Tuesday, March 21, 2000
House razing goes before city
Preservation group wants it restored
BY CINDI ANDREWS
The Cincinnati Enquirer
LEBANON — A former city councilman tonight will ask the city's permission to tear down a building that a historic preservation group says may be the oldest home in Lebanon.
John McComb bought the property at 27 N. Mechanic St. in February, three months after a fire badly damaged the building, which held four apartments.
The fire department says the building must either be repaired or razed, and Mr. McComb is asking the Lebanon Planning Commission to let him demolish it.
“Certain things you can't fix,” said Mr. McComb, who says he has restored five historic buildings Lebanon.
The Mechanic Street home is more than 60 percent damaged, he said, and it would cost $250,000 to $300,000 to repair and restore it.
But an expert hired by the Lebanon Conservancy Foundation says it is 42 percent damaged.
It's “well within the limits of repair,” reported Bruce Goetzman, a Cincinnati architect and preservationist.
The Federal style house was probably built in 1808, the conservancy says.
“It's just too important to let the first house go,” said foundation President Marilyn Haley.
“It's got all the original cupboards, baseboards — it's in incredibly good shape because it's not been restored. It could be an absolute showplace.”
The conservancy wants the planning commission to make Mr. McComb replace the tarp the group put on the roof in December to prevent further damage.
But there's no point in doing that unless the commission denies Mr. McComb permission to raze the house.
City Attorney Mark Yurick said Monday that while the commission could do that, he doubted the courts would uphold such a decision, given the fire department's order.
Mrs. Haley said in last week's City Council meeting that she would pay Mr. McComb $80,000 for the house — $5,000 more than he paid for it.
But he said Monday he has not received that offer in writing, and he declined to say what price — if any — he would take for the property.
He also wouldn't say what he intends to do with the land, but the conservancy says he plans to put a parking lot there.
Today's planning commission agenda also includes:
• The final draft of a downtown master plan.
• A proposed landscape ordinance.
The ordinance, hammered out by the planning commission and the city's shade tree committee over the past year, requires a landscape plan for all new business and residential developments, said City Planner Marty Kohler.
The ordinance — which would require 20 trees per acre — already is making developers grumble.
“They're definitely going to have to plan developments differently,” Mr. Kohler said.
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