Mansfield Struggling to Hang Onto Historic Downtown
Residents, city officials and council members are fighting to have historic downtown Mansfield, Texas revitalized. This years-old battle has been taking place each year in the city council meetings and every year business owners along Main Street ask for additional parking spaces.
Many of Mansfield's building owners complain that they pay too much to maintain their century-old buildings to keep current with the new codes. Recently the council passed an ordinance that lowers the number of improvements that must be done by these building owners in order to earn a tax reduction. This came as great news because the threshold dropped by $15,000.
Mansfield consists of a very historic downtown area. The Historical Society has its home there as does a nearly 100 year old theater and the oldest newspaper in the county and this history is what makes Mansfield different from many other cities in Texas.
Residents are proud of the charming downtown area and say that many visitors are drawn here because of the historical significance it offers. The annually-held Arts Festival and Music Festival both do a good job of drawing crowds to this Texas city and it is everyone's vision for the downtown area to be vibrant and one that supports itself as well as the entire city.
The trouble most building owners face is when they wish to alter the use of their stores as it is hard to comply with the modern building codes. As it is now, it is easy to operate a retail store out of any of the downtown businesses as they must have both a front and back door, which most of the buildings do. That can’t be said of Mansfield Texas real estate.
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