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Tax Credit Services

Fighting neighborhood blight / 19 areas in Richmond could get tax credits as historic districts

Richmond Times - Dispatch - Richmond, Va.
Author: WILL JONES
Date: Aug 25, 2006

Strolling along North 22nd Street, Mary Thompson and Augustine Carter pointed out each new house that has filled a hole in the streetscape.

The longtime neighbors paused in front of an old house with plywood-covered windows and a sagging front porch. It's a sign of work left to be done in Fairmount.

"It's looking 50 percent good, yet there are still some things we're trying to do," said Thompson, president of the New Vision Civic League of East End.

Fairmount, one of Richmond's streetcar suburbs, could soon get another tool in its battle with blight.

City officials are working to get the neighborhood recognized as a state and national historic district in hopes of encouraging private reinvestment. Such recognition would allow property owners to receive tax credits for up to 45 percent of certain renovation costs.

Richmond is already recognized for making good use of credits.

In fiscal 2004-05, Richmond ranked second in the nation with 77 projects using federal tax credits. The projects represented about $120.5 million in investment.

St. Louis was first with 171 projects and $225.8 million in investment, according to data from the National Park Service.

"I think the word got out in the development community," said Rachel Flynn, director of Richmond's Department of Community Development.

"Wherever there's free money, believe me, the word's going to spread."

T. Tyler Potterfield, a housing and preservation planner for the city, cautioned that tax credits are not likely to transform Fairmount quickly but said they should provide another important incentive for reinvestment. A portion of Fairmount also has benefited from the city's Neighborhoods in Bloom program.

"Hopefully, this is a tool that can provide some inducement for things to go on up here," Potterfield said. "I think it's slowly catching on."

Fairmount is one of 19 neighborhoods or areas across the city that officials have identified as potentially eligible for the historic designation. The group also includes Fulton Hill, Forest Hill, Blackwell and Woodland Heights.

Union Hill, an area just south of Fairmount, was designated in recent years as a state and federal historic district and is now showing signs of reinvestment at least partly because of tax credits, Potterfield said.

And while Fairmount might not have the historic panache of Church Hill or Jackson Ward, it does have historic importance locally, Potterfield said.

Much of the neighborhood was developed from the 1880s to the 1920s, and its buildings largely reflect Queen Anne-style architecture, Potterfield said. About 700 buildings are expected to be surveyed as part of a yearlong process to prepare the nomination.

"It's about the surviving character of the neighborhood," he said. "What makes the neighborhood work is a lot of consistency, and generally it's intact."

-- Contact staff writer Will Jones at wjones@timesdispatch.com or (804) 649-6911.

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