The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

DAYTON—The Dayton Historic Preservation Commission and the Dayton Planning Department will hold a series of workshops in February for property owners in the Washington Street and South Side Historic Districts.

Dates and times for the workshops are: Wednesday, Feb. 24, from 2 to 4 p.m. or 5 to 6:50 p.m., prior to the commission’s regular meeting.

Workshops are also scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 27, from 10 a.m. to 1 p m., and on Monday, Feb. 29 from 4 to 6 p.m.

All workshops will be held in the Dayton City Council chambers at 111 South First Street.

According to City Planner Karen Scharer, the workshops will focus on Certificate of Appropriateness process options and eliminating inconsistencies between city policy, codes, and processes. Other topics will include expediting the COA process and relief for residential property owners who face financial hardship.

“The purpose of the workshops is to gauge people’s perception of the historic preservation program, and to better understand how they would like to see the program function,” Scharer said.

“Currently there is a tendency for misinterpretation of sections of the code chapter, regarding historic preservation,” she said.

“The city needs to make a decision whether to keep the code as-is and enforce it, or revise the code clarifying when COAs are required,” said Scharer.

The workshops will help the city to clarify the processes used to review the Dayton Municipal Code chapter regarding historic preservation, consider amendments to the code, and get them to the city council for review and adoption, Scharer explained.

The process for making changes to the municipal code chapter regarding historic preservation could take as long as seven months to complete, she added.