ThisWeek Community Newspapers

Thursday, February 21, 2008

DAVID J. CROSS
ThisWeek Staff Writer

Merion Village is hoping to be among three neighborhoods chosen to pilot a new Columbus conservation program.

Late last month, Columbus City Council unanimously passed neighborhood conservation district legislation, which will allow neighborhoods to identify what qualities make the area unique, and hopefully preserve these traits.

Bob Leighty, Merion Village Association president, said his association is interested in the program, but wouldn't like to see the strict standards of a historic preservation district imposed on the area.

"I don't know anyone who would want our neighborhood to become a historic neighborhood with all the rules that go with that," Leighty said.

The program could tackle such issues as redevelopment. Merion Village is known for its distinctive homes, which typically are close together with small front yards, Leighty said.

If chosen for the pilot, area residents would have to decide if this is a trait worth keeping.

"It is a question of do we, as a neighborhood, want to preserve any aspect of (the area)," Leighty said.

Roxyanne Burrus, administrator of the Neighborhood Services Division Development Department, echoed much of Leighty's description of the pilot, though with more detail.

She said the city is looking for grassroots efforts and that neighborhoods interested in the program should be highly self-motivated.

"The key to this is the grassroots effort," Burrus said. "We really want to rely on the community to do most of the ground work. They are going to have to be very organized active communities because they have a lot of work ahead of them."

Once the pilot program is started, neighborhoods would have about a year to gather information through community meetings.

One of the challenges of becoming a conservation area is gathering the correct number of people needed to make the program official. Sixty percent of area residents and businesses would have to agree with the program before the program could go forward.

The city's goal is to have at least one neighborhood program under way by May 1.

Though no timetable has been set, Burrus believes April 1 will likely be the application deadline. This would allow officials a month to decide on what neighborhoods to choose for the pilot.

In addition to helping conserve a participating area's unique qualities, a benefit of the program is that it can protect property values, Burrus said.

For more information, call Randy Black, Columbus' historic preservation officer, at 645-6821.

<center>dcross@thisweeknews.com