City adopts preservation plan

Sidney has a rich history. The city is working to ensure that history is properly preserved.

In a huge step toward future preservation, the city adopted a historic preservation plan during Tuesday’s city council meeting.

“The purpose of it is just to help give the city’s preservation program direction in terms of preserving our historic assets,” said Megan McGown, Sidney’s community development director.

In 2012 the city received a Certified Local Government grant from the National Parks Service and state Historic Preservation Office. The grant allowed the city to hire a consultant to create this plan. The 60-page plan took more than a year to complete.

The most valuable portion of the document in McGown’s opinion provides the city with goals and strategies for the five-year plan.

The city is already working toward meeting some of the plan’s recommendations including the creation of a historic preservation handbook. This will contain the city’s historic preservation ordinance, design guidelines for historic buildings as well as incentive programs available to historic business owners.

Because the city has Certified Local Government status with a historic national register district there are many tax credits available to downtown building owners who wish to renovate.

“This really does set the stage for a lot of things to happen,” said City Manager Gary Person. “It’s just not the CLG grants but other types of incentives that developers and building owners can take advantage of.”

The city is required to make a 40 percent match, to the grant’s 60 percent.

The city can apply for this grant money every year. This year it received around $30,000 to complete an upper-floor feasibility study.

Councilman Mark Nienhueser wanted to ensure that this plan and the corresponding building guidelines wouldn’t burden property owners with difficult building standards.

“I wouldn’t call it a burden but we do have a historic preservation ordinance that does cover the national register district,” McGown said.

The preservation ordinance supplies design guidelines that suggest building renovations follow the secretary of interior’s standards for historic preservation and rehabilitation.

Forming Sidney’s historic district was a lot of work and now the city is obligated to protect that district, Person said.

“If you don’t protect the integrity of it you’re going to lose that status of a historic downtown district,” he said.

The plan covers the parts of Sidney containing the majority of historic structures in town. This area goes from 23rd Ave. to 5th Ave. west to east and from Ash St. to Toledo St. going north to south.

Future goals outlined in the plan included improving the renovation review process so that all decisions are made in a fair manner and comply with the historic guidelines. Other recommendations included improving the local historic preservation ordinance and supporting development activities that add to downtown vitality and viability. The plan advised the city to expand its official historic district by nominating eligible areas and properties to the national register. There are also suggestions to provide opportunities for the public to learn about Sidney’s history by designing a historical Sidney walking tour brochure to provide to tourists and the public as well as erecting signs around town detailing the history of Sidney.

“The CLG grant has been an excellent grant, has been an excellent resource for us,” McGown said.