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SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE - MICHIANA POINT OF VIEW - HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION • An East Wayne Street Historic District resident's recent appeal of the Historic Preservation Commission's decision to 'deny a Certificate of Appropriateness for a front yard fence has excited much attention in the news media. This coverage has been so misinformed as to require a formal response. Issues meriting discussion include the facts of the application, why the commission was compelled to disallow a section of the fence, and the mission of the Historic Preservation Commission. The Municipal Code requires that any exterior alteration of a building or site in a Local Historic District receive a Certificate of Appropriateness before that activity may be undertaken. This requirement is enforced by the Building Commissioner. The guidelines enforced by the Historic Preservation Commission in a Local Historic District are developed by a committee of property owners from the district. These guidelines are then accepted by a vote of neighborhood property owners. Each district has a distinct set of guidelines tailored to the desires of that neighborhood. The proposed front yard fence on Wayne Street was not only contrary to the East Wayne Street District guidelines but to the deed restrictions established by Whitcomb & Keller which guided the original development of the Sunnymede subdivision when it was platted in 1925. It is important to understand that the rear yard fence proposed in this application and even the removal of the established and historically appropriate hedge were approved by the Historic Preservation Commission and only that portion of the proposal which violated both the deed restrictions and the guidelines was denied. The Historic Preservation Commission gives great latitude to modernization and alternative development proposals so long as they are deemed to be appropriate as indicated in the guidelines. Here, the commission approved approximately 80% of the proposed fence which is composed of polyvinyl chloride plastic, hardly a historical material, but designed in appropriate style. Since the East Wayne Street District's establishment in 1987, the commission has approved 91% of applications for Certificates of Appropriateness within this district as submitted. An additional 67 have been approved with modifications or partially approved. Only one application for a Certificate of Appropriateness has ever been fully denied in East Wayne Street. Unfortunately for this applicant, the firm contracted for this work failed to purchase the necessary permits. Thus the Building Department placed a stop work order on the fence. Had the contractor applied for the permits, they would have been made aware of the need for a Certificate of Appropriateness. The idea that the Historic Preservation Commission threw a tantrum or exceeded its mandate in this case as suggested by the Tribune's editorial is baseless. Throughout the review of this application the commission has treated the applicant with the utmost empathy. However a sympathetic attitude cannot and should not affect the decisions of such a review body in holding to the regulations which it is bound to enforce. It seems the editors of the Tribune would like to have things both ways. They feel that property owners should be free to improve their property so long as they "stick(s) with materials • suitable to ... surroundings" but wish to remove the commission's authority to assure that this is the case. They complain that "local government agencies already enforce building code and zoning requirements", but that is just what occurred when the Building Department red -tagged this fence. One must wonder page 1