Preservation group discusses historic districts

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By COLLEEN MCCARTHY
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The Historic Preservation Commission met Tuesday night to discuss their plans for the three historic districts in Starkville.
Last month, the commission was approved for the 2011 Certified Local Government grant by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. The grant will cover the cost of design guidelines for the historic districts, at a cost of $4,000, and the re-survey of the Overstreet District, at a cost of $1,085. A Memorandum of Agreement was completed by Mayor Parker Wiseman, and will be sent to the MDAH.
“By early June, we should be able to take the next step,” commissioner Michael Fazio said. “We will start putting things in motion by our next meeting.”
The re-survey will be an update of the original survey done in the 1990s. The survey will look at individual each individual structure within the Overstreet District, and document the architectural details.
The guidelines will provide the commission with an expert’s opinion on what changes could be made to a structure within a historical district that would be appropriate for the architectural style.
In a previous meeting, the commission broke up into three sub-committees.
The consequences sub-committee, which consists of Tom Walker and Maxine Hamilton, will come up with a set of standards by which the commission would enforce and penalize violations of the guidelines. The process sub-committee, which consists of Cyndi Sullivan and Joy Day Greene, will handle designing the process property owners will use to apply for approval for structural changes. The third sub-committee, which consists of Patrik Nordin and Jason Barrett, will handle design elements.
The Historic Preservation Commission will not be able to finalize the process, consequences or elements, however, until the re-survey and design guidelines are completed. The commission is scheduled to meet again on June 28.