Are historic districts exempt from safety codes?

Started by LizM2 • 10 replies • 1258 views

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LizM2 (Maryland)
Posts: 4

Posted:

The board is discussing an application from a homeowner to redo a balcony railing on a house in a historic district. The proposed railing design is not the same as the original railing, which is what the architectural committee would prefer to see. However, the homeowner has brought to our attention the fact that the original railing violates current safety codes. Right now the balcony itself is unusable because it has no railing at all. The existing railing (which was also not the original design but was put up during a previous board and went unnoticed until now) was removed for roofwork. The board cannot agree on the new railing design. Some find the new design acceptable, but others will only approve the original railing, believing that historic districts are exempt from safety codes. Is this true? We are in Maryland. Also, it's worth mentioning that this house is of a different design from other houses in the community, so this decision does not affect the community as a whole. It really is unique to this particular house with its balcony. The owner believes that the board is preventing him from moving forward with this work and is getting frustrated. This has been under discussion for several months.

MicheleD (Kentucky)
Posts: 4,491

Posted:

Instead of the BOD members "believing" that historic districts are exempt from safety codes, how do they not think it within their fiduciary duty to make the appropriate calls to officials in your community to actually find out the CORRECT answer to that issue?

How is it that they think it's okay to make a decision based on conjecture and not actual fact?

I don't know the answer to that question, but it seems to me that it would be more appropriate to direct it to the zoning or code enforcement people in your direct community. I would venture to guess that they would have an answer that would not only be helpful for this homeowner's issue, but for future questions of similar content.

Good luck.

Out of curiosity, I'd like to know what you guys find out.

DonnaS (Tennessee)
Posts: 5,671

Posted:

I know the answer to your question BUT your community developement and historic district committee for your community will tell you. Is it a city , state or national building? There are loopholes that you must jump thru and they will have presidence over your docs.

LizM2 (Maryland)
Posts: 4

Posted:

It's a district that's on the national register, but the building is privately owned. I did more research following the previous post and learned that historic districts are subject to stated building codes. I interpret that to mean that the original railing is not actually an option because it doesn't conform to current building codes.

NancyD1 (Florida)
Posts: 447

Posted:

Weather the building is privately owned or not, safety is the first issue. The Historic Building Code will always refer to the Safety Code first then historic preservation second when it comes to habitible building.

NancyD1 (Florida)
Posts: 447

Posted:

If a railing on the balcony was spaced 8" and code is now 4" the 4 will prevail with the architectural integrity still maintained in all design aspects.

BradP (Kansas)
Posts: 2,640

Posted:

Liz:

Historic buildings are not exempt from building and safety codes. If they are doing a renovation or work on the balcony they need to follow the building codes that are in place today. Your board needs a swift kick in the behind for their behavior.

LizM2 (Maryland)
Posts: 4

Posted:

It's getting curioser and curioser. We're getting different answers from different people at same historic commission. Have decided that if commission is able/willing to provide a legal waiver to the contractor, then the contractor is willing to do the historical railing, and the homeowner will go with the historic railing instead of the redesigned railing. But all this has made me wish there were something documented more officially somewhere about all this. I couldn't find any documentation anywhere about this sort of thing. Does anyone know of any document or something about HOAs and historic sites that's not specific to a single HOA?

DonnaS (Tennessee)
Posts: 5,671

Posted:

NOPE! The key word here is Home Owner Association, not one size fits all.

Sorry, I had to do that

LizM2 (Maryland)
Posts: 4

Posted:

Hope springs eternal! I thought maybe there was some kind of precedent or something along the lines of the FCC regs about satellite dishes, etc. Oh well!

NancyD1 (Florida)
Posts: 447

Posted:

Liz,

The US Secretary of the Interior defines the historic preservation. I don't have the address or a document but you can do research on the Internet, maybe you will find something. Call your local and state code enforcement office, They may be able to help.

For HOA documentation, I don't think your going to find anything.

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