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Home Is Where The History Is - Historic Preservation in WPB · Inside West Palm Beach

0:00
Welcome to the City Center podcast. I'm
0:03
Jerry Marcello. The cultural identity of
0:05
a city can often be traced back to its
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historic
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architecture. An old neighborhood
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preserves a community's soul, a snapshot
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of when life was a little slower and
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things were a little bit more meaningful.
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Today we'll meet the people who run the
0:21
city's historic preservation program.
0:23
We'll see how a home
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has become considered
0:25
historic and how a city on the move like
0:28
West Palm Beach is working to
0:29
remember its past. That's next on the
0:32
City Center podcast.
0:39
And joining us today is Anthony Mendez
0:41
and Jordan Hodges, both City Historic
0:44
Preservation Planners for the City of
0:45
West Palm Beach. Gentlemen, welcome.
0:48
Great to be here, Jerry. It's a pleasure.
0:50
We're glad to have you. Listen, let's
0:51
start at the very basic level. What
0:54
exactly do you guys do and what does
0:58
preservation planning mean? Yes, of
1:00
course. So our definition of historic
1:03
preservation is the maintenance and
1:06
preservation of our resources that have
1:09
historic significance and how that ties
1:12
into our section is actually through
1:15
the Mount Vernon Ladies Association,
1:18
which was started in the late 1850s. So
1:22
they were a prominent feminist
1:24
grassroots movement. They were
1:25
successful in preserving the home of our
1:29
former first president, George
1:31
Washington. And since the 1850s, there's
1:34
been a plethora of historic
1:36
preservation laws and policies that have
1:38
been enforced. One of the most important
1:41
is the National Historic Preservation Act
1:43
of 1966. And through one of its
1:46
federally mandated amendments was the
1:48
implementation of a certified local
1:50
government program. And what that did was
1:52
that allowed local municipalities to
1:54
create their own historic preservation
1:56
ordinance. And so for the City of West
1:58
Palm Beach, our city of historic
2:01
preservation ordinance was adopted in
2:04
1990. And that created staff to work in
2:06
tandem with their planning and zoning
2:08
departments to essentially preserve and
2:12
protect our city's historic preservation
2:14
resources. So you guys are part of the
2:18
city, your city staff. Yes, absolutely.
2:20
Okay. So with that in mind in the
2:25
creation of this program, and I didn't
2:26
have no idea, it extended so far back.
2:29
Yes. So people were aware that homes of
2:33
historic importance were very important
2:37
to protect and to keep in place. Why do
2:39
you think that is? Why is it so important
2:42
to hold on to older homes?
2:45
Yeah, I would say within the specific
2:46
context of West Palm Beach, if you know
2:49
anything, we've had experienced a
2:51
proliferating amount of development over
2:53
the past 20 or 30 years. But some of the
2:57
contemporary playing issues that
2:59
may arise from that, such as
3:00
gentrification, tend to occur when we
3:02
demolish some of our historic properties.
3:06
So I would say that that's
3:07
one of the reasons as to why there's a
3:10
section why having a
3:12
historic preservation section is so
3:13
important to a city. There's this sort of
3:16
false dichotomy that can occur between
3:19
historic preservation and the sort of
3:21
proliferating amount of development we've
3:23
been experiencing in the city. When
3:25
really it's through our robust system
3:27
that these two can sort of go in
3:30
tandem and historic preservation can act
3:32
as a catalyst to creating, you know,
3:35
sustainable development within the city.
3:38
And to kind of piggyback off of what
3:40
Anthony was saying, the Preservation Act
3:42
of 1966. So if you think back to that
3:46
time period, it was during the Johnson
3:47
administration coming off of the
3:49
Kennedy and Eisenhower administrations.
3:51
And those were really kind of
3:53
transformational periods of America's
3:56
built environment, right? You had the
3:58
interstate highway system, massive
4:01
federal works projects happening kind of
4:03
from coast to coast, impacting all of our
4:05
cities. So the Preservation Act of 66
4:11
really kind of compelled the federal
4:13
government to take into consideration.
4:18
If you're, you know, demolishing these
4:19
swaths of cities, what's that, what is
4:22
that doing on the local level? So that
4:24
spurred a lot of kind of grassroots
4:26
preservation. And, you know, we're kind
4:30
of still in the midst of that today.
