If your house is in a historic district, repainting it is not always the simple job it looks like. The rules are different in every town, and in one of the towns we work in they are enforceable and specific. Here is what applies where, and what does not.
Plant City: yes, and painting is named in writing
Plant City, in Hillsborough County, is the strictest of the lot and the clearest. The city requires a Certificate of Appropriateness before any work can begin, and before the Building Division can issue any permit at all.
The city’s own wording is unambiguous: a certificate is needed for “any and all exterior changes to Historic Structures, including but not limited to painting, roof repairs and changes, window/door replacement and siding.”
Its design standards go further and talk about color directly. They list paint colors among the triggers for a certificate. They advise against high intensity colors or colors inappropriate to the building style, and recommend creams, ivories and pastels of earth tone colors for commercial buildings. Two instructions matter especially:
- “Do not create a new appearance by applying paint or other coatings such as stucco to masonry that has been historically unpainted or uncoated.”
- “Do not paint surfaces that were traditionally left unpainted.”
The three districts are on the National Register: the Downtown Plant City Commercial District and the North Plant City Residential District, both listed in 1993, and the Downtown Plant City Historic Residential District, listed in 1998. The city uses slightly different names for the same three in its own documents.
Worth knowing before you plan the work: in those districts the predominant historic materials are horizontal wood siding and brick masonry. Wood frame dominated the early development and masonry became common after the railroad arrived in the 1880s. Wood siding takes different preparation and a different product than the stucco most Florida painters work on every day.
Bartow: a review board exists, the scope is unclear
Bartow has three districts on the National Register, all listed on 18 May 1993: the Northeast Bartow Residential District, the South Bartow Residential District and the Bartow Downtown Commercial District.
The city also has a Historic Architectural Review Board, which reviews and decides on proposed alterations, demolitions and relocations affecting contributing properties, and reviews new construction within the district boundaries.
What we could not establish is whether that review covers exterior painting or paint color. The word used is “alterations”, without a list, and Bartow does not publish its ordinance, application or district map online. So the honest answer is: call the Planning Department at 863-534-0100 and ask before you choose a color. We would rather you make one phone call than repaint twice.
One warning about searching this yourself. If you look up “Bartow Historic District” you will find a detailed article about a 209-acre district with 121 contributing buildings, listed in 2013. That is Bartow, Georgia. Florida’s Bartow has three districts, all from 1993.
Winter Haven: four districts, and probably no restriction
Winter Haven has four residential and downtown districts on the National Register: Winter Haven Heights, Pope Avenue, Interlaken and Downtown Winter Haven, listed between 2000 and 2002.
Here is the part that gets misreported constantly: being listed on the National Register does not, by itself, restrict what a private owner does with private money. Federal listing is an honorific and a planning tool. Restrictions on repainting come only from a local designation ordinance, and we could not confirm that Winter Haven has one.
So do not let anyone tell you that you need historic approval to repaint in Winter Haven without checking. Call the city planning department. It may well be that you are free to paint whatever you like.
Auburndale and Medulla: nothing to worry about
Auburndale has no district on the National Register at all. Medulla, being an unincorporated census-designated place in Polk County, has none either. In both places a repaint is just a repaint.
The rule that catches more people than any of this
Homeowners associations. An HOA architectural review is a private contract between you and the association, and it applies whether or not there is a historic district anywhere near you. It is enforceable, and it does not care what the building code says.
Two we can confirm exist in our area: Lake Ashton II in Winter Haven, whose architectural review committee meets on the second and fourth Monday of the month and publishes architectural rules and guidelines, and Water Ridge in Auburndale, which has a published architectural review process. Walden Lake in Plant City is a real association recognised by the city as a neighborhood improvement district, although we could not verify its specific paint rule.
In every case: submit the color before the work, not after.
What we do about it
If your house is in a district or a governed community, we give you the manufacturer color codes in writing so your submission is complete the first time, and we do not start the work until the approval is sorted. It costs a little patience up front and it saves repainting a whole elevation because a committee said no.
Sources: City of Plant City Historic District Resources and Design Standards; City of Bartow Historic Architectural Review Board; National Park Service NRHP records; Lake Ashton II HOA and Water Ridge HOA published documents. This is general information, not legal advice: confirm with the relevant city or association before you start.