By a unanimous vote on June 9th, City Council officially established First Montrose Commons as Houston’s 16^th historic district. We have now joined our neighboring historic districts in Westmoreland, Audubon Place, Courtlandt Place, and Avondale to form the heart of Houston’s preservation movement.

And our joining this illustrious group could not have come at a better time. City Council has also enacted a moratorium on the 90 day waivers which allowed property owners to forgo obtaining a Certificate of Appropriateness for demolition or construction in a historic district. City Council took this step as a prelude to revising and strengthening the historic preservation ordinance. As part of this initiative, the City will not accept any more applications for historic district designation until the revised preservation ordinance is enacted. All of this means that First Montrose Commons’ historic character will have even greater protection than we hoped for, and that we have received this protection in the nick of time.

This is truly a cause for celebration, and celebrate we shall. Your FMC officers are already at work on an epic party to commemorate this occasion, and the entire neighborhood will be invited. Keep checking your in-box and firstmontrosecommons.com for details. In the meantime, you can view the boundaries of our historic district here.