4:32
Right. Jordan, you're relatively new to
4:35
the city. And have you been around the
4:37
area for a long period of time or you
4:39
need to the to the area? Yeah. So I
4:42
moved to West Palm Beach in 2016. So I've
4:45
been a downtown resident for almost a
4:47
decade. Okay. But prior to joining the
4:50
city of West Palm Beach, I ran the city
4:53
of Lake Worth's historic preservation
4:55
program for about five years. And then I
4:58
worked for the town of Palm Beach for two
5:01
years, staff to their Landmarks Board
5:03
and to their Architectural Commission.
5:05
West Palm Beach is, I believe, if my
5:07
history is correct, one of the very
5:09
oldest cities in the county. Yeah. How,
5:12
what impact does that have to the kind of
5:14
homes that you see here as opposed to
5:17
say, Lake Worth or Lantana or even north
5:21
to Jupiter in those areas? Sure. So, you
5:23
know, we we did. We developed very early
5:26
in Palm Beach and West Palm Beach as a
5:28
result of Flagler's Railroad as it came
5:31
down. So we have a, you know, we have a
5:34
period of significance here that is the
5:36
Florida land boom of the 1920s. So that's
5:40
where you get, you know, Mediterranean
5:41
revivals are frame vernaculars. We have
5:43
some Queen Anne, some craftsmen
5:46
bungalows, really early
5:48
development of the 20th
5:51
century that you don't find everywhere.
5:53
So that's certainly, you know, in our
5:56
catalog of historic properties in our
5:58
register that, you know, we certainly
6:02
strive to protect. Basic question. How
6:04
many homes do we have on the register?
6:07
That's actually a question that Anthony
6:09
and I are gonna try to find the answer
6:11
to. Unknown. Yeah, well unknown to us.
6:14
We're both relatively new. We do have the
6:16
register, but you know, we're gonna do
6:18
some kind of in-depth analysis of that,
6:20
but we do have, what are we? We have 19
6:25
historic districts and 46 individually
6:28
designated historic properties currently.
6:30
So it's a it's a large program, very
6:32
largest in Florida. Very cool. I had no
6:34
idea there were 19 different districts.
6:37
Is there a place that I could see what
6:38
what areas are in which districts are
6:42
which? Yeah, so we have if you visit our
6:44
historic preservation site or the kind of
6:46
planning and zoning website, sure. There
6:48
are interactive GIS
6:50
maps or you can do paper
6:52
maps of all of the district boundaries.
6:54
So you could go to to the city website at
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WPB.org and go to the planning
7:00
department, perhaps,
7:01
and then go ahead and
7:01
find the information there. That's very
7:04
cool. Okay, so say if I am moving to
7:09
West Palm Beach and one of the homes that
7:12
I'm really looking at that I'm
7:13
really excited about is already deemed an
7:15
historic home. What does that mean to me
7:17
as a new homeowner or buyer? What can I
7:20
do and what I can't do? Sure. Sure. So
7:23
being locally listed and having that
7:27
local historic designation does provide
7:29
you with some property protections. It
7:32
ultimately depends on what you intend
7:33
to do with your property. There are some
7:35
things that are under our purview that
7:37
we could review, you know, as staff.
7:40
There are some things
7:40
that are a little bit
7:41
more substantial that require historic
7:43
preservation board approval. There are
7:45
some things and some requests that are,
7:48
you know, not even under our purview. So
7:50
you could paint your house whatever color
7:51
you would like that's not part of
7:53
our historic preservation ordinance. Same
7:55
thing with interior work that's also
7:56
not something that we regulate as
7:58
historic preservation section. So if I
8:00
want to change the tiles in the house or
8:02
something, you know,
8:02
inside the home. Inside?
8:04
Okay, yeah, absolutely. All right, but if
8:06
say if I want to add
8:07
an addition or I want to
8:08
change the overall structure in some way
8:11
that is that comes
8:12
under our purview. Yeah,
8:13
so that would, you know, anytime you're
8:15
doing a project that affects the
8:17
exterior of your home there is a level of
8:19
design review that happens whether
8:21
that's, you know, you submit an
8:23
application, a building permit, and
8:25
Anthony and I are able to review that
8:27
administratively. Sign off on your
8:29
permit. Some larger projects, certainly
8:32
new construction, major additions, things
8:35
that would really kind of change the
8:36
style of your home. Those would need to
8:39
be reviewed by our historic preservation
8:41
board. The job of the board is to
8:44
basically protect the historical
8:46
integrity of the home and the
8:48
neighborhood. That's correct. Yes, and
8:49
that is one of the
8:50
tenants of our historic
8:52
preservation ordinance and part of the
8:54
certified local government program is to
8:55
have a historic preservation board. Okay,
8:58
I see. So if you want to get in, you're
9:01
sort of walking through, say I do want to
9:03
make a change. I want to upgrade the
9:06
garage or change a garage or do something
9:08
to that effect. The process then
9:09
is I would go ahead and I'll probably get
9:12
in touch with you guys through. Yeah,
9:14
that's what we like to see. So people
9:16
come to you as opposed
9:17
to doing it themselves.
