COASTAL OBSERVER

Even if the town gets federal funds to assess its existing structures and expand its historic district, preserving historic houses on Pawleys Island will require local action.

“It’s all going to be at the local level,” said Brad Sauls, who is in charge of local government assistance programs for the State Historic Preservation Office. 

The town has debated ways protect the 10 19th century structures listed in the 1972 National Register application that created the historic district and to extend protection to other traditional houses with the “Pawleys look.”

Sauls told the town Planning Commission this week that National Register status “is only honorific” and that there are no “mythical preservation police.”

The town’s historic district was created six years after Congress passed the National Historic Preservation Act. “It doesn’t say that the places have to be preserved. It says they are worthy of preservation,” Sauls said.

That’s something the town learned after two of the National Register properties came up for sale.  After creating architectural guidelines for new homes, it began looking at ways to protect the old ones.

Last year, the town approved a variance that allowed a 1940s house that shared a lot with the historic Liberty Lodge to be torn down and replaced in exchange for an agreement that the exterior of the older home be preserved. The town is now considering whether to grant a variance at another site that would allow a 1939 beach house to remain after the property it sits on is subdivided into three lots. Two members of the town Board of Zoning Appeals sat in on Sauls’ presentation to the Planning Commission.

“Local preservation ordinances are the strongest protection for historic resources,” Sauls said.

The Historic Preservation Office administers a federal grant program that could provide funds for an inventory of historic properties. Pawleys Island plans to apply this spring. If approved, it would have until September 2026 to complete the survey.

A historic designation would create an exemption for properties that might need to be elevated to comply with federal flood regulations if they are renovated, commission member Paul Groce said. That would deter owners from tearing down older homes due to the cost of compliance.

“How do we get to that point most quickly,” he asked.

“The quickest way to have an impact would be to adopt an ordinance,” Sauls said.

The grant process, which requires a 50 percent local match, is only a way to reduce the cost to the town, he added.

Mayor Brian Henry noted that the town is trying to balance the need to preserve the character of Pawleys Island through its historic homes with the owners’ property rights. He asked how often other jurisdictions deny demolition requests.

Sauls said he reviewed the reports that local governments with preservation programs are required to make to the state. Over 15 years, 90 percent of all requests were approved. 

“Denials of any sort are pretty rare,” he said. “These boards aren’t out there to stop everything that’s going on.”

For a community like Pawleys Island that is just starting a preservation program, Sauls recommended that it try to understand why people want to demolish historic structures and make sure demolition isn’t an owner’s first option.

“What other things can we also put out there that might help encourage preservation,” he said. The ability to deny approval for demolition “is really your last resort to prevent an irreversible tragedy.”