Royal Oak group wants preservation laws dumped
Ordinances clash with property rights, they say

Charles V. Tines / The Detroit News "We aren't anti-historical preservation, we just don't want it forced on us," said Frank Versagi of Royal Oak. Citizens for Property Rights wants to ax the city's four historic ordinances.

By Mike Martindale / The Detroit News

    ROYAL OAK -- A battle is brewing in Royal Oak over local history, regulation and property rights.
   A group called Citizens for Property Rights wants to repeal four ordinances in the suburb's downtown and neighborhoods they believe threaten their rights as residents and homeowners.
   To head that off, the group is passing out literature, offering to speak before civic groups, putting up a Web page and gearing up for debates with city officials.
   "We aren't anti-historical preservation, we just don't want it forced on us," said Frank Versagi, a Royal Oak businessman and spokesman for the group. "We don't want mandated historical districts."
   The group of more than 60 residents and business people is concerned about a series of directions the city has taken in recent years, including designating homes in several neighborhoods as historic and unresolved talks with a Chicago developer that have stalled a downtown business project.
   City officials defend the historic designations as a way to preserve character in the community.
   "You have to have regulations and rules and we certainly don't feel ours are restrictive," Royal Oak City Manager Lawrence Doyle said.
   Doyle said the city initially arrived at historic designations for several neighborhoods several years ago when officials drove through neighborhoods to record all the homes that looked historic.
   Versagi's group is concerned that historic designation could permit the city to limit or even order improvements or renovations.
   The City Commission also recently extended a moratorium for six months on any demolition of the Main and Fourth street block which is the site of the National City Bank. Built in 1922, the bank features classic columns.
   A Chicago group is interested in converting the downtown bank block, viewed by some historical preservationists as one of the city's oldest landmarks, into Main Place of Royal Oak, a 12-level building with stores, condominiums and parking spaces.
   Doye said city officials hope to reach an agreement within six weeks with the Main Place developers.