Norcross pauses condemnation plans for historic Woman’s Club

The Norcross City Council paused plans to condemn the historic Norcross Woman’s Club building at a Sept. 3 meeting, tabling the contentious move weeks after the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation announced its acquisition of the 100-year-old property. 

In early August, the now-disbanded Woman’s Club donated the historic library and clubhouse to the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation’s Revolving Fund. In the fund, the building would be sold to a preservation-minded private buyer and adapted into a single-family home due to local zoning requirements.

New owners would help to maintain the property, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. It also made the Trust’s 2016 “Places in Peril” list that seeks out spots threatened by demolition, neglect, development and lack of maintenance. Neither distinction provides any protections to the building.

Days after the announcement, a notice of condemnation sign appeared on the property. The notice could kick off an eminent domain battle between the City of Norcross and the Trust for Historic Preservation. 

The Trust said a private buyer wasn’t the original plan — for months, the organization negotiated with Norcross to sell the property to the city. But Trust CEO W. Wright Mitchell said the city never identified a public use or committed to a preservation easement for the building, which were both requirements for the Trust to sell. 

“The Georgia Trust worked for many months to attempt to sell the property to the city subject to a preservation easement being placed on the building,” Mitchell said. 

Under a preservation easement, property owners aren’t able to change a historic property without prior review, consultation and approval from the Trust. The legal agreement requires a certain amount of maintenance and runs in perpetuity. 

Mitchell said after several meetings the city refused to lay out a plan for its use or commit to an easement, which pushed the Trust to look for a private buyer instead. 

But the city still wants ownership of the building. Through eminent domain and condemnation, the property would fall back into the hands of Norcross — without the Trust’s requirements that city leaders called an “encyclopedic collection of restrictions.” 

City attorney Pat O’Brien also said it would limit “the ability to preserve the property as per the wishes of the people and the wishes of mayor and council.” 

After the city’s first condemnation move, the Trust said it “makes clear that their primary objective is not to protect a local landmark, but rather to gain control of a property with no restrictions in place” via a press release. 

Residents packed into Norcross City Hall for the Sept. 3 City Council meeting where council members discussed a resolution that would begin litigation to condemn the property. 

Edith Riehm, a longtime Norcross resident said during public comment that she was in favor of “anything the city can do to keep it as a historic structure in the city of Norcross.” 

Others like resident and Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation Board Member Jeff Hunter urged the city to give the building a preservation designation because it “deserves some sort of protection.” 

After working through a roster of public comments, the council agreed the city was not past the point of negotiation with the Trust. O’Brien said there is “some promise” for an asset purchase agreement that could reach common ground on a sale between the Trust and the city. 

“We need more time to consider it and are considering including the property in an area which is covered by the historic ordinance that we have in the city,” O’Brien said. 

Previously, the building was protected by a local ordinance that created a historic district, but that ordinance now only applies to the city’s commercial district. 

Still, the city council pointed to a “history of taking care” of historic buildings in the city. At the meeting, members floated plans to modify the building for public use through designs like administrative offices. 

The council said keeping it accessible to the public is part of a “public good.” According to the council, the Trust’s requirements keep the city from modifying the building for public use. The Trust previously stated zoning requirements necessitated a single-family home. 

Rather than approve the condemnation resolution and begin litigation with the Trust, O’Brien recommended the council table the topic until the Oct. 7 Norcross City Council meeting “so we can pursue the prospect of purchasing the property from the foundation pursuant to the APA.”