm Northern Regional Preservation Office (Region 4) Serving the Shenandoah Valley and Northern Virginia P.O. Box 519 (for deliveries: 5357 Main Street) Stephens City, VA 22655 Phone: (540) 868-7030 Fax: (540) 868-7033 Contact: David Edwards, Director Email: david.edwards@dhr.virginia.gov

Jim Oliver (jamesoliver@comcast.net) First, I was born and raised in Savannah, Georgia, the largest National Historic District in the US. My great aunt, Georgia Fawcett was one of the five original founding members of the Savannah Historic Society. Many of my family members own property and live within that district. I have extensive first hand and anecdotal information that I can share with anyone who wants to discuss this further in an appropriate forum about what can happen after receiving the designation and getting put on the list. Closer to home and more relevant to our neighbors questions, I met recently with David Watts, former DC deputy mayor for housing. Mr. Watts wrote the implementing ordinances on historic preservation for both Howard County, MD and the District. Within the District he subsequently had authority over preservation activities and enforcement. According to Mr. Watts, listing on the register, in and of itself, tends to be benign. In his experience the most noticeable consequence is an increase in the rates charged by home improvement/construction contractors. There is a perceived risk on their part that a project could be stopped or altered based on objections rooted in "historic preservation" and they charge for that risk. What happens subsequent to being listed in the register is, I think, what the neighborhood should examine closely. The state has created, and is currently in the process of updating, a prioritized list of historic assets in different categories. This issue was raised at the 1-26-08 Arlington County Board meeting where a property owner is having difficulty improving their property because (unbeknownst to them) their property had received a high ranking in the states priority list. The property owner was not aware of this, was not aware of the process that ha been followed to raise their properties ranking nor what may have influenced the ranking. As a neighborhood resident, I am concerned that "behind the scenes" influence could be used by some to thwart the efforts of others in a non-open process. Some of you may have seen me and my little guy walking through the neighborhood taking pictures and wondered what we are doing. I have photographed every property within the proposed district. Primarily, I find that the application is fundamentally flawed. Some very selective views were apparently examined in making the application and the entirety of the proposed district was largely ignored. The application materials do identify some homes (mine included) that have been altered so much such that they are not representative of the original architectural style of the predecessor structure. What I found in my examination is that far more homes than the application materials indicate have been modified substantially such that their original character is no longer the dominant character. Many of these homes do confine the modification to the rear of the property though the addition often looms large over the original structure. The assessment that was done apparently only considered the narrow view of some facades. I do not think preservation based on some building facades is a representative description of the entire proposed district. Personally, I support historic preservation. Savannah is a wonderful and beautiful city because of it. Some elements can become very onerous. My retired mother is forced to live in a home with single pane glass windows because thermally efficient double pane windows give a different reflection that is not accepted by Historic Savannah. She has much higher property maintenance costs because many of the new materials that are long lasting and low maintenance are not allowed. Strangely, some of this does lead to properties looking more dilapidated because of the increased cost and frequency of maintenance on building materials that are frankly inferior. This is not directly an issue with the application for listing that is currently under review, but could be if the process is allowed to proceed. My concerns are not necessarily confined to the current application, but stem from a larger and more long term view. If this listing is truly benign, as advertised, then why pursue it? If it is the first step in a process that could lead to a fundamental change with associated positives and negatives, I advocate for a larger and broader discussion before we start down the path so that the broader neighborhood has the information and knowledge to make an informed decision and reach a consensus as the letter describes. I welcome anyones comments to my direct email to avoid overloading Alice if all you want to do is comment to me. I can also be reached by phone anytime on 703.867.8976. I have also created a forum topic on the website www.arlingtonneighbors.org where people can post their views for all to read and likewise respond to without turning Alice's modem into a hot-plate with all the email traffic. Jim Oliver 922 S 17th Street

Bruce Cameron (brucecameronahca@gmail.com) Dawn McCoy started this effort and is actually coming back to visit and be at this meeting next week. We we will have this in the Feb AHCA newsletter and want to be sure it gets discussed at the Feb AHCA meeting. I believe the idea is that each home owner is still free to do with their property as they wish, the idea is more when large plans are proposed, where it would have broad impacts on our neighborhood, then threshhold gets raised to show a large plan won't change overall character of the neighborhood. However, think we all need to make sure we understand details and basis parameters. This is another of the many current items we want broad community to be aware of voice their opinions on. Even if assuming this is a good thing for AH, we all need to make well informed decisions on it. Bruce Cameron President -AHCA

Kennedy Smith (kennedy.smith@comcast.net) There are several professional historic preservationists in the neighborhood, including several current and former senior staff at the National Trust for Historic Preservation (including me) and National Park Service, and I suspect others of the gang will chime in here. As the letter says, National Register designation is honorary. It imposes absolutely no restrictions whatsoever. But there are benefits. For example, if a building is used for a commercial purpose (a store, restaurant, office, apartments, etc.), its owner could be eligible for a federal income tax credit equal to 20 percent of qualified costs of its rehabilitation (if the building positively contributes to the historic or architectural character of the district) or equal to 10 percent of rehabilitation costs (if it was built before 1936 but does NOT contribute to the district’s defining characteristics). Also, there are a number of studies that suggest that National Register designation stabilizes property values and increases resale value. Many people believe that being listed in the National Register means that design changes are restricted or must be approved by someone, but this sort of design regulation is a function of local government and has nothing to do with National Register listing. They are different issues and different processes altogether. - Kennedy

Beth Rafferty (Beth.LaMantia@rbcdain.com] I grew up in a “historic district” (Cleveland Park – near the National Cathedral) and the only negative issue my family ever encountered was a stringent review of the plans my parents had drawn up for an addition on our house. Exterior painting was an issue for a few our neighbors, some house colors had to be approved by the board prior to having the work done. Other than that, it was great, a neighborhood of beautiful historic homes! Beth 26th Road S