City council unaware if historic designation would help homeowners renovate

UPDATE: The city council voted 7-2 in favor of creating the School Street Historic District.

ORIGINAL: Jefferson City officials have not received confirmation that homeowners in a local historic district have the ability to avoid a FEMA rule that blocks significant home improvement projects.

The Jefferson City council will consider the application for the School Street Local Historic District, which includes areas of School, East McCarty and Lafayette streets, at its meeting Tuesday. The area sits on a FEMA floodplain and is thus subject to the Substantial Improvement rule, which prohibits construction projects on the homes that are worth more than 50 percent of the assessed value of the home.

Critics of the application say the proposed district boundaries don’t include vital parts of history.

The application, which has collected the required signatures of 75 percent of affected homeowners, claims a designation of the local historic district would help property owners avoid the limitations of FEMA’s Substantial Improvement rule, but city staff is not positive such an avenue exists.

City Administrator Steve Crowell told ABC 17 News in an email the city has not formally confirmed that the homeowners in the proposed district would be able to improve their homes beyond the current limitations set by FEMA.

“Staff is reluctant to state whether formation of a local historic district would override the FEMA regulations,” Crowell said.