Save Historic Perryville
I have had a recent personal conflict come up, I am not completely sure just exactly where to plant myself in regards to the issue. At the center of the issue is the preservation of Perryville versus that of the individual property owner. I have mentioned Perryville before, but for those that do not recall or do not otherwise know – Perryville is the small town nearby to the largest American Civil War battle that took place here in Kentucky.
Most of the battle took place just north of the town, but there was some skirmishing and certainly the aftermath of the battle was felt strongly there. One of the things that is most interesting about Perryville is the merchant row area, where most the buildings date to the early and mid 1800′s and few of them have much in the way of modifications in the last hundred and fifty years. Also of note is the town limits do, at least I believe, extend outward toward the central core of the battlefield itself.
There have been some pushes for historic preservation at various times in the local little town over the years, along with fund raising and grant seeking to help make that happen. The most notable of these was some town ordinances that were passed back in 1988 that have resulted in some restoration of some noteworthy buildings. However, the ordinance was not fully comprehensive and a lot of what was in ordinance has not been implemented as of this date twenty years after the fact.
With that in mind there has been a new push for some stricter ordinances in regards to historic preservation, some of which are required in order to qualify for additional grants, for which the local preservationist groups would like to apply. As this came up in the in a recent city council meeting, a number of citizens noted that they were not happy about having additional restrictions placed their personal rights to decide what they could and could not do with their property. A specific quote of once such citizen said, “No one should tell you what you should do with your property.”
I can so see the point of both sides here. I know when I owned my farm I was always aggravated when a neighbor even complained about anything that was a farm related odor or such. After all, it had been a farm for ever in some manner or another, and the subdivision was a recent build-up in the last twenty years. On the other hand, there is a definite need to preserve the historic value of those locations. Where does that fit with the individual’s right to do what they want to with the property? I am not sure? If you buy after the ordinance is passed then it applies, but is right to apply it to you if you have owned the property for years without ever suspecting your rights would be curtailed?
December 16th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
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