LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Hope Campbell resigns from Historic Preservation board

To: The Dougherty County Board of Commissioners

The Albany/Dougherty Historic Preservation Commission

As an interested citizen and committed preservationist, I have served as a volunteer commissioner on the Historic Preservation Commission for almost two years. As a commissioner, I have striven to make design decisions based entirely on recommendations of our professional staff and the design guidelines established for our use in making fair and unbiased decisions.

The City Commission of Albany has demonstrated its contempt for the HPC, the ordinance that established it, the guidelines we follow, and the concept of fairness that we have endeavored to follow, opting instead to rely entirely on political cronyism to determine a case in which Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital applied to demolish a historically and culturally significant Beaux Arts school building as well as four other historic buildings in the historic district surrounding the hospital.

They chose to ignore the record of the HPC decision. They chose to ignore guidelines negotiated in 2017 between the HPC and the hospital that call specifically for the preservation of the school while giving the hospital greater discretion with regard to other historic structures in the surrounding historic district. They chose to accept a spurious misrepresentation that the hospital had never had anyone express any interest in the preservation of the building and that the hospital would “welcome” any interest. In short, the city commission had no intention of following their own law in this matter, opting instead for political expediency and a corruption of the entire process.

Because there is only one charge, abuse of discretion, against the HPC that can result in the overturning of an HPC ruling, the city used that standard, in spite of the fact that they had no proof of that charge. Their total lack of integrity in making this charge and their failure to support their own ordinance have damaged the authority of the HPC and precluded the ability of the HPC to make fair and unbiased decisions regarding substantial alterations to historic properties in the historic district. The property owners in the historic district already believe that the hospital is exempted from the guidelines because of preferential treatment in the past. This has caused disgruntlement and a lack of respect for the HPC that will not be overcome until the city steps forward to support the historical integrity of the entire historic district

Just before mounting their appeal to the City Commission of the HPC denial of their application to demolish four historic buildings, the hospital had submitted an application to demolish 11 additional historic houses, which they quickly withdrew at the time of their appeal. Certainly, the decision to withdraw was made because of the negative optics surrounding their desire to demolish a total of 15 historic buildings at once. Emboldened by the city’s total lack of commitment to its own preservation ordinance, they have now begun to submit their demolition applications again. There is one before the HPC in October.

Where is the red line beyond which our city government will not let the hospital go? Based on the actions of the City Commission, I submit that within the next year, we will lose almost 90 additional historic structures. Rather than incentivizing the revitalization of our historic areas, the city has ensured by precedent that we will lose it all together.

Therefore, I find that I cannot support or serve a corrupt city government which, in my view, the commission has proven itself to be. My personal integrity demands that I tender my resignation from the HPC, effective immediately.

Hope Campbell

Albany