1. Historic Preservation means different things to different people, from preserving significant architecture, to recognizing overlooked history, to maintaining historic neighborhood character, to sustainably reusing existing buildings.

What aspect of historic preservation is most important to you and what is your favorite historic place in Portland?

• Sarah Michniewicz, sarah4council.com

  I see the above categories as equally important. Significant architecture can both inspire and ground us. These buildings tell a story about where we came from and who wasn’t represented. A neighborhood’s historic character can create a sense of place, or displacement, which can inform our preservation efforts going forward. Adaptive reuse and system updates to historical structures can honor history, extend relevance and advance climate goals.

  To me, preservation policies are also necessary to ensure the historic work and achievements of underrepresented voices will be as protected in the future as more dominant voices were in the past.

  It’s hard to choose a favorite historic place. As a craftsperson, I appreciate the influence of the human hand, and the care and skill it takes to painstakingly construct and embellish older buildings without the benefit of modern equipment and techniques.

  I have to go with the working waterfront though. I grew up in a coastal town where fishing and lobstering was a way of life, so for me the waterfront is one of the most evocative historic places in Portland. It’s partly due to the original buildings along Commercial Street, the wharves, and the cobblestones, but really it’s the waterfront’s continued use for its original purpose that elevates it to the top of my list. In so many ways, it looks, sounds, smells, and feels the same way it has for centuries, and continues to be a crucial part of Portland's identity and economy.

• (Robert)Todd Morse, morseforportland.me

  Historic preservation is a huge part of what maintains our City’s unique identity and our stories, not just in books or pictures but in the ways we experience Portland every day. It is tough to choose but my favorite historic place in Portland is probably the top of Munjoy Hill, specifically by the preserved piece of street car track. Not only is this track a physical reminder of the extensive network of street cars that used to link our city and our region but you get a view of both the Portland Observatory and the Eastern Promenade. It is both a beautiful spot and an inspiring reminder of what our city was and what we have the potential to become.

 2. Portland’s Historic Preservation Program was established in 1990 to maintain and enhance the patterns of development that make Portland special. Program staff and the Historic Preservation Board review over 300 development applications a year.

If a historic preservation related issue were to come before you as a City Councilor, how would you educate yourself about it?

• Sarah Michniewicz

  I would do as much research as I could and meet the people and organizations who know the situation best, and the communities that may be affected by the decision. I would look to the work and findings of the Planning Board and Historic Preservation Board, and visit the structure or neighborhood in question. I would seek alignment between stakeholders, work to understand the procedural process and legal basis and seek informed consensus on the council.

• Todd Morse

  On each issue I will try to listen to stakeholders from all sides before coming to a conclusion. I would certainly consult the Historic Preservation Board and staff, as well as Portland Landmarks depending on the issue at hand, but I would also make sure to listen to other perspectives, and identify similar situations in other cities for context.

3. Portland’s Historic Preservation Program allows the city to be a “certified local government” under the National Historic Preservation Act, meaning income-producing buildings in local historic districts have access to state and federal historic tax credits and state pass-through funding is available to support city staff and various preservation projects across the city.

As a City Councilor, would you support maintaining the city’s status as a certified local government?

• Sarah Michniewicz

  Yes, I would. This status gives us access to the tax credits and funding needed to support historic preservation.
  

• Todd Morse

  I would support maintaining our status as a certified local government. This status gives us access to historic tax credits, without which we could not afford the maintenance of our historic structures. For example, the Time and Temperature building cannot be converted into housing without these funds. Without such a conversion and restoration the entire building is at risk. Projects like this combine the goals of housing, historic preservation, and re-using existing buildings. It would be a great loss to the city if they were not possible.

4. School officials say it would take $130 million over the next two decades to make the necessary improvements at Portland’s high schools and are considering one campus with a new building to serve all high school students. Portland High School is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and Deering High School has been determined by the Maine Historic Preservation Commission to be eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places.

As a city councilor, when it comes to high school consolidation, would you support plans to reuse both historic schools for educational or other uses, like housing, instead of demolition?

