County Board members are closing in on a decision about whether parts of the Nelly Custis School should receive historic designations.
Board members are slated to take their first procedural step toward a future decision on the 1.7-acre property tomorrow (Wednesday). They are likely to adopt an initiating resolution for consideration of the historic district proposed by a local resident and recommended by the Historical Affairs and Landmark Review Board (HALRB).
The site at 750 23rd Street S. is owned by Melwood, which last year received County Board approval to redevelop the site for affordable housing and service uses. Redevelopment is a joint effort of Melwood and Wesley Housing.
Plans remain on hold until the question of historic status — which the development partners oppose — is settled.
That resolution is a required legal step for Board members to first advertise and then hold a public hearing and vote on the proposal. If legal advertising is approved in May, the hearing and action could take place at Board meetings on June 13 or 17.
In a memo to Board members, county historic-preservation supervisor Lorin Farris said the vote set for tomorrow is not designed to signal whether the site ultimately wins preservation status.
“Initiation of this amendment is for procedural purposes only,” she wrote.
On a 7-4 vote, HALRB members in March determined that original portions of the school building met two of the 11 criteria outlined in the county’s zoning ordinance to be considered for historic status.
Two is the minimum required for a property to be considered for historic status.
Under the redevelopment plan, about one-third of the apartments would be set aside for residents with disabilities.
The HALRB vote recommended that the earliest parts of the building, from 1924 and 1931, be retained. Additions constructed in 1962 and in the mid-1990s did not qualify as historic, the panel voted.
In recent years, County Board members have been reluctant to impose historic status, and restrictions that come with it, when property owners are opposed.
In the Melwood case, county staff opposed historic designation when the matter went to HALRB members for consideration.
