Jefferson City moves forward with historic preservation plan draft
Jefferson City is moving forward with a historic preservation plan that was proposed well before an EF3-rated tornado tore through multiple historic buildings in the city.
In March, the city hired consultants with Heritage Strategies to develop The Jefferson City Historic Preservation Plan. The goal is to provide the community with a focused document to guide historic preservation and enhancement throughout the city.
The Historic Preservation Commission held a public meeting on Tuesday to present a draft of the plan and gain feedback from the public.
You can view the draft of the plan here.
The president of the Historic Preservation Commission, Mary Schantz, said some of the major things the consultants recommended were public engagement, creating more historic landmarks and making historic preservation key in every part of government.
“I think this historic plan kind of emphasizes what we have here already and that we could lose, and we don’t want to lose it,” Schantz said. “We want to make sure we preserve as much as we can for the future.”
The city is in the middle of redoing its entire comprehensive plan, and this historic preservation draft will become part of that overall plan. The city hopes the document will influence historic preservation efforts in Jefferson City for the next 20 years.
While this plan started before the tornado hit the city, Schantz said it is playing an important part. “It’s unfortunate, but it does help demonstrate to all of us the importance to protect the areas in our town,so that if a tornado or whatever comes there is something in place that is going to protect it.”
Schantz said while some of the historic buildings on Capital Avenue will have to be torn down, it is an “overlay district,” so there are certain style rules buildings in the area must follow.
She said that’s not the case for some of the other historic areas in the city that were not specified as historic areas. “There’s not really any guidelines for what can be built so you could end up with buildings that are not in the character of the original neighborhood.”
The commission will have another meeting with city leaders and the public about the draft in mid-August to receive more feedback before it is approved.
