Top three goals have also been in the city’s Comprehensive Plan since 2015. HFFI hopes to see them achieved by May of 2025.
At tonight’s Fredericksburg City Council meeting, the Historic Fredericksburg Foundation will present a series of preservation goals for the coming year.
The top three goals—establish a preservation advisory committee, complete a historic preservation economic impact study, and implement incentives for historic preservation—are also goals identified in the city’s 2015 Comprehensive Plan and the 2021 Historic Preservation Plan (which is a revised version of Chapter 8 of the Comprehensive Plan) that have not yet been achieved.
“[May] being Historic Preservation Month, HFFI’s Board of Directors thought it appropriate to lay out some important goals for Preservation at the local level in the coming year,” the HFFI report for City Council states. “By May 2025, we hope to report that these goals have been met.”
Goal 2 of the city’s Preservation Plan is to “Enhance Incentives and Non-Regulatory Tools for Preservation.”
“Preservation is a valuable economic tool because it is innately tied to placemaking,” the plan states. “The power of place has long been recognized and cherished in Fredericksburg, both for enticing visitors and creating a beloved community … The following strategies can help Fredericksburg more accurately assess the value that preservation provides in the community, develop a broader range of incentives to target specific needs, and support projects that further enhance the City’s value.”
The initiatives listed under this goal include “expand or modify the existing real estate tax exemption program” and “create an economic impact study to quantify the value of historic preservation in Fredericksburg and provide direction in the development of incentives.”
The tax incentive program currently offered by the city permits property owners who undertake rehabilitation of a qualifying residential building — one that is in the Old and Historic Fredericksburg District or listed on the National Register of Historic Places — to receive a partial exemption from real estate tax increases.
But as preservation consultant Dan Becker told Council in his September 2023 report on economic incentives, the financial benefit of the program is too low and could be restructured under state statute to result in more savings for the property owner.
The city completed a “groundbreaking” historic preservation economic impact study with the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1991, HFFI’s preservation Danae Pecker told the Advance. But no such study has been conducted since then, she said.
Last summer, according to HFFI’s report, the National Park Service released an economic impact study finding that visitors to the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park spent $49.9 million in surrounding communities in 2022 alone.
“It is important that the community and its leaders are aware of the significant and far-reaching economic impacts generated by the preservation of the City’s historic character and diverse built environment as well as how those impacts benefit city residents directly and indirectly,” HFFI’s report states.
The city Planning Commission requested funding for an historic preservation economic impact study as part of the budget for fiscal year 2025, but it was not included, according to HFFI.
The top goal for HFFI is for the city to create a standing preservation advisory committee to “refresh the discourse about preservation and build support for preservation culture across the city.”
This goal is also included in the city’s Preservation Plan, under Goal 7. Council in September of 2023 agreed to authorize such a group, which was to meet quarterly and work to create and assess benchmarks for preservation goals, advise council on preservation policies and serve as a resource for city staff and commissions.
“HFFI will work with the City to provide this needed support and network with professional preservationists in the community to accomplish the goals of this committee,” the report states.
HFFI hopes to see these three goals implemented by May of 2025.
by Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
