The Historic District Action Guide

From Designation Campaigns to Keeping Districts Vital

William E. Schmickle

The Historic District Action Guide: From Designation Campaigns to Keeping Districts Vital is a results-oriented, straight-talking guide for local activists, professionals, and preservation commissions committed to winning and maintaining local historic districts. Its political approach focuses on the crucial challenges of gaining and sustaining community and local governmental support for historic district regulations.

This how-to guide gives citizens who are fighting to designate a local historic district the political know-how to win the support of fellow residents and city hall. Everything is here: learning to think politically, mastering the political process; planning and strategy; campaign organizing and leadership; framing a practical vision; anticipating and handling the opposition; conducting community meetings; skirmishing with property rightists; managing issues, petitions, and public opinion; dealing with public officials; strategizing for public hearings; and winning the vote for district designation. Once the vote is won, the Action Guide shows how to maintain momentum in their communities once the initial political campaign to win historic preservation designation has faded and the real work of enforcement begins.

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers / AASLH

Pages: 458 • Trim: 6¼ x 9

978-1-5381-0353-1 • Hardback • May 2018 • $137.00 • (£105.00)

978-1-5381-0354-8 • Paperback • May 2018 • $61.00 • (£47.00)

978-1-5381-0355-5 • eBook • May 2018 • $58.00 • (£45.00)

Series: American Association for State and Local History

Subjects: Business & Economics / Museum Administration & Museology

The Historic District Action Guide

From Designation Campaigns to Keeping Districts Vital

Hardback

Paperback

eBook

Summary

The Historic District Action Guide: From Designation Campaigns to Keeping Districts Vital is a results-oriented, straight-talking guide for local activists, professionals, and preservation commissions committed to winning and maintaining local historic districts. Its political approach focuses on the crucial challenges of gaining and sustaining community and local governmental support for historic district regulations.

This how-to guide gives citizens who are fighting to designate a local historic district the political know-how to win the support of fellow residents and city hall. Everything is here: learning to think politically, mastering the political process; planning and strategy; campaign organizing and leadership; framing a practical vision; anticipating and handling the opposition; conducting community meetings; skirmishing with property rightists; managing issues, petitions, and public opinion; dealing with public officials; strategizing for public hearings; and winning the vote for district designation. Once the vote is won, the Action Guide shows how to maintain momentum in their communities once the initial political campaign to win historic preservation designation has faded and the real work of enforcement begins.

Details

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers / AASLH

Pages: 458 • Trim: 6¼ x 9

978-1-5381-0353-1 • Hardback • May 2018 • $137.00 • (£105.00)

978-1-5381-0354-8 • Paperback • May 2018 • $61.00 • (£47.00)

978-1-5381-0355-5 • eBook • May 2018 • $58.00 • (£45.00)

Series: American Association for State and Local History

Subjects: Business & Economics / Museum Administration & Museology

Author

William E. Schmickle, Ph.D., is past chair of the Annapolis Historic Preservation Commission and cofounder of the Oak Ridge, North Carolina, Historic District. His services are available through his website, www.preservationpolitics.com.

