Design Guidelines for Historic Beauregard Town, Baton Rouge (Draft)

Introduction: "Beauregard Town was place on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980 for its architectural and historical significance. It is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Baton Rouge, platted by Elias Beauregard in 1806, and has a high concentration of homes built in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Beauregard Town has an exceptional mix of homes, museums, government buildings, and commercial blocks, including a small warehouse district called Catfish Town, which houses a casino and links the neighborhood to the Mississippi River. Its ideal location in Downtown Baton Rouge provides efficient living to our citizens. The boundaries of this National District have been expanded four times in the last four decades, providing Beauregard Town is a place the community values. In 2019, as a result of numerous demolitions and blighted properties, the Beauregard Town Civic Associations formally expressed interest in becoming a local historic district. This would provide Beauregard Town additional protections through regulations and a review process that are outlined in the City/Parish Code of Ordinance Title 7 Unified Development Code (UDC). Using model legislation from the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO), the City of Baton Rouge passed a local ordinance in 2004, creating the Historic Preservation Commission (HPC), an extension of the Office of the Planning Commission, to establish procedures to protect historic resources. These historic resources include districts, sites, buildings, structures, objects, and works of art having special cultural or aesthetic value. As part of the local historic preservation ordinance, a method for establishing boundaries for historic districts includes an updated structure survey and the creation of design guidelines for the HPC to use as reference when protecting historic resources. Due to limited staff and funding, the Office of the Planning Commission applied for and received much-needed grant funds through the SHPO to create this document and an updated structure survey. Working with historic preservation consultants Calhoun & Rolf Preservation, and with oversight from the SHPO, the Office of the Planning Commission created the following guidelines, which are in accordance with standards set by the National Park Service, United State Department of the Interior, the federal agency tasked with historic preservation. These guidelines are to be used for rehabilitation projects, new constructions, demolitions or any other work which requires a Certification of Appropriateness within the Beauregard Town Local Historic District. These guidelines should be used by property owners prior to initiating any design or work within the district. As always, the Office of the Planning Commission offers and encourages no cost, pre-application meetings with our staff." Project funding was provided in part by a Historic Preservation Fund to the Louisiana Division of Historic Preservation, Office of Cultural Development, Department of Culture, Recreation & Tourism, administered by the State, Tribal, Local Plans and Grants division, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior (grant number P19AF00215).