9:18
Exactly right. So if you're a, you know,
9:20
a resident or a business owner in the
9:21
historic districts, Anthony and I will be
9:25
your best friends, right? So we're your
9:27
liaison to the board. We'll give you
9:29
advice. You know, it's part of our job to
9:31
be super knowledgeable about, you know,
9:35
building practices to have good
9:36
relationships with our design community
9:38
here and we're really lucky in West
9:40
Palm Beach to have a, you know, a really
9:43
terrific design community. Architects,
9:46
engineers, interiors, professionals, so
9:49
that we can kind of guide you through,
9:51
right? So, you know, if you're wanting to
9:53
do those exterior changes, you and your
9:56
or your design professional would get a
9:57
hold of myself or Anthony and we would
10:00
kind of advise you on your application
10:03
and again tell you what we could do at
10:06
staff or if you would need to go to the
10:08
board and we'll walk you through that
10:09
process. Now the actual meetings, we do
10:12
record them and we make them available.
10:14
We also show them live on TV 18 and on
10:16
streaming. You know, we see that some of
10:20
the discussions will get to a very fine
10:24
level of points in minutia. I use
10:27
that in a positive way. So you're looking
10:28
at very close details. There are people
10:34
who would say to you, "Wow, you're
10:35
arguing over the color
10:37
of the window frames."
10:40
Is there a time where it becomes almost
10:42
too detailed or is it really important
10:45
to be that detailed all the time? So
10:47
that's really, that's a balancing act
10:50
that all historic preservation staff and
10:52
all boards do regardless of community,
10:55
right? So we have to find that kind of
10:57
happy middle ground of, you know, what's
11:01
most important for the community. You
11:03
know, there are, depending on what
11:06
architectural style you have, depending
11:08
on, you know, what
11:10
kind of addition you're
11:11
doing. Details are important, you know.
11:13
They kind of convey the story of the
11:15
home, the time period in which it was
11:17
built. So I would say that, you know,
11:22
having that in the review scope, those
11:24
details, is important. We just try not to
11:27
get too hung up on things. Too hung up,
11:29
yeah. Smart. Okay, another question I
11:31
have is we have some
11:33
historic buildings that are not private
11:36
in nature. They're commercial, like the
11:37
Harvey building, the Como building. Do
11:39
they fall under under your control as
11:42
well? So if they want to make a change to
11:44
that building, they got to come to you.
11:46
Exactly. Yeah, most of West Palm Beach's
11:49
designated resources are residential in
11:51
our residential neighborhoods, but we do
11:54
have commercial districts and then we
11:56
have individually designated commercial
11:58
buildings. Neat. So they can't come and
12:01
knock the Harvey building down. Oh no,
12:04
especially not without a permit.
12:06
You have to come. Sure, gotcha, gotcha.
12:10
Okay, so all right, we've talked about
12:12
that and we've talked
12:13
a little bit about the
12:14
process. If someone wants to expand or
12:16
make some changes, obviously we have a
12:19
wide range of different types of styles
12:22
that we have here in West Palm Beach. Do
12:25
you all have one that is the one that
12:27
you'd like to try to preserve the most?
12:29
Is there one that you're like, oh, we
12:30
only have three of these. We need to keep
12:33
an eye on it or is it more generic? I
12:36
would say it's a little bit more
12:37
generic. I mean we do have a wide, you
12:40
know, sort of hodgepodge of some styles.
12:43
Our most prominent styles are Mission
12:44
Revival, Mediterranean Revival. We have a
12:47
lot of post-war. I think we each have our
12:50
personal favorite style. We
12:52
try not to get too biased.
12:53
I appreciate you guys are clearly not
12:55
biased, but just out of curiosity, what
12:57
are your favorite styles?
12:59
I'm a Deco fan. I have to concur with
13:02
Jordan. I'm a Deco fan.
