DC Councilmember Charles Allen (Ward 6) introduced legislation to protect historic homes from unauthorized destruction and demolition, enabled in part by existing fines with too low of a maximum penalty to serve as a successful deterrent and with little ability for existing fines to allow for significant differences between small and severe violations.
The bill comes out of examination of demolition records and fines for historic buildings, which made clear the existing fine structure was not deterring construction companies. In reviewing violations and infractions, few contractors were required to pay more than $3,000 for violations – a small fine when part of a project costing hundreds of thousands of dollars. Notably, the fine is the same for something smaller, such as repointing, as it is for larger, near-full scale demolition. The bill from Councilmember Allen proposes a stronger and more flexible fine system to allow the Office of Planning and the Historic Preservation Review Board to take decisive action