City, historic review board resume efforts to get owners to repair homes

A house in Beaufort's Northwest Quadrant will be torn down, the first step in the city's latest effort to enforce a dormant ordinance aimed at preserving homes in the Historic District.

The Historic District Review Board on Wednesday approved the demolition of 1703 Duke St. after a brief public hearing. The house is one of nine the city ordered be repaired or demolished.

Arthur Washington, the owner of 1703 Duke St., said he's wanted to knock down the building for several years but could not get approval.

The home is listed as a contributing structure on Beaufort's 1998 Historic Structure survey, thus review board was hesitant to approve tearing it down. Plus, board members usually require plans to replace the structure, but this one was too deteriorated, said review board Chairman John Gadson.

The Historic District Review Board approves all demolition in the Historic District.

Washington said he plans to keep the property in his family and wants to build another home there eventually.

Beaufort planning director Libby Anderson said the city and Washington will negotiate who will pay for the demolition.

The City Council asked staff in March to make a list of vacant and abandoned structures in Beaufort. Members also asked the Historic Beaufort Foundation to rank those homes in order of historical significance to figure out which homes are worth saving.

Of the nine repair or demolish orders the city sent to homeowners in March, four were in the Northwest Quadrant, two elsewhere in the Historic District and three outside of the district.

The demolition by neglect ordinance allows Beaufort to force a homeowner to repair any home in the Historic District that has been classified by the building codes inspector as neglected. If the homeowner cannot pay for repairs, the city fix the home and impose a lien on the property until the city is reimbursed.

The ordinance was adopted in 2000, but it was never enforced because of city and homeowner financial constraints, said Councilman Mike Sutton.

The Beaufort City Council wants to step up enforcement of the ordinance with a concentration in the Northwest Quadrant, an area with many neglected homes, in order to bring more homeowners to the area and to preserve the neighborhood's historic significance, Sutton said.

"It's like a return on an investment," he said. "If the dead houses we're sitting on can't be saved, they will not come back to generate the tax revenue the city needs."

Knocking down a historic but deteriorated home helps keep the neighborhood's historical integrity intact, said Evan Thompson, executive director of the Historic Beaufort Foundation.

"The ultimate goal is to have new, appropriate structures built to help preserve the neighborhood," he said.