[Calclg-l] Fiscal Impacts of mills Act

Sat Jan 5 12:13:41 PST 2008

Thank you, Melanie. This is a great sounding program of which Ill use 
if for advisement, whether it be under the City's auspices or under 
work as a member of a private historic preservation organization.
It sounds like your planning department is quite proactive instead of 
simply processing! Congratulations on this program and the results it 
brings to the community.
Wendy
On Jan 4, 2008, at 5:50 PM, Melanie Mullis wrote:

>
> Wendy,
> Here in Ontario we use the Mills Act contracts for all types of 
> historic buildings and only a few of the 54 Mills Acts are not single 
> family residences.  For some, it has been an incentive but not as much 
> as we envisioned.  The Mills Act is the only financial incentive that 
> we currently have.  Like most cities, we offer a lot of hand  holding 
> to help homeowners get it right and guide them through the maze.  We 
> allow the use of the state historic building code (which can be a 
> positive incentive for designated property owners).  We have a bronze 
> plaque program where the city pays for the installation of a historic 
> plaque (the homeowner pays for the plaque) and we coordinate getting 
> it completed and installed.
>  
> We also have an annual awards program that brings recognition to 
> historic property owners in the following categories:  restoration, 
> rehabilitation, landscape and award of merit (usually for long term 
> quality maintenance of a property).  Our awards program is a rather 
> big event for us – with a formal presentation to the City Council, 
> each winner gets a plaque recognizing the property, they get their 
> property listed in our awards brochure (which is a compilation of all 
> the past winners) which is available to any interested party, and 
> there is a public reception hosted by the City Council where all the 
> historic property owners in the City are invited along with various 
> dignitaries (including Historic Preservation Commission).  We prepare 
> formal invitation to all the invited guests, do ads in our city 
> magazine and provide the recipients with extra invitations so they can 
> invite their guests.  This is held sometime during the month of May as 
> part of Historic Preservation month.  To qualify to be an award 
> recipient, the property should be designated (or a contributor within 
> a district) but we have bent those rules to include just eligible 
> properties.  While we take and encourage nominations, staff usually 
> finds the award winners each year.  Sometimes there are more than one 
> in a category.  We try to make sure to look for recipients in all 
> parts of the city (hoping it spreads the word about the program and 
> its goals). 
>  
> Lastly we have salvaged items from some historic resources that have 
> been demolished.  We hope to make these items available for historic 
> property owners – getting this done is on our list but the program has 
> not been created.
>  
> Hope this helps.  I will be interested to hear what other cities are 
> doing – we are always looking for creative ideas.
>  
> Melanie Mullis, Senior Planner
> City of Ontario
> 303 East "B" Street
> Ontario, CA 91764
> Phone:  (909) 395-2430
> Fax:  (909) 395-2420
> Email:  MMullis at ci.ontario.ca.us
>
> From: calclg-l-bounces at ohp.parks.ca.gov 
> [mailto:calclg-l-bounces at ohp.parks.ca.gov] On Behalf Of Wendy Ward
> Sent: Friday, January 04, 2008 2:55 PM
> To: calclg-l at ohp.parks.ca.gov
> Subject: Re: [Calclg-l] Fiscal Impacts of mills Act
>  
> Jim and all list members
> As a Cultural Heritage Commissioner for City of Napa, I am curious to 
> the many historic preservation incentives you have..we're lacking in 
> that area so I'd greatly like to hear from you. We have utilized the 
> Mills Act on a commercial basis but there seems to be little for 
> historic homeowners to turn to. I am interested in both commercial and 
> residential incentives.
> Thank you and Happy New Year
> Wendy Ward
> City of Napa, Cultural Heritage Commission
> On Dec 19, 2007, at 3:03 PM, Pechous, Jim wrote:
>>  
>> Meg,
>>  
>> If you do the math the actual loss in City tax dollars is very low 
>> especially if you factor in the return which is the projection of 
>> City historic resources.   Prior to the Mills Act we had a much 
>> higher percentage of people attempting to delist their property or to 
>> demolition their historic structure.  This is by far our best 
>> historic preservation incentive our City has, and we have many.  The 
>> only pitfall I can think of is that it will take staff time to 
>> process and manage your mills act contracts.  One way to reduce tax 
>> burden, if that is a concern, and to reduce a sudden impact to your 
>> staff work load is to limit the number of contracts allowed per 
>> year.  We limit our contract to five the first three quarters of the 
>> year.   Our program has been in existence for over 10 years and we 
>> have a little over 50 active contracts.  
>>  
>> Good luck!
>> Jim
>>  
>> Jim Pechous
>> Principal Planner, Planning Division
>> City of San Clemente
>>  
>> 910 Calle Negocio  Suite 100
>> San Clemente, CA 92673
>> Phone:   (949)361-6195
>> Fax:     (949)366-4750
>> Email:  pechousj at san-clemente.org
>> Website:  http://www.san-clemente.org/sc/Standard.aspx?PageID=255
>>  
>>  
>> From: calclg-l-bounces at ohp.parks.ca.gov 
>> [mailto:calclg-l-bounces at ohp.parks.ca.gov] On Behalf Of Clovis, Meg 
>> x4913
>> Sent: Wednesday, December 19, 2007 2:42 PM
>> To: calclg-l at ohp.parks.ca.gov
>> Subject: [Calclg-l] Fiscal Impacts of mills Act
>>  
>>  
>> The County of Monterey is considering implementing the Mills Act but 
>> would like input from other jurisdictions re: adverse affects due to 
>> reduced property tax revenues. In addition, any advice about pitfalls 
>> to avoid would be appreciated.
>>  
>> Thanks for your assistance -
>>  
>> Meg Clovis
>> Cultural Affairs Manager
>> Monterey County Parks
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