• Sarah Michniewicz

  Absolutely. I have a hard time imagining a scenario in which it would make sense to demolish either building. Both are historically important to Portland, and adaptive reuse of existing buildings can be one of the most climate-friendly ways to create new housing relatively quickly. |

  Portland High School is particularly significant as it’s one of the oldest high schools in the nation. It harmonizes with the evolving urban fabric of the neighborhood even as its presence makes it stand out in the cityscape as seen from the southbout  approach on I 295.

  PHS is also an iconic presence in Bayside, my neighborhood, which is listed by Greater Portland Landmarks as one of Portland’s Places in Peril. Bayside is a neighborhood that has lost, and continues to lose, buildings that help tell the tale of its history as an immigrant community subjected to redlining, neglect, and discriminatory zoning.

  Should school consolidation move forward, supporting protection and reuse of the Portland and Deering High Schools would be a priority.
  

• Todd Morse

  Portland High School is among the oldest in the country and it is a critical piece of history to preserve. If the schools were to be consolidated I would strongly support the building’s re-use. I am generally supportive of the idea of reusing Deering high school as well but I am less familiar with its history.

5. ReCode Portland is the first rewriting of the City’s Land Use Code in over 50 years. It is about creating a new, unified development code to serve Portland for the 21st century and is designed to better equip the City to address needs in areas such as housing, design, preservation, conservation, the working waterfront, energy, and transportation.

Have you been engaged with the ReCode process? What is your opinion on its effectiveness to advance and balance the goals of the city’s comprehensive plan?

• Sarah Michniewicz

  Yes. The draft of City staff's ReCode recommendations seems largely aligned with Portland’s Comprehensive Plan 2030. Balance is always difficult to achieve across broad constituencies, but the changes being proposed are a big step toward making Portland more affordable, accessible, and equitable.

  Relating to historic preservation, the draft ReCode proposals allow for measures which help ensure historic homes can continue to exist in harmony with Portland’s climate goals and balance the need for growth with honoring Portland’s past. ReCode’s general approach to increasing housing stock supports most of the Comprehensive Plan’s
  goals. I do have questions about whether the Comp Plan’s equity ideals can be fully realized when ReCode density bonuses may incentivize housing unit sizes that cannot accommodate families.

  I’d also like to see more emphasis on the importance of green space and trees in the Downtown and Midtown areas, particularly for taller, denser housing that is intended for lower income brackets. The neighborhoods where such buildings will be concentrated need extra attention to preserving and integrating natural elements, community gardens, pocket parks, greenways, open spaces, etc. These features have positive environmental, psychological, and economic effects, and if they are not planned into the denser housing that ReCode envisions, those opportunities may be gone forever.

  ReCode has been a long, careful process, and proposed many changes. We should remain aware that implementing many new rules at once may make it harder to tell which one is causing what impacts years down the road. In whatever form ReCode is ultimately passed, revision may be necessary.

• Todd Morse

  I have engaged extensively with the ReCode process in my work with the Urbanist Coalition of Portland. Overall, I feel that ReCode is a big step in the right direction. It will move us towards the goals of the City’s Comprehensive plan, but there are a few areas where I would like to see it be more ambitious in pursuing these goals. I think allowing more transit oriented development, gentle density, and mixed use would help create walkable neighborhoods stitched together by high quality transit. Though to some this may seem like a modern idea, these were the principles that Portland was originally built on and much of Portland’s most distinctive areas such as Munjoy Hill and the West End were built in this way.

6. The City’s September 2023 report, Trends in Portland’s Historic District’s (attached), compared trends in historic districts, the peninsula, and the city across a number of different measures. (attach report in email to candidates) The Trends study found historic districts on average have a much higher housing density per square mile than both the City overall and elsewhere on the peninsula. While the City’s major transportation corridors historically were denser than today with a broader mix of residences and local businesses, mid-20th century zoning promoted more car-centric development.

As a City Councilor would you support new land use policies and design standards that encourage the creation of higher density developments on underutilized lots to re-knit the fabric of our neighborhoods and enliven the city’s major corridors throughout the city?

