Act No. 67

Public Acts of 2001

Approved by the Governor

July 23, 2001

Filed with the Secretary of State

July 24, 2001

EFFECTIVE DATE: July 24, 2001

STATE OF MICHIGAN

91ST LEGISLATURE

REGULAR SESSION OF 2001

Introduced by Reps. Sanborn and Stewart

ENROLLED HOUSE BILL No. 4945

AN ACT to amend 1970 PA 169, entitled ''An act to provide for the establishment of historic districts; to provide for the acquisition of certain resources for historic preservation purposes; to provide for preservation of historic and nonhistoric resources within historic districts; to provide for the establishment of historic district commissions; to provide for the maintenance of publicly owned resources by local units; to provide for certain assessments under certain circumstances; to provide for procedures; and to provide for remedies and penalties,'' by amending sections 1a, 3, 5, and 9 (MCL 399.201a, 399.203, 399.205, and 399.209), section 1a as added and sections 3, 5, and 9 as amended by 1992 PA 96.

The People of the State of Michigan enact:

Sec. 1a. As used in this act:

(a) "Alteration" means work that changes the detail of a resource but does not change its basic size or shape.

(b) "Certificate of appropriateness" means the written approval of a permit application for work that is appropriate and that does not adversely affect a resource.

(c) "Commission" means a historic district commission created by the legislative body of a local unit pursuant to section 4.

(d) "Committee" means a historic district study committee appointed by the legislative body of a local unit pursuant to section 3 or 14.

(e) "Demolition" means the razing or destruction, whether entirely or in part, of a resource and includes, but is not limited to, demolition by neglect.

(f) "Demolition by neglect" means neglect in maintaining, repairing, or securing a resource that results in deterioration of an exterior feature of the resource or the loss of structural integrity of the resource.

(g) "Denial" means the written rejection of a permit application for work that is inappropriate and that adversely affects a resource.

(h) "Department" means the department of history, arts, and libraries.

(i) "Historic district" means an area, or group of areas not necessarily having contiguous boundaries, that contains 1 resource or a group of resources that are related by history, architecture, archaeology, engineering, or culture.

(j) "Historic preservation" means the identification, evaluation, establishment, and protection of resources significant in history, architecture, archaeology, engineering, or culture.

(k) "Historic resource" means a publicly or privately owned building, structure, site, object, feature, or open space that is significant in the history, architecture, archaeology, engineering, or culture of this state or a community within this state, or of the United States.

(l) "Local unit" means a county, city, village, or township.

(m) "Notice to proceed" means the written permission to issue a permit for work that is inappropriate and that adversely affects a resource, pursuant to a finding under section 5(6).

(n) "Open space" means undeveloped land, a naturally landscaped area, or a formal or man-made landscaped area that provides a connective link or a buffer between other resources.

(o) "Ordinary maintenance" means keeping a resource unimpaired and in good condition through ongoing minor intervention, undertaken from time to time, in its exterior condition. Ordinary maintenance does not change the external appearance of the resource except through the elimination of the usual and expected effects of weathering. Ordinary maintenance does not constitute work for purposes of this act.

(p) "Proposed historic district" means an area, or group of areas not necessarily having contiguous boundaries, that has delineated boundaries and that is under review by a committee or a standing committee for the purpose of making a recommendation as to whether it should be established as a historic district or added to an established historic district.

(q) "Repair" means to restore a decayed or damaged resource to a good or sound condition by any process. A repair that changes the external appearance of a resource constitutes work for purposes of this act.

(r) "Resource" means 1 or more publicly or privately owned historic or nonhistoric buildings, structures, sites, objects, features, or open spaces located within a historic district.

(s) "Standing committee" means a permanent body established by the legislative body of a local unit pursuant to section 14 to conduct the activities of a historic district study committee on a continuing basis.

(t) "Work" means construction, addition, alteration, repair, moving, excavation, or demolition.

Sec. 3. (1) A local unit may, by ordinance, establish 1 or more historic districts. The historic districts shall be administered by a commission established pursuant to section 4. Before establishing a historic district, the legislative body of the local unit shall appoint a historic district study committee. The committee shall contain a majority of persons who have a clearly demonstrated interest in or knowledge of historic preservation, and shall contain representation from 1 or more duly organized local historic preservation organizations. The committee shall do all of the following:

(a) Conduct a photographic inventory of resources within each proposed historic district following procedures established or approved by the department.

(b) Conduct basic research of each proposed historic district and the historic resources located within that district.

(c) Determine the total number of historic and nonhistoric resources within a proposed historic district and the percentage of historic resources of that total. In evaluating the significance of historic resources, the committee shall be guided by the selection criteria for evaluation issued by the United States secretary of the interior for inclusion of resources in the national register of historic places, as set forth in 36 C.F.R. part 60, and criteria established or approved by the department, if any.

(d) Prepare a preliminary historic district study committee report that addresses at a minimum all of the following:

(i) The charge of the committee.

