HHDC MOTION TO PROPOSE UDC LANGUAGE CHANGE: 11am @ 312 E Charles 7/21/2021
That the legal definition for the Historic District as found in the UDC 8.1.7 that reads as follows:
“… The historical district above designated shall include all building sites or lots and all structures, houses or other buildings facing any of the streets on the perimeter of the area.”
To be changed to:
“The historical district above designated shall include all building sites or lots and all structures, houses or other buildings on a building site or lot touching any of the streets on the perimeter of the area. It is the intent of this definition to include all properties which are diagonally opposite (catty-corner) from the intersection of streets on the perimeter of the area.”
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
If approved all structures that are ‘touching’ or ‘catty-corner’ to the Hammond Historic District will be re-incorporated back into the historic district and be required to once again be in compliance with District Guidelines.
WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?
In 2015 a controversial case brought under questioning the definition of ‘facing’ established in the 1980 Ordinance for the Hammond Historic District. As a result, the City of Hammond was required to provide a legal definition that determined facing to mean all properties whose assessed address was facing the district.
Prior to this 2015 ruling over 60 structures were considered to be ‘facing’ the district. After the redefining there was a 31% loss of facing building stock; 36% of those lost structures had already previously applied for HHDC approval during the 35 years they were incorporated. The intent of redefining once again the establishing ordinance is to reincorporate the 19 lost properties back into the historic district and to prevent any further loss to the historic fabric.
REGULATION: I DO NOT HAVE A COMMERCIAL PROPERTY.
In 2017, the HHD Guidelines were updated to accommodate residential structures within the district to allow for more lax regulation. This can be found in Appendix A of the District Guidelines.
