March 22, 2019
VIA EMAIL
Rep. John Cyrier
Chair, Culture, Recreation and Tourism Committee
P.O. Box 2910
Austin, Texas 78768-2910
RE: HB 2496
Mr. Cyrier,
On behalf of the Esperanza Peace & Justice Center and the Westside Preservation Alliance, a community-based historic preservation coalition dedicated to preserving and promoting the history of San Antonio’s Mexican American and working-class communities, we write to expressour opposition to HB 2496, which would prohibit a municipality from designating a historic landmark without the property owner’s consent.
We represent a coalition that is deeply invested in educating the community about the financial and cultural benefits of historic designation. While these benefits vary across the state due to local regulations, in San Antonio the financial benefits of historic designation are quite generous including a 20% tax exemption for up to 10 years, or for substantial rehabilitation the property owner has the choice of a) taxes frozen at the pre-improvement value for up to 10 years or b) owe the city no taxes for 5 years and then pay 50% of assessed post-rehab taxes for the next 5 years. Getting the word out about these relatively new tax incentives has been a slow process, and unfortunately many property owners are still unaware of the long-term financial benefits historic designation offers. For this reason, we believe HB 2496 overreaches in its attempt to apply a blanket policy across our vastly diverse state when historic designation should be a locally decided issue.
It is important to note that it is quite rare to seek to designate a building as a historic landmark over the objection of the property owner. If such a situation occurs, it is nearly always because the property owner wants to raze the building, while the city wants to save an important and irreplaceable landmark for future generations. HB 2496 would also make it impossible to create meaningful and coherent local historic districts, as 100% owner consent for a local zoning district is almost impossible to obtain. Importantly, no other form of local zoning has such a requirement.
Respectfully,
Esperanza Peace & Justice Center
Westside Preservation Alliance
CC: Rep. Armando Martinez (Vice Chair)
Rep. John Bucy III
Rep. Barbara Gervin-Hawkins
Rep. Justin Holland
Rep. Jarvis Johnson
Rep. Geanie Morrison
Rep. Steve Toth