• Sarah Michniewicz

  Yes. Developing and enhancing neighborhood centers along transportation corridors is one of the most meaningful ways we can create the housing Portland so desperately needs, support sustainability and climate change mitigation, and create strong, connected communities. I am in favor of land use policies and design standards that help new buildings reach completion and intentionally integrate into existing neighborhoods and growth patterns.
  

• Todd Morse

  I strongly support land use policies that encourage higher density developments on underutilized lots to re-knit our neighborhoods together. This has been a major subject of my ReCode advocacy. I support encouraging development of our major corridors so they support transit, but are also lively and pedestrian friendly. This means denser development, a mixture of uses, such as ground-floor retail, safe sidewalks with street trees, and more. This sort of development addresses our housing crisis and our climate crisis, honors our historic past, and at the same time will create a more pleasant city.

7. The cultural spaces and historic buildings which many people feel define Portland are increasingly at risk to climate change and global warming. The Trends study found that renovation versus demolition and new construction lowers the use of new carbon-intensive building materials and significantly reduces the amount of material sent to landfills.

As a City Councilor how do you plan to support Portland’s climate action goals?

• Sarah Michniewicz

  In the context of historic preservation, the greenest building is often the one that already exists. Renovating existing buildings into housing and other uses we now need is happily aligned with Portland climate goals. Renovation and reuse provides an opportunity to upgrade the systems in older buildings and make them operate more cleanly and efficiently.

  I would support Portland’s climate action goals in part through thoughtful and future-facing historic preservation policies that facilitate climate-friendly improvements and solar panels. I would also support incentivizing weatherization strategies for homeowners to help reduce an older building's carbon footprint and stave off the obsolescence that can sometimes doom an older building to demolition.

  Increasing density along transportation corridors, and increasing transportation availability and access citywide, is also crucial to meeting Portland’s climate goals and mitigating the sea level rise that threatens to forever change the working waterfront and complicate the development of highly buildable low-lying areas like Bayside. I support expanding and enhancing multimodal transportation options with emphasis on walking, biking, and ride sharing, as well as electrification of municipal buildings and services.

  I am in favor of further reducing the carbon footprint of energy efficient new construction by adding as much green space and as many trees as possible, while simultaneously protecting the tree canopy that already exists. The presence or absence of trees in a neighborhood tells as much about its treatment and history as its architecture, as Bayside's sadly neglected tree canopy demonstrates (though that’s improving). To that end I would explore expanding the historic tree ordinance to neighborhoods that most need the benefits of a mature tree canopy.
  

• Todd Morse

  I am strongly in support of prioritizing Portland and South Portland’s One Climate Future plan. We need to address these goals with funding priority but also proactive planning to make sure we are protecting our city instead of cleaning up after a preventable disaster. Smarter development along our transit corridors that I mentioned in previous answers will reduce emissions while also providing more revenue to the city. We need to be investing that revenue in ensuring buildings are well insulated and energy efficient, proactively building protection from sea-level rise, planting and maintaining trees and encouraging reflective or green roofs to mitigate the urban heat island effect.

8. Less than 10% of the city's land area is in historic districts, yet Portland's national identity is strongly associated with our historic buildings and neighborhoods.

How much importance do you place on Portland's historic preservation programs and their role in shaping the City’s future?

• Sarah Michniewicz

  High importance. Historic preservation has been shown to support housing density and climate goals. I believe it is most successful when it can thoughtfully integrate well-reasoned adaptations that enhance its mission without undermining the essence of what makes Portland such a wonderful place to be.

• Todd Morse

  I think the impact of historic preservation is so much more than the amount of land it represents. In the not too distant past there was a plan to essentially level Portland’s Old Port and redevelop it. This is a small portion of Portland’s land area but now with the benefit of hindsight it is obvious how this would have destroyed Portland’s identity. Portland is defined by its historic fabric. It is why there are neighborhoods in Portland that are still walkable and for better or for worse it is why tourists from all over the world want to come to Portland. Historic areas are in a lot of ways a non-renewable resource which is why they are so important to preserve, once they are gone they are gone. I view the future of Portland’s historic preservation as identifying what it is that we value and making sure we protect it for future generations.