(ii) The composition of the committee membership.

(iii) The historic district or districts studied.

(iv) The boundaries for each proposed historic district in writing and on maps.

(v) The history of each proposed historic district.

(vi) The significance of each district as a whole, as well as a sufficient number of its individual resources to fully represent the variety of resources found within the district, relative to the evaluation criteria.

(e) Transmit copies of the preliminary report for review and recommendations to the local planning body, to the department, to the Michigan historical commission, and to the state historic preservation review board.

(f) Make copies of the preliminary report available to the public pursuant to subsection (4).

(2) Not less than 60 calendar days after the transmittal of the preliminary report, the committee shall hold a public hearing in compliance with the open meetings act, 1976 PA 267, MCL 15.261 to 15.275. Public notice of the time, date, and place of the hearing shall be given in the manner required by the open meetings act, 1976 PA 267, MCL 15.261 to 15.275. Written notice shall be mailed by first-class mail not less than 14 calendar days before the hearing to the owners of properties within the proposed historic district, as listed on the tax rolls of the local unit.

(3) After the date of the public hearing, the committee and the legislative body of the local unit shall have not more than 1 year, unless otherwise authorized by the legislative body of the local unit, to take the following actions:

(a) The committee shall prepare and submit a final report with its recommendations and the recommendations, if any, of the local planning body to the legislative body of the local unit. If the recommendation is to establish a historic district or districts, the final report shall include a draft of a proposed ordinance or ordinances.

(b) After receiving a final report that recommends the establishment of a historic district or districts, the legislative body of the local unit, at its discretion, may introduce and pass or reject an ordinance or ordinances. If the local unit passes an ordinance or ordinances establishing 1 or more historic districts, the local unit shall file a copy of that ordinance or those ordinances, including a legal description of the property or properties located within the historic district or districts, with the register of deeds. A local unit shall not pass an ordinance establishing a contiguous historic district less than 60 days after a majority of the property owners within the proposed historic district, as listed on the tax rolls of the local unit, have approved the establishment of the historic district pursuant to a written petition.

(4) A writing prepared, owned, used, in the possession of, or retained by a committee in the performance of an official function shall be made available to the public in compliance with the freedom of information act, 1976 PA 442, MCL 15.231 to 15.246.

Sec. 5. (1) A permit shall be obtained before any work affecting the exterior appearance of a resource is performed within a historic district or, if required under subsection (4), work affecting the interior arrangements of a resource is performed within a historic district. The person, individual, partnership, firm, corporation, organization, institution, or agency of government proposing to do that work shall file an application for a permit with the inspector of buildings, the commission, or other duly delegated authority. If the inspector of buildings or other authority receives the application, the application shall be immediately referred together with all required supporting materials that make the application complete to the commission. A permit shall not be issued and proposed work shall not proceed until the commission has acted on the application by issuing a certificate of appropriateness or a notice to proceed as prescribed in this act. A local unit may charge a reasonable fee to process a permit application.

(2) An applicant aggrieved by a decision of a commission concerning a permit application may file an appeal with the state historic preservation review board of the Michigan historical commission within the department. The appeal shall be filed within 60 days after the decision is furnished to the applicant. The appellant may submit all or part of the appellant's evidence and arguments in written form. The review board shall consider an appeal at its first regularly scheduled meeting after receiving the appeal, but may not charge a fee for considering an appeal. The review board may affirm, modify, or set aside a commission's decision and may order a commission to issue a certificate of appropriateness or a notice to proceed. A permit applicant aggrieved by the decision of the state historic preservation review board may appeal the decision to the circuit court having jurisdiction over the historic district commission whose decision was appealed to the state historic preservation review board.

(3) In reviewing plans, the commission shall follow the United States secretary of the interior's standards for rehabilitation and guidelines for rehabilitating historic buildings, as set forth in 36 C.F.R. part 67. Design review standards and guidelines that address special design characteristics of historic districts administered by the commission may be followed if they are equivalent in guidance to the secretary of interior's standards and guidelines and are established or approved by the department. The commission shall also consider all of the following:

(a) The historic or architectural value and significance of the resource and its relationship to the historic value of the surrounding area.

(b) The relationship of any architectural features of the resource to the rest of the resource and to the surrounding area.

(c) The general compatibility of the design, arrangement, texture, and materials proposed to be used.

(d) Other factors, such as aesthetic value, that the commission finds relevant.

(4) The commission shall review and act upon only exterior features of a resource and shall not review and act upon interior arrangements unless specifically authorized to do so by the local legislative body or unless interior work will cause visible change to the exterior of the resource. The commission shall not disapprove an application due to considerations not prescribed in subsection (3).

(5) If an application is for work that will adversely affect the exterior of a resource the commission considers valuable to the local unit, state, or nation, and the commission determines that the alteration or loss of that resource will adversely affect the public purpose of the local unit, state, or nation, the commission shall attempt to establish with the owner of the resource an economically feasible plan for preservation of the resource.

