Florence Historical Commission: Part I - The Ten Historic Districts

 

Introduction: Florence has had historical zoning for many years. Until recently, any controversy over city rules of "dos and don'ts" has been minimal. The past few months have brought changes in both the name and the outreach (or is that overreach?) of this board. We'll be addressing these issues in our next few blogs.

The City of Florence currently has ten historical districts, or one for every 4,000 citizens, although these districts lie mainly in a concentrated area surrounding the downtown. They are:

Cherry Street

College Place

Downtown (Which appears to include the old firehouse on Pine Street.)

Locust Street

McFarland Heights (Thinking ahead to the College Street Bridge/Development?)

Sannoner

Seminary/O'Neal

Walnut Street

Wilson Park Houses

Wood Avenue

Over the past year to 18 months, controversy has surrounded the Florence Historical Board, much of which was due to its controversial chair, Brian W. Murphy. Several of the old board's harshest critics attempted to have Murphy ousted, but with little success. Then the Florence City Council announced the end to the board. What did that mean?

The board was renamed the Florence Historical Preservation Commission, with the same members. In fact, at the first meeting, there was no election of a new head; Brian Murphy simply took his place as chair with no fanfare, much to the chagrin of his critics.

Why is Murphy so generally disliked? We love the answer that he's a Yankee. Sorry, that's absolutely no real reason at all. One critic mentioned the fact that he has picketed city hall, the very institution that employees him as a museum director. Aha! Now that's an intriguing reason. How many of us could picket our employer and still have a job? Then there is the fact that Murphy has been photographed impersonating (ridiculing?) at least one Florence citizen. We're told that he calls it performance art. Insert your own jokes here.

By the end of July, the new commission had published a 62 page manifesto on what is and what isn't allowed in the city's ten historical districts. You may read it here:

Design Review Guidelines

While we haven't scrutinized the entire document, we see good and bad in it. We wish these rules had been in place when many of the historic downtown storefronts were being remuddled in the 60s/70s. As for the bad, please explain the rationale of not being able to replace chain-link fencing in the back yards of historic homes, especially next to an alleyway. Afraid of offending the city's trash collectors?

Now comes the interesting part: property owners seeking permissions. How is this handled? Get ready for a bumpy ride as we continue tomorrow...

Florence's Historical Preservation Guru