Homeowners want out of Between the Rivers historic district
A first hearing is set for Wednesday.
Just eight months after two primary property owners on Avenue A were able to get numerous properties taken out of the Avenue A historic district, four property owners are seeking to have their lots removed from the Between the Rivers historic district. The effort is being led by Rome attorney Wade Hoyt III who wants to demolish a home that has been in his family for 150 years.
The Hoyt house, 603 W. First St., is located on a hilltop between the Rome-Floyd County Library and the Sixth Avenue parking deck. It has been in the Hoyt family since it was built in 1866 but has been unoccupied for most of the past two decades and is in extremely poor condition. “No one has ever lived there but a Hoyt,” Hoyt said. He said he has to call police to the property several times a month to run off homeless people who break into the buildings to get out of the elements
In addition to the Hoyt House, Laura Weber at 108 W. Sixth Ave.; Mike Duffey at 106 W. Sixth Ave.; and Jeff MacLeod at 104 W. Sixth Ave., are asking that their houses also be removed from the district.
Weber, who has recently completed a major renovation of her home, which was heavily damaged by fire several years ago, said she just got a contract on her home. She agreed to join the Hoyt petition for removal from the historic district because she knows it would be much more expensive to demolish the Hoyt house and redevelop the site than to renovate the existing structure.
Hoyt said an earlier petition to have the house demolished was withdrawn before a decision could be rendered. “I got a letter from Howard Gibson (chief building inspector) indicating the house was in shambles and needed to be torn down,” Hoyt said. “I presented that to the HPC and was told that everybody has an opinion. Once it was sort of telegraphed to us that they weren’t going to let us do it, we changed gears and I got the three homeowners right there next to me and we all filed a joint petition to remove those four homes from the downtown historic district.”
MacLeod used the home as an office for years prior to his retirement. “I think this is an opportunity with those properties
to do some kind of development down there that would be beneficial to the downtown area,” MacLeod said.
Hoyt said local architect Mark Cochran and homebuilder Jack Pearson have
developed plans to develop high end town homes on the tract where the Hoyt house sits. “I don’t know how many it would take, four to six I think. Two of which my brother and I are going to live in,
we love that place, we grew up there,” Hoyt said.
The HPC will conduct a first hearing on the petition Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. but will not take a vote until a second hearing is held in June 15.