Landmarks debate brews: Is town doing enough to protect its... | www.palmbeachdailynews.com

This article comes from the Shiny Sheet, click title for link. It recounts the continued battle to save houses worth preserving in the Town of Palm Beach. Many owners fear the landmarking process as it restricts their right to demolish or alter their structure once officially landmarked. The article reviews the guidelines that are applied for landmarking status. Depending on that status, changes to buildings or new construction is either reviewed by the Architectural Commission (ARCOM) or the Landmarks Preservation Commission. If the town wants to landmark a property, it really needs acceptance by the owner to do so and some are reluctant. Most have the resources to fight the town and usually prevail.



Generally speaking, we do things differently here in Lake Worth, as most of our historic resources lie within districts and are classified as contributing or non-contributing. Regardless, an owner can request demolition of even a contributing structure if it meets certain criteria. One of them is the condition of the structure. In Palm Beach, you don't run into too many cases of demolition by neglect, but we do have that situation in Lake Worth. Some properties are just too deteriorated to save.



Anyway, it looks like the Town of Palm Beach is about to bolster their Landmarks budget to see if it can do more to preserve buildings that add to the unique historic character of Palm Beach. Recently, ARCOM has been chastised by the Town Council for holding up demolitions of non-landmarked structures where they really don't have that ability. It sounds like this struggle will continue.