(6) Work within a historic district shall be permitted through the issuance of a notice to proceed by the commission if any of the following conditions prevail and if the proposed work can be demonstrated by a finding of the commission to be necessary to substantially improve or correct any of the following conditions:

(a) The resource constitutes a hazard to the safety of the public or to the structure's occupants.

(b) The resource is a deterrent to a major improvement program that will be of substantial benefit to the community and the applicant proposing the work has obtained all necessary planning and zoning approvals, financing, and environmental clearances.

(c) Retaining the resource will cause undue financial hardship to the owner when a governmental action, an act of God, or other events beyond the owner's control created the hardship, and all feasible alternatives to eliminate the financial hardship, which may include offering the resource for sale at its fair market value or moving the resource to a vacant site within the historic district, have been attempted and exhausted by the owner.

(d) Retaining the resource is not in the interest of the majority of the community.

(7) The business that the commission may perform shall be conducted at a public meeting of the commission held in compliance with the open meetings act, 1976 PA 267, MCL 15.261 to 15.275. Public notice of the time, date, and place of the meeting shall be given in the manner required by the open meetings act, 1976 PA 267, MCL 15.261 to 15.275. A meeting agenda shall be part of the notice and shall include a listing of each permit application to be reviewed or considered by the commission.

(8) The commission shall keep a record of its resolutions, proceedings, and actions. A writing prepared, owned, used, in the possession of, or retained by the commission in the performance of an official function shall be made available to the public in compliance with the freedom of information act, 1976 PA 442, MCL 15.231 to 15.246.

(9) The commission shall adopt its own rules of procedure and shall adopt design review standards and guidelines for resource treatment to carry out its duties under this act.

(10) The commission may delegate the issuance of certificates of appropriateness for specified minor classes of work to its staff, to the inspector of buildings, or to another delegated authority. The commission shall provide to the delegated authority specific written standards for issuing certificates of appropriateness under this subsection. On at least a quarterly basis, the commission shall review the certificates of appropriateness, if any, issued for work by its staff, the inspector, or another authority to determine whether or not the delegated responsibilities should be continued.

(11) Upon a finding by a commission that a historic resource within a historic district or a proposed historic district subject to its review and approval is threatened with demolition by neglect, the commission may do either of the following:

(a) Require the owner of the resource to repair all conditions contributing to demolition by neglect.

(b) If the owner does not make repairs within a reasonable time, the commission or its agents may enter the property and make such repairs as are necessary to prevent demolition by neglect. The costs of the work shall be charged to the owner, and may be levied by the local unit as a special assessment against the property. The commission or its agents may enter the property for purposes of this section upon obtaining an order from the circuit court.

(12) When work has been done upon a resource without a permit, and the commission finds that the work does not qualify for a certificate of appropriateness, the commission may require an owner to restore the resource to the condition the resource was in before the inappropriate work or to modify the work so that it qualifies for a certificate of appropriateness. If the owner does not comply with the restoration or modification requirement within a reasonable time, the commission may seek an order from the circuit court to require the owner to restore the resource to its former condition or to modify the work so that it qualifies for a certificate of appropriateness. If the owner does not comply or cannot comply with the order of the court, the commission or its agents may enter the property and conduct work necessary to restore the resource to its former condition or modify the work so that it qualifies for a certificate of appropriateness in accordance with the court's order. The costs of the work shall be charged to the owner, and may be levied by the local unit as a special assessment against the property. When acting pursuant to an order of the circuit court, a commission or its agents may enter a property for purposes of this section.

Sec. 9. (1) The commission shall file certificates of appropriateness, notices to proceed, and denials of applications for permits with the inspector of buildings or other delegated authority. A permit shall not be issued until the commission has acted as prescribed by this act. If a permit application is denied, the decision shall be binding on the inspector or other authority. A denial shall be accompanied with a written explanation by the commission of the reasons for denial and, if appropriate, a notice that an application may be resubmitted for commission review when suggested changes have been made. The denial shall also include notification of the applicant's rights of appeal to the state historic preservation review board and to the circuit court. The failure of the commission to act within 60 calendar days after the date a complete application is filed with the commission, unless an extension is agreed upon in writing by the applicant and the commission, shall be considered to constitute approval.

(2) Local public officials and employees shall provide information and records to committees, commissions, and standing committees, and shall meet with those bodies upon request to assist with their activities.

(3) The department shall cooperate with and assist local units, committees, commissions, and standing committees in carrying out the purposes of this act and may establish or approve standards, guidelines, and procedures that encourage uniform administration of this act in this state but that are not legally binding on any individual or other legal entity.

Enacting section 1. This amendatory act does not take effect unless House Bill No. 4941 of the 91st Legislature is enacted into law.

This act is ordered to take immediate effect.

Clerk of the House of Representatives.

Secretary of the Senate.

Approved

Governor.