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A proposed amendment to the county's historic preservation law would make it more difficult to declare a property historic over the owner's objections.

County Councilman Michael J. Knapp (D-Dist. 2) of Germantown said his amendment, introduced last week, would make the preservation process easier to understand.

"I don't think any of us [on the County Council] would deem ourselves as experts on historic preservation," Knapp said. "I'm hoping by having additional criteria it allows council members to say, ‘Wow, this is really historic.'"

Knapp said he proposed the changes following months of testimony from residents of Damascus and Goshen who objected to their properties being added to the county's historic registry. The council voted on the registry in late January and the county Planning Board is slated to formally adopt the council's decision Thursday.

Wayne Goldstein, president of Montgomery Preservation Inc., considers the historic preservation law one of the county's most successful regulatory programs and does not think it should be changed.

"He's basically working to eliminate our historic preservation ordinance," he said of Knapp.

In many cases property owners said they were unaware their homes were even being considered for historic designation until they applied for building permits to make alterations, Knapp said. Too many residents said the process for getting work permits from the Historic Preservation Commission was expensive and took a long time, he said.

"[The new law] will force the Historic Preservation Commission to enter into dialogue with the property owners," Knapp said. "We had to have four committee meetings because the Historic Preservation Commission said they sent a letter but never actually spoke with people."

At the request of property owners, the council or commission decided one-third of the properties staff recommended for historic designation in Damascus and Goshen were not historic, Goldstein said.

Under current law a property must meet one of nine criteria to be designated historic. Under the proposed amendment, if an owner objects to the designation, the property would have to meet three criteria to be declared historic. The proposal would also eliminate high artistic value as a criterion for designation.

"There's no good way to get a handle on what makes it subjectively artistic," Knapp said.

The proposed amendment is designed to bring clarity to the historic preservation process, Knapp said.

County historic criteria are based on national criteria, Goldstein said. If council members are confused about how to evaluate the artistic worth of a property, they can go to the National Park Service Web site and get directions on how to apply criteria to historic designation, he said.

During the hearings council members never questioned property owners' hardship claims, Goldstein said.

The council should be able to declare a building historic based on concrete factors, Knapp said.

"I just really want to make it more straightforward for everyone – the council, homeowners and the Historic Preservation Commission," he said.

A public hearing on the proposed amendment will be held 7:30 p.m. March 31 at the Council Office Building, 100 Maryland Ave. in Rockville.