On June 6, The Sun published a column by Pete Koutoulas regarding the ways in which local ordinances impact and guide the development of our community and every community.

Pete’s column was insightful, timely and, most of all, right on point.

His reference for the column came from Jeff Siegler, writing on revitalizeordie.com, a site with numerous articles related to maintaining and growing the vitality of small town America. This is a web site which should be visited by every city official and development-conscious individual who cares about their community.

Face it. The downtown is still, regardless of what its condition may be, the heart of a community, whether it’s here in Winchester or Richmond or Paris or Mount Sterling or any other small town in Kentucky or elsewhere.

All small towns face similar problems: absentee landlords, lack of upkeep, exodus of business, turnover, slack maintenance, lax enforcement of codes and ordinances and vision.

Main Street Winchester, formerly Winchester First, has, for 23 years, been working to improve and promote downtown, and has been successful on many fronts.

The organization has been supported well by local government, the Chamber of Commerce, the industrial authority and the Downtown Business Association, support which has assured those successes.

The Historic Preservation Commission has worked tirelessly to provide sense and purpose to the maintenance of the fabric which defines downtown.

Maintaining older buildings, especially those which mark downtowns, is a continuous undertaking. Often if a building has been vacated and awaiting a new tenant, it is faced with the issue of being renovated to comply with current building codes. These older buildings, most of them multi-story, usually require sprinkler systems which are expensive.

Wiring, plumbing, mechanical systems and roofs are often in questionable condition. Accessibility for physically challenged individuals is frequently an additional consideration.

But, as Mr. Siegler and Mr. Koutoulas point out, the relaxation of codes and ordinances for these types of buildings is not the way to foster growth and perpetuity in downtowns.

Effective and fair building codes ensure safety for tenants and customers as well as continuity and consistency for owners.

No owner – or tenant – relishes the prospect of lax controls which may result in the next door or nearby property falling into disrepair, affecting their property values.

Sure, codes may result in costs to the property. Some of those codes are state-mandated and cannot be abridged at the local level anyway, but local government should not make the error of liberalizing its codes under the mistaken notion doing so will result in a revitalization of the downtown area.

As Siegler states in his article, such an approach has never paid off and never will, and a glimpse at the history of such actions clearly shows this to be true.

One additional issue that Winchester, in particular, should look at is some minimum design guidelines for the area bordering the downtown historic district.

Otherwise, Winchester may continue to see any new construction limited to bland concrete block structures and cookie-cutter buildings.

Chuck Witt is a retired architect and a lifelong resident of Winchester. He can be reached at chuck740@bellsouth.net.