Will

Fayetteville's new historic preservation

ordinance restrict John Crowe's 93-year-old

mother from using her older downtown home as she

likes?

Not

to worry, City Council members said told Crowe

before voting unanimously Monday night to approve

the new law.

Crowe

said he felt more comfortable after questioning

the council. "I don't know whether I like it

or not," he said during a public hearing on

the ordinance.

But

councilmen assured him his mother's property

values won't suffer, and the law does not

restrict the uses for which she can use or some

day sell the property - only its

demolition or alteration, and then only if it's

found to be a historic property.

And

if so, she'll be eligible for tax credits for

improvements to the property, councilmen said.

"Throughout

the nation historic preservation has proved to be

a boon and to increase property value," said

Mayor Kenneth Steele.

The

new ordinance will create a historic preservation

commission tasked with identifying historic

districts and historic properties in

Fayetteville. The group also will rule on the

appropriateness of proposed changes to individual

properties found to be historic, and will work to

get some city resources placed on the National

Register of Historic Places.

In

other action, council turned down Creekwood Trail

resident Robert Holme's request that his six-foot

privacy fence, built in violation of city

ordinances, be allowed to stand.

Holme

told council his home, which faces McIntosh Place

but has a rear yard facing Creekwood, has been

burglarized once and items have been stolen out

of the backyard since he moved in last May. Once,

he even confronted a peeping Tom, possibly

evaluating the house for future burglary, as he

came out of the shower, he said.

He

also argued that the law prohibiting fences in

back yards that face streets should not apply to

properties taht were purchased before it went

into effect. "There is an issue of fairness

here," he said.

But

Creekwood Trail is a residential street, said

Councilman Al Hovey-King. "One of the

objectives of the ordinance is to not permit

fences on residential frontages," he said.

And

although Holme's home was purchased by his

landlord before the ordinance was approved, the

law had been in place for some time before he

built his fence, argued Councilman Bill Talley.

Council

voted 4-1, with Glenn Brewer opposed, to deny

Holme's request for a variance.

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