HFFI’s 2025 Preservation Advocacy Report
At the last regular meeting of Fredericksburg City Council, HFFI presented a summary of important Historic Preservation goals and called upon the City’s leaders to make progress on the “big 3” most impactful and achievable initiatives. These goals and priority tasks were created by professionally trained City staff, based on residents’ input and insights from professionals working in Preservation locally. You can read more in HFFI’s 2025 Preservation Advocacy Report to Local Leaders
HFFI members and anyone who signed our “big 3” petition in the last year may recall these top-priority goals:
- Study it! Conduct a city-wide Historic Preservation Economic Impact Study to quantify the ways in which preserving our City’s historic fabric supports the local economy, good jobs, the health of our environment, our sense of place, and maintains existing affordable housing and higher density development than areas outside the downtown core. This kind of study has been a local Preservation goal since 2010 and emerged from the Preservation Plan (Chapter 8) adopted by Council in 2021. It was again recommended by an expert hired consultant in 2023. A study of Preservation’s economic impact across the entire City costs the same as recent economic feasibility studies funded by the City for just two individual properties.
- Support it! The goals set by City staff with and based on residents’ input are important and could be achieved with greater support. Ensuring the preservation of our City’s most unique, irreplaceable, and valuable cultural assets should not be a job limited to a few staff members. Create the Historic Preservation Advisory Committee as presented by staff on September 12, 2023, to increase awareness and provide greater support for City staff’s efforts.
- Expand it! The City’s Rehabilitation Tax Exemption program is largely unknown and rarely used. State law allows for a significant expansion of its scope to aid in the preservation and adaptive re-use of the existing built environment, This program could be tweaked for greater effect and efficiency to assist in safely upgraded and rehabilitating our aging, if not officially “historic,” building stock. The expansion of this program was one of the biggest takeaways from a 2023 City-commissioned expert report and was also listed as a top priority task of the Clean & Green Commission’s Sustainability Committee in 2021. Check out the City’s 2023 report: Historic Preservation Recommendations: Economic Incentives and Spot Blight/Demolition by Neglect
Want to learn more about the many ways in which the City’s Historic Preservation goals overlap with other important initiatives and advocate for HP in FXBG? Reach out to HFFI at [email protected]