13:03
It was just, you know, it kind of turned
13:04
the architectural world
13:05
on its head, you know,
13:06
everything that came before it and it's
13:08
interesting to see how it developed,
13:11
you know, in Miami Beach, which is kind
13:13
of the, you know, pinnacle of the art
13:16
Deco and then how it kind of went up the
13:18
coast. My favorite architectural styles
13:21
are ones that blended styles together and
13:25
that happened at it. There's a couple
13:27
buildings here in West Palm Beach where,
13:29
you know, you were leaving the 20s in
13:32
Mediterranean Revival and then you're
13:34
switching into Art Deco in the early
13:36
30s and there's a couple, I call them
13:39
Deco-Tranian buildings, where the body is
13:41
done as an Art Deco building, but they
13:43
have barrel tile
13:44
roofs and, you know, it's
13:45
such an interesting spot in history that
13:49
those buildings can represent.
13:50
Now, there are many, many homes in West
13:53
Palm Beach which will
13:53
push into the 50s and maybe
13:56
the early 60s. Are those open for
13:59
becoming considered to be historical?
14:01
Yeah, absolutely and a lot of them are
14:03
already designated. So the Department of
14:06
Interior National Park Service, they
14:09
provide a 50-year benchmark to be
14:13
designated as historic, which doesn't
14:14
sound like a long time, but if you think
14:17
about, you know, the life of the house,
14:20
what are you doing after 50 years?
14:22
You're replacing a lot, right? So to
14:25
catch them early before there's been too
14:27
many alterations to it is important in
14:30
historic preservation.
14:32
Okay, so aside all the regulatory things
14:35
that are taking place to help protect the
14:38
home, what are some of the benefits and
14:40
incentives that we are giving the people
14:43
who have homes that
14:44
have historic designations?
14:46
Sure, that's a great question. So we have
14:49
quite a few things kind of in our
14:51
pocket. The first of which is a historic
14:54
preservation ad valorem tax exemption.
14:57
And how that kind of works is, you know,
14:59
if we have a property owner who's
15:01
proposing improvements to their home,
15:02
maybe in addition, it is an agreement
15:06
between the city and Palm Beach County to
15:09
where those kind of eligible
15:12
improvements, once they're done, the city
15:16
and the county will postpone the
15:19
increase in their property taxes as a
15:23
result of that scope of work for a period
15:24
of 10 years. So and it's transferable
15:27
with the property. We have a lot of
15:30
people that take advantage of that and
15:31
it's really kind of led to some
15:33
substantial savings for people doing
15:35
projects. Another incentive would be for
15:39
properties that are in FEMA flood zones.
15:43
So in our floodplain ordinance, when this
15:47
is a requirement by FEMA, that anytime a
15:50
property in a flood zone is increasing
15:53
the value of their home by up to 50% of
15:56
its assessed value, they are required to
15:59
bring their floor level up to current
16:01
requirements. That can be enormously
16:04
expensive and a lot of the times just
16:07
results in the demolition of the home
16:08
because raising a building is just so
16:11
intensive and so expensive. But historic
16:14
properties are the only properties which
16:17
are exempt from that application.
16:20
So you know that's a very personal
16:22
decision if you're going to be
16:24
investing that much money into your home
16:27
where it may be flood-prone, you might
16:30
want to raise it. But being a historic
16:32
property gives you the option to maybe
16:35
forego doing that while still being able
16:37
to do your improvements. I saw we were
16:40
talking earlier about the part of the
16:45
process of getting a home adjusted or
16:50
changed is to go in front of the board.
16:53
Let's talk a little bit about the
16:54
preparations that you guys have to go
16:56
through to get ready to go in front of
16:58
the board. What sort of planning is
17:00
involved? What do the homeowners
17:02
need to be doing? So we typically would
17:05
require a pre-application meeting with
17:07
Jordan and I. Our goal is to get you on
17:10
the best path forward and give you the
17:11
best sort of guidance. We give you the
17:14
application requirements and you submit
17:16
those application requirements. We
17:18
prepare our staff report, our agenda. We
17:21
have an agenda review with both our chair
17:24
and our attorney. And so I mean
17:27
ultimately that's what goes on. It's more
17:29
of a cyclical basis. We typically meet
17:31
every month, every fourth Tuesday
17:33
typically at 4.30 p.m. in the
17:35
Commission chambers. Yeah and those are
17:37
shown live on TV 18. Yeah I would just
17:41
kind of you know piggyback on what
17:43
Anthony said but if you have a project
17:45
that rises in scope to the point where
17:47
the board is going to review it we
17:50
always recommend that you meet with us in
17:52
person or we'll do a zoom or a teams
17:54
meeting just to make sure that we're all
17:57
on the same footing to make sure that we
17:59
know exactly what it is you're trying to
18:01
achieve and we can maybe recommend a way
18:04
to achieve that that that you hadn't come
18:07
up with so we try to be super
18:09
accommodating. Are you seeing a trend in
18:12
West Palm Beach? Maybe it's beyond the
18:13
scope of your perspective but are you
18:17
seeing a trend in West Palm Beach where
18:18
homes that were in the 60s and 70s are
18:21
are knockdowns more than being preserved?
