 Hi, I'm Rachel Walling, and I'm Megan McNish and we're preservation planners with the City of Columbia. And we are putting together a few videos. We are not able to do public meetings at the moment. And while we miss everybody, we want everybody to know that we are still here. So we're going to be covering some of our favorite topics with a series of videos. And this is one of our particular favorite topics is the Bailey Bill tax statement. So we're going to run through a quick introduction to what the Bailey Bill is and some frequently asked questions. So to start off with, what is the Bailey Bill? It's a preservation tax incentive that requires that property owners reinvest 20% of the building's value back into the property on eligible expenses within two years of preliminary certification. It's a lot of information all at once, we're going to be breaking that down in a little bit, but just to kind of give you a broad overview of what that is. If the 20% investment threshold is met in that two-year period, the assessed value of your property is frozen for 20 years. So all of the work that you do for the Bailey Bill should be eligible and approved before it starts. So put simply, you're investing money back into your property, increasing its value. It keeps the original pre-rehabilitation tax rate. So the Design Development Review Commission is our architectural review board. They handle reviews of the Bailey Bill. So every time we have an application come in, we're helping people through that process and we're sending it to our commission to give it the official check of approval. What they will approve is preliminary certification. So preliminary certification is the start of the two-year investment period. So you submit a scope of work to us and the DDRC, when they're checking it off, are approving that scope and that is, once they approve that, that is your preliminary certification. And once that hits, you have two years to do the work to your property. The Bailey Bill is the thing that's important to note is a tax abatement and it's not a tax credit. So in this case, it freezes the tax value of the property for 20 years once the preliminary certification is met. So at the date of the meeting where the DDRC approves it, that is when your property tax rate is frozen, sorry, tax value. The investment threshold is the amount that's required to invest back into your property to enable to get final certification for the Bailey Bill. As Megan mentioned, this is a 20% investment threshold. So it is based on just the value, not the land. So if your building is worth $100,000, you would have to invest $20,000 back into your building within the two-year period to get the full benefits for 20 years of the Bailey Bill. So one question we frequently get about the Bailey Bill is, how do I know if my building qualifies? So both commercial and residential properties are eligible for the Bailey Bill and buildings should meet one of the following criteria in order to get the incentive. They should either be individually listed in the National Register of Historic Places, a contributing property in a National Registered District, an individual city of Columbia Historic Landmark, or a contributing property in a local historic district. Sometimes all of these things, or many of these things overlap, so you may be both a contributing property in a National Registered District, as well as an individual landmark or any combination of these four things. So if you meet one of those criteria, you are very likely eligible for the Bailey Bill. And I would say too, we have 15 local historic districts and 180 landmarks, and there's a lot more that are National Registered Districts and National Registered Registered Properties. We don't oversee those normally, but there's a lot of opportunity throughout the city for people to participate in this program. There's a lot of history, a lot of good buildings that are awaiting for investment. So if you don't know if your building is one of these, just ask us. Just give us a call. And we'll get into the different kinds of eligible expenses in a little bit, but if you're going to be doing work to your property and you think that after watching this, that some of those expenses might be eligible, it's certainly something worth exploring because the work you do on your home adds up. So why not explore this opportunity? So we have two different categories that expenses normally fall in. They're either maintenance and repair, looking at specifically the historic materials that make up the historic building. So that can be a window restoration is a big one. Repreparing and refinishing floors, adding storm windows to protect your historic windows, which also add some thermal benefits as well. Repointing bricks, anything that you're doing to maintain the historic materials that make up your building, those will qualify. As well as actions that make the building habitable and safe. So some big, big ticket items you're protecting the envelope of the building. So roofing, your roofing may not technically be historic, but you need good roofing so your building isn't leaking and destroying inside. So roofing is a big expense that can qualify for the Bailey Bell, as well as structural work, foundation repairs. We want to make sure the building stays whole, stays complete, and stays intact for as long as possible. So those big ticket items can really count towards your investment thresholds. But also updating plumbing, electrical, and mechanical systems. So the pipes, the wires that go into the building to make it functioning for modern day use. So those will all qualify and sometimes it only takes one big ticket item to get people to their investment threshold. So if you have, like Megan said, if you have a project in mind, just give us a call and we can talk through it. Yeah, I think we've both had projects that have qualified just on HVAC updates alone. So it never hurts to ask. There are some expenses that are not eligible for the Bailey Bell. That doesn't necessarily mean that these are things you can't do to your home. They just won't help you meet the investment threshold. So generally speaking, any work to additions or non-original portions of a structure and cosmetic items are not eligible. So an example of that would be plumbing and lighting fixtures. Like Rachel said, the actual pipes in the walls and wires and electrical boxes, those things are eligible. But if you have a chandelier in mind for your dining room table, unfortunately, it doesn't qualify as an eligible expense. But feel free to go ahead and put that in your home. Another great example would be things like countertops, tile, other interior finishes, like new drywall, things like that. And then also costs to construct an addition. Additions may be allowed to your property, but the expenses associated with them aren't going to help you meet the investment threshold. So some frequently asked questions that we get about the Bailey Bell. First one being, what are the fees to a plaque available? There is a application fee. If you are a residential or duplex structure, it is $150 per building. And for commercial buildings or multi-family buildings, there is a $300 application fee per structure. Second question, what changes are permitted to my house under the Bailey Bell? So as Megan briefly mentioned, additions are a big change that people often undertake when they're doing the Bailey Bell. It's something we help people through that process a lot. A lot of times they're doing an addition, they're doing a renovation of their house, and they glom it all together and we take it to the DDRC for approval all at once. So that is a process we help people through. A lot of people do additions to their buildings when they have the Bailey Bell. Another thing to keep in mind with this is if you are a national registered structure, you would not typically have city preservation review. So under the Bailey Bell, if you want to maintain your Bailey Bell, any changes you want to make for the duration of the 20-year period needs to go through preservation staff and the DDRC. So it's just a matter of keeping us informed of what you're hoping to do with your property, and we can help you through that process. Yeah, and I think it's important for folks in local historic districts that are pursuing the Bailey Bell to remember to contact us. If you're going to be doing work to your property, in addition to complying with the local district guidelines, you'll also need to comply with the Bailey Bell requirements. So just contact us, send us an email, give us a call on the phone, and let us know before we start work what you're planning on doing. This way we can make sure you're going through the right process and you continue to enjoy the benefits of the Bailey Bell. Right, and so yeah, there are rare occasions where you might make a change that would not normally be permitted and might put the Bailey Bell incentive in jeopardy. We don't want that to happen. You don't want that to happen, so yeah, just keep us informed and we can help you through the process for any changes that you might want to make. And our last question is what if I sell my house during the 20-year payment period? So good news is that the Bailey Bell stays with the property. So if you sell your property, the reduced value of your property for tax reasons will stay with the property for the remainder of 20 years. So sometimes a good selling point for people when they're selling their properties. So thanks for joining us today. We hope this video was helpful. We hope that you learned a little something. Stay tuned. We're gonna be coming out with some more videos in the near future. But if there are topics you'd like to see us cover, please feel free to email us at preservation at colombiasc.gov. And Rachel's email and my email are both included as well. So if you have questions specifically for us, please feel free to reach out. Thanks. It's been such. Thank you.