The Daily Journal cemented its position as the predominant local paper today by highlighting a great city successs story here. Unfortunately the city in question was San Mateo not B'game. I've culled a couple of quotes from the excellent article and you should read the whole thing.
On Monday, the San Mateo City Council approved Skinner’s and McDaniel’s application to have their North Claremont Street home designated as historical under the Mills Act.
This state law allows the city to provide tax relief to owners of historically significant properties who actively restore and maintain their property. The Vollers house is the third property in the city that has been deemed historic since the city adopted the resolution in 1993.
“San Mateo has a number of wonderful older structures that are certainly an asset and that the community can be proud of,” Art Henriques, senior contract planner for the city’s Community Development Department, said. “Both the property owners and community at large benefit in fixing up and maintaining these older homes because they add value to the neighborhood and community.”
We had two city council members in the last few years who were in favor of allowing B'game homeowners to do the same thing, but it takes three to tango on the B'game City Council and we never had a third member with the foresight to say "yes". Isn't it about time?? If you click through you will see the tax hit to the city would be minimal and the benefit to the community would be substantial. These sorts of lovingly cared-for houses raise the value of the whole neighborhood. This is a no-brainer. Michael, Ann, Terry, Jerry, Ricardo? Why not just do it?
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