On January 11, 2022, the City of Frederick held a virtual public informational meeting to present the long-awaited update to the Frederick Historic District National Register nomination. Led by Historic Preservation Planner Lisa Morazzick Murphy and consultants from Gray and Pape Heritage Management, the meeting outlined the nomination's expanded historical context, revised boundaries, and updated property surveys. No decisions were made; the meeting was for information and public input only.
Hi, welcome. Good evening. My name is Lisa Morazzick Murphy. I am one of the historic preservation planners for the city of Frederick. And tonight we have our public informational meeting regarding a project that's been in the works for quite some time. It's the Frederick Historic District National Register nomination update. We have with us also consultants from our city's consultant Gray and Pape Heritage Management. And so I'm going to start off with just some brief introduction slides and then hand it over to them to talk more about the project. I do want to note that this isn't a hearing of the HBC. There's not going to be any decisions made tonight. And we will have a portion at the end of Gray and Pape's presentation where you can call in with questions or comments, and we'll also have my contact information available so that questions can be sent in at a later time. If there's something we can't answer tonight, I am making note of those, and we'll do our best to get back to you with an answer. Okay, so I want to start off with what is the National Register of Historic Places. It is the nation's official list of historic places that are worthy of preservation. The National Park Service administers the National Register program and coordinates public and private efforts to identify historic places and to protect them as well as archaeological resources. And at the state level, it is administered by the Maryland Historical Trust, also the also known as the State Historic Preservation Office. And I've got a lot of questions, and we get these all the time, even outside of this project is what does the National Register mean for my property? So it's it's largely honorific. So that means there's no HPC review required by being simply being listed on the National Register of Historic Places. That is, you can be listed in the city's historic district and the national register. So of course, in that case, you would have to get HBC review. But for example, the the yellow district is the district that's designated by the city as the Frederick Town Historic District. That's a zoning overlay, and that requires HBC review. And this one can be a little bit confusing. The names are similar, but if you are simply your property is simply located in the orange area and not the yellow city district, you do not need to get HBC approval. So anything that's being updated as part of this national register nomination has no impact on the boundaries in the yellow and what may or may not require HBC approval. And there are some benefits for being on the National Register. It can make you eligible for federal and state income tax credits for rehabilitation work. Also state state funded actions and permitted projects as well. It was updated in 1988. So it's been long overdue for updating. And one of the goals of this was to have the historic context that is part of the nomination updated to incorporate a fuller history of the city, specifically looking at African Americans, women, the history of workers, immigrants, and the LGBTQ community, which were not addressed in the 1988 nomination. Also looking at the revised boundaries or looking at the boundaries, revising them, considering where they should be revised and updated where appropriate, based on you know several decades of significant development that needed to be reassessed, and then updating the contributing and non-contributing list and map and updated photography. So the next steps is the nomination has been completed and it's been submitted to the Maryland Historical Trust, and it will be scheduled for the Governor's Consulting Committee on the National Register. They will review the nomination. We have the opportunity to review National Register nominations. And then pending a favorable recommendation, and then concurrence by the State Historic Preservation Officer will be forwarded to the National Register Office of the National Park Service for final action and listing at that point. So at this point, I'm going to turn it over to oh no, I just want to make one unrelated plug. The historic preservation commission is in uh need of members. We have several vacancies on the commission at this time. So if you're tuning in, maybe you're interested in historic preservation and you'd like to be on the commission. Um this flyer is up on the screen. It's available. You can um you know pull it down from the HBC's Facebook page. Also just call the planning department or myself to find out how to submit your resume. Also, there is a um, if you're also interested, there's a vacancy on the zoning board of appeals and on the planning commission, and there's some information there about how you can do that. Again, uh, feel free to call the planning department with any questions about how to do that. So, yes, with that, I will turn it over to um Carrie and her team, and then at the end, like I said, we'll come back for questions and comments. Thank you. Thank you, Lisa.