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Downtown Mayfield's Proposed Historic Preservation Ordinance Rejected

Save Our Square
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Efforts to adopt an historic preservation ordinance for downtown Mayfield were shot down last night at a meeting to gather property owners' input.

Downtown property owner Clayton Howe was disappointed the ordinance was rejected. He started the group Save Our Square after hearing that the court square’s southside buildings were to be demolished.

“What we were trying to do with Save Our Square, was pass this ordinance so that demolition of the south side of the square could be delayed long enough for us to determine if federal grant money would be available for restoration of those buildings,” Howe said.

The future of downtown Mayfield’s southside buildings is uncertain and Howe says the property owner will not confirm or deny plans for demolition.

Mayor Teresa Cantrell said the Codes Committee called the meeting after reviewing restrictions the proposed ordinance would place on property owners if they wanted to change to their buildings.

“We had the representative from First Baptist Church here, which is in that downtown historic overlay district, and they’re doing about $750,000 worth of improvements to the building. And one of those is putting in a handicap accessible door. Well, that would be against this ordinance. This ordinance would not allow something like that in a historic building,” Cantrell said.

Cantrell said 12 of 18 downtown property owners along with five city council members attended the meeting. Because most owners opposed the ordinance, Cantrell said it will not be brought before the city council.

A proud native of Murray, Kentucky, Allison grew up roaming the forests of western Kentucky and visiting national parks across the country. She graduated in 2014 from Murray State University where she studied Environmental Sustainability, Television Production, and Spanish. She loves meeting new people, questioning everything, and dancing through the sun and the rain. She hopes to make a positive impact in this world several endeavors at a time.
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