SALISBURY – Salisbury City Council on Tuesday approved the designation of a century-old home as a historic landmark, even though Councilman David Post expressed concerns about whether the tax credit best serves the city’s residents.

The City Council approved the designation of the McKenzie-Grimes House as a historic monument. Located in the 200 block of West Bank Street, it was built in 1902 in the Queen Anne Free Classic style. The house’s owners, Randall Cernohorsky and John Causby, requested the designation under two distinct criteria: Criterion A for special significance as part of the city’s historic preservation movement as the first property acquired by the Salisbury Historic Foundation’s revolving fund, and Criterion C for embodying the distinctive characteristics of the Queen Anne Free Classic style.

The staff report submitted to the City Council states that the house features the Queen Anne Free Classic style, which includes elements such as massive porch columns and classical columns, an asymmetrical design characterized by prominent cornice and eave details, large front porches, and multi-sash windows.

“As a new organization, the Foundation felt that saving this property was important not only for its architecture, but that saving this property was critical to efforts to maintain West Square as an attractive residential area. The members of the Foundation cared so much about saving this property that they, as individuals, committed their own money to make it possible,” said Karen Lilly-Bowyer, Cernohorsky and Causby’s representative on the application.

Kimberly Stieg, executive director of HSF, spoke during Tuesday’s public hearing and shared some of the history of the house and the circumstances of HSF’s purchase. The house was under threat of demolition by BellSouth, which wanted to turn the property into a parking facility for its heavy equipment. When HSF stepped in and purchased the property, the house was so close to demolition that the stained glass windows had already been removed, Stieg said.

The owners applied to designate the exterior of the property and the original grounds, as well as several interior features, including six stained glass windows, two wooden libraries, and two mantelpieces. By designating these features, the owners are required to maintain these features in their historically significant condition and to obtain approval from the HPC before making any changes to the features.

The 50 percent tax deferral is based on the assumption that the designated portions retain their historically significant status, and if that is lost, the city has the option to reclaim the last three years of deferred taxes.

After the public hearing, city council members voted unanimously to make the house a listed building. This comes with a tax credit that allows payment of the property bill to be deferred by 50 percent.

However, Council Member David Post took the opportunity to express his displeasure with the city’s implementation of the state ordinance authorizing and regulating the tax credit.

“It’s an incredible house, there’s no doubt about that. It would be an incredible house anywhere and not necessarily just on one block in the city of Salisbury where it’s the only remaining residential house. My ongoing objection is to our ordinance, which provides a 50 percent tax cut and now costs taxpayers about a quarter of a million dollars,” Post said.

The revenue numbers Post was referring to come from city planner Emily Vanek’s staff report, which lists the properties designated as historic buildings and the revenue lost to the city from the tax credit over a 10-year period. During that period, the city will lose $212,259 in tax revenue from 10 designated properties, or about $21,000 per year, according to the report.

“I feel like the tax incentives are the reason for this, and I think we’re going to see a lot more (applications) because there are a lot of incredible homes in this part of town,” Post said.

The city is granting the tax deferral because it has adopted the state’s General Statute 105-278 as a local ordinance, which requires the city to cover the 50 percent. Essentially, state law means that cities can either grant a 50 percent tax deferral for historic landmarks or grant no designations or tax deferrals at all; nothing in between is possible.

City Manager Jim Greene Jr. said city staff previously evaluated state law, local ordinances and how other municipalities deal with historic landmarks. They will now continue that process and present the results to the City Council at a future meeting.

Post has raised concerns about the tax deferral before, including in 2021 when the city placed an informal moratorium on applications to clarify project requirements. At the time, he raised the same concerns, saying he didn’t like that the only incentive was the tax incentive, explaining that there were an “unimaginable” number of homes in the city that could be considered eligible.

“I don’t like the bylaw, but I love every single one of those houses on the list. They’re great houses. We’re fortunate as a city to have the architectural diversity and integrity that we have. And the fact that we have private homeowners willing to preserve it is a blessing to our city. I just don’t like the bylaw,” Post said Tuesday.