As Smithfield’s Planning Commission works to update its circa-2005 entrance corridor design standards, the town’s Board of Historic and Architectural Review is doing the same for its historic district guidelines.

BHAR has scheduled a Nov. 19 public hearing at 6:30 p.m. on draft revisions Colorado-based Chronicle Heritage presented to board members on Aug. 20.

The draft notes that the town’s historic district guidelines were first published in 1990, coinciding with the kickoff of the town’s nine-year Main Street beautification project that added brick sidewalks, street lamps and landscaping. The historic district and entrance corridor guidelines were each last updated in 2005 by the town’s then-consultant, Frazier Associates.

The 2005 historic district guidelines state that as of that year there were 376 buildings in the district, of which 71 were colonial to pre-Civil War era “landmarks.” Another 138 were deemed “noncontributing,” which the 2005 and 2024 versions each define as structures less than 50 years old or altered to an extent, or in so poor condition, that they are no longer representative of the period in which they were built. The 2024 draft states approximately 650 properties are now included within the boundaries of the town’s historic district.

The draft notes a chapter of Smithfield’s zoning ordinance centered on its historic preservation overlay, or HPO, district, is to maintain an inventory of all landmark, contributing and non-contributing structures. BHAR is tasked with issuing a “certificate of appropriateness” for any substantial changes to properties within the district based on the district guidelines.

The draft then lists defining characteristics of architectural styles found throughout Smithfield, including Georgian, federal, gothic revival, Italianate, folk Victorian, Queen Anne, colonial revival, minimal traditional and ranch styles and includes separate guidelines for one- and two-story commercial structures. The 2024 draft states the proposed guidelines are based on the U.S. secretary of the interior’s standards for rehabilitation, published by the National Park Service.

If BHAR denies an applicant a certificate, the applicant can appeal, within 14 days of receiving notice of the board’s decision, to Smithfield’s Town Council.

The 2024 draft further provides for new construction and the demolition of historic structures. Demolition is “strongly discouraged for both landmarked and contributing buildings” and “is an irreversible process that should only be taken as a last resort,” the draft states.

The 2005 guidelines include details mandating that BHAR review any plans to remove landmark or contributing structures and state that demolition should only be allowed if the owner has offered the building for sale at fair market value and sought buyers during a required one-year waiting period. It notes the landowner, should permission be denied, has the right to appeal first to the Town Council and then to Isle of Wight Circuit Court.

While that verbiage isn’t included in the 2024 draft guidelines, it remains in the HPO chapter of the town’s zoning ordinance, which was last updated in 2020, according to the town’s website.

The appeal process has played out twice in recent history. In December, the Town Council overruled BHAR’s denial of permission to raze a circa-1880s barn behind the Cure Coffeehouse on North Church Street after Smithfield Foods, which owns the land on which the barn stood, contended the barn had deteriorated to a point where it no longer had any historic value and was unsafe. The barn was demolished in January.

Prior to that, the council voted in 2020 to approve the late Mary Delk Crocker’s request to demolish the dilapidated 1730s-era Pierceville farmhouse after the town was court-ordered to reconsider Crocker’s request as a result of her successful 2019 lawsuit challenging the council’s denial. The house and 57 acres surrounding it had been sold, as of the 2020 vote, to former Smithfield Foods Chairman Joseph Luter III and his son, Joseph Luter IV, who received rezoning approval in 2023 to construct the 267-home Grange at 10Main mixed-use development at the site.