In the last issue of Landmarks, we told readers that we were close to our fundraising goal with neighborhood groups and that the consultant team was hard at work putting together the National Register Historic District nomination. As we go to print, we are even closer to our fundraising goal (stay tuned for another Pop-Up Park Avenue Walking Tour this summer!) and consultants are putting the finishing touches on the nomination paperwork.
From here, the historic district will be reviewed by the New York State Board for Historic Preservation and, finally, by the National Park Service (NPS). Then the Park Avenue Historic District will be official and Rochester will have one of the largest historic districts in the state! We anticipate that approval from the State Review Board will come in late 2019. In the meantime, homeowners within the district boundaries can receive conditional approval to utilize the New York State Historic Homeowners Tax Credit program. This program provides a credit off your NYS income tax worth 20% of qualifying repair and rehab expenses.
Thank you once again to our generous funders: the Rochester Area Community Foundation and the Preserve New York Grant from the Preservation League of New York State and New York State Council on the Arts.
If you live in the Park Avenue neighborhood and want to learn more about this program or want to make a donation to help get us to the finish line, visit landmarksociety.org/parkave or contact Caitlin Meives at cmeives@landmark.layer8group.com.
Written by Caitlin Meives