Hannibal's Historic District Development Commission wants rules to be more user-friendly

By ANN PIERCEALL

Herald-Whig Staff Writer

HANNIBAL, Mo. -- A hearing will take place before Tuesday night's Hannibal City Council meeting that will allow the public to offer input on proposed changes to the ordinance governing the downtown historic district.

The hearing will open at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday but will likely be continued until July 21. That's because when the proposed amended ordinance was presented to the Planning and Zoning Commission, that panel requested changes be made to it to better prepare the legislation to go before the Hannibal City Council.

The Historic District Development Commission is proposing changes in design guidelines and the ordinance to make it more user-friendly.

"Our whole mission here is to be collaborative. We're no longer the paint police, we're the preservation collaborators," said HDDC vice-chairman Bob Yapp.

The amendments are meant to clarify the legislation.

"What we found out nationwide is when design guidelines are vague, it can cause all kinds of issues," said Yapp, a preservationist.

He said in the case of Hannibal's guidelines, it's mostly a matter of taking out all the "shoulds" in the ordinance and replacing them with "shall do."

When property owners in the downtown historic district want to get certificates from the commission on proposed changes to their buildings, they'll receive simple letters of either approval or denial.

Yapp said the ordinance also was tweaked to provide betters rules and procedures for the commission, including topics like ethics and conflict of interest.

The ordinance's enforcement element also will be honed by the changes to make it "clearer for people to understand."

An up-to-date ordinance will pave the way for the historic district to become a certified local government. The Certified Local Government Program is offered through the National Park Service and is a preservation partnership between local, state and national governments focused on promoting historic preservation at the grass-roots level.

What that means is the district could tap into federal money that the state "can't hardly give away" and use for local preservation projects.

--apierceall@whig.com/(573) 221-5879