18:25
I can't say that in West Palm Beach yet
18:28
but in previous communities that
18:30
I've worked for yes. Yeah yeah I live in
18:34
the northern part of the county and
18:35
sometimes I see that same thing where
18:37
homes that are you know absolutely lovely
18:40
yeah but they're being they're they're
18:42
being knocked down for the property the
18:44
the land is what's most more valuable to
18:47
the next owner than the structure itself
18:49
it's great to see that West Palm Beach is
18:51
is pushing towards preserving these
18:53
older homes it's part of a part of the
18:55
culture it's part of our personality yeah
18:58
and and that's that's terrific to see.
19:01
And I'll say you know we we talked about
19:03
the Florida land boom of the 1920s a
19:05
little bit we have a second period of
19:07
significance that we recognize here which
19:09
is the post-war housing boom
19:11
so you know GI Bill lots of
19:14
these little kind of masonry houses on
19:17
tight lots you know those
19:20
are a lot of those are already
19:21
designated in several neighborhoods you
19:24
know but if you think
19:25
about the the 1920s land boom
19:28
the post-war land boom we might be in
19:30
another one right now you know so
19:32
thinking down the road
19:34
you know what's gonna what are we
19:36
building today that is going to be of a
19:38
sort of significance in
19:39
50 years 50 years that's fascinating well
19:42
we've covered a lot of
19:43
ground here this is an opportunity
19:45
for you guys to take a moment and and
19:47
talk to folks who are
19:49
probably not really familiar with
19:50
what you guys do and what you're trying
19:52
to do what message would you have if
19:54
someone walks up and
19:55
says what's your message what do you want
19:58
to tell folks about about what we're
20:01
doing here as far as
20:02
preserving homes and I think I sort of
20:03
harkened on this earlier but you know
20:06
historic preservation
20:07
can work in tandem with the type of
20:09
development that we've been
20:10
experiencing here in this city
20:11
and can certainly serve as a catalyst to
20:14
the sustainable
20:14
development that we've been
20:16
experiencing here it can certainly you
20:19
know drive us that sustainable
20:21
development can stimulate
20:22
economies so I mean it's certainly not
20:25
like an impediment so to
20:27
speak between what we've you
20:29
know sort of been experiencing here yeah
20:31
and I would kind of
20:32
piggyback off that you know a lot
20:34
of people when they hear historic
20:35
designation they think oh you can't do
20:37
anything about building
20:39
you know that's just not the case we're
20:42
you know we're a pretty development
20:43
friendly city right and
20:45
we see infill additions and alterations
20:49
to properties in the
20:50
historic districts almost every
20:52
month at the historic preservation board
20:54
so we in no way want to kind
20:56
of stop or hold development
20:58
it's just ensuring that that development
21:00
and those changes to
21:01
our historic buildings
21:03
are compatible with the neighborhoods
21:05
because when you designate
21:07
districts it's it's the it's
21:09
the feeling of the whole neighborhood
21:10
that is really important it
21:12
outweighs any one single property
21:15
and and I guess the the another question
21:17
just to touch base again
21:18
because we touched on a little
21:20
bit earlier folks who are interested in
21:22
learning more about the
21:23
programs and what happens and
21:25
what's available uh the city website
21:28
wpb.org and I believe it's the planning
21:31
the planning department
21:33
will have that information that's
21:35
fantastic well okay guys Jordan Anthony
21:38
thank you so much for
21:40
the time that you've given us today and
21:41
thank you for what you're
21:42
doing to the city preserving our
21:44
history is preserving our personality our
21:46
culture and what you're doing is very
21:48
very important thank
21:49
you very much Jerry and thank you for
21:52
joining us the city center podcast is
21:54
launching its second
21:55
full year of video podcasts and we've got
21:58
a lot in store for 2026 so
22:01
feel free to follow or subscribe
22:03
to get the latest from the city of west
22:05
palm beach this has been
22:06
a production of the city
22:07
of west palm beach communications
22:09
department i'm jerry
22:10
marsillo we'll see you next time