Table of Contents

Introduction: What D’ya Know?
Part I: Preservation & the Politics of Historic District Designation
1. Before You Take Another Step
2. Thinking Politically about Historic District Designation
3. How It Starts
4. A Walk through the Designation Process: A Guided Tour with Planner Kaye Graybeal
Part II: Campaign Strategy
1. On Planning and Strategy
2. Our Strategic Line: A Community in/within Conflict
3. Makers, Breakers, Takers, and Shapers: The Political Field of Play
4. Leadership and Organization
5. Working with a Local Historical Society: A Conversation with Historic Annapolis’ Greg Stiverson
6. A Practical Vision
7. Gentrification and Social Justice: An Exchange with the University of Georgia’s James Reap
8. Thinking Politically about Design Guidelines
9. It’s Personal
10. Sticks and Stones
Part III: Campaigning in the Community
1. The Campaign Kickoff
2. Twitter Campaigning
3. Community Meeting Arrangements
4. Your Community Presentation
5. FAQs: Frequently Asked Questions
6. Thinking Politically about Q&A: The Moving Pattern of Opponents’ Challenges
7. Our Reframing Q&A Strategy
8. Answering Opposition Questions I: From “Distrust of Them” to the “Pivotal Shift”
9. Answering Opposition Questions II: From the “Pivotal Shift” to “Distrust of Us”
10. Property-Rights Extremists
11. Petition Politics
12. Reaching Out to the Opposition
Part IV: Managing the Formal Designation Process
1. Moving on to City Hall: Preparing for Commission Hearings
2. Behind-the-Scenes Intelligence
3. Working with the Press: Guidance from a Reporter
4. A Civic Vision
5. The Top Tier of Local Government
Part V: Winning the City Council Vote
1. The Politics of Public Hearings
2. Lobbying City Hall: A Conversation with a Lobbyist
3. Speaking Mayor to Mayor: A Dialogue with Charleston’s Joseph P. Riley. Jr.
4. A Checklist for One-on-One Meetings
5. Our Public Hearing Presentation
6. The Politics of Compromise
7. Winning the Vote
Part VI: The Politics of Administering the Historic District
1. Our Transition to the HPC
2. On Public Service
3. Our Community Compact for Rooted Growth
4. Drawing up Our Design Guidelines: Tackling the Problem with Consultant Peter Benson
5. Fusion Preservation: Thinking like a Districtist
6. Political Maintenance: Delivering Good Government
Part VII: Political Demolition by Neglect
1. Dispositional Gatekeeping
2. The Temptation of Administrative Legalism
3. Municipal Neglect
4. The View from City Council: A Talk with a Council Member
5. Districts under Threat
6. State-Level Interventions
Part VIII: Navigating the Municipal Administration
1. The Role of Your Preservation Planner: A Discussion with Raleigh’s Dan Becker
2. Relations with Your Mayor: The Views of a Mayor’s Adviser
Part IX: The Politics of Aging Historic Districts
1. The Crisis of Second-Generation Districts
2. OIMBYism
3. Getting Helpful Local Coverage: The Perspectives of a Newspaper Executive Editor
4. Our New Strategic Line
5. A New Political Who’s Who: An Overview
6. Who’s Who, Part One: District Rooters
7. Who’s Who, Part Two: District Rotters
8. Confronting Polarizers
9. Gentrification’s Dissidents: On Displacement with Baltimore’s Eric Holcomb
Part X: District Decline and Its Reversal
1. Political Personalities: Who Leads?
2. The Stages of Declining Districts
3. The Politics of Decision Making: Defensible and Defendable
4. Enforcement: The Third Rail of Historic District Politics
5. The Politics of Appeals
6. Choosing Our Battles
Part XI: Repairing Our Community Compact
1. Transformative Education
2. Reconstructive Programs
3. Institutionalizing Community Relations
4. Renewal through Revising Design Guidelines
5. A Preservation Plan? Looking Ahead with Consultant Elizabeth Watson
6. Our Sustaining Vision
Epilogue

Reviews

In The Historic District Action Guide, Bill Schmickle provides communities and citizens with practical, accessible, and realistic advice for implementing and maintaining a historic district. The Guide doesn't dodge or hide the hard issues, and recognizes the essential politics of the process.
— Thompson M. Mayes, Vice President and Senior Counsel, National Trust for Historic Preservation

Written to inspire you, the local preservation advocate, to undertake the challenging work of creating a local historic district, William E. Schmickle’s book features short, informative chapters containing real world examples, from across the nation. Read this if you want to WIN your fight to designate a local historic district and maintain it for decades to come.
— Donna Ann Harris, Principal, Heritage Consulting Inc. Philadelphia PA

Schmickle makes it clear that a historic district, once formed, takes on a life of its own beyond the control of those responsible for its creation. Nonetheless, the author provides a guide for the journey to designation - a journey filled with controversy, politics, and community engagement.
— Katie Rispoli Keaotamai, Executive Director, We Are the Next