Monuments bill could hurt economic development efforts

A bill aimed at protecting Alabama’s historic monuments, including those honoring the Confederacy, came out of committee in an altered form Thursday. Some officials feared that new version could hurt economic development in the state's cities.

The legislation, sponsored by Sen. Gerald Allen, R-Tuscaloosa, prevents cities and local governments from removing or altering monuments and “architecturally significant buildings” more than 40 years old. It also requires cities to get a waiver to do so for monuments between the ages of 20 and 40 years.

“It’s very important that we address this issue and protect the history that’s made us who we are as a state and a country and the role our state played in the formation of this nation,” Allen said after the Senate approved a conference committee report on the measure Thursday.

But the broad definitions and what critics called conflicting language in the bill drew concerns from some legislators, who said it could throw redevelopment efforts into a legally gray area.

“All cities have structures 40 years or older,” said Sen. Vivian Davis Figures, D-Mobile. “I’m not so sure people understand what all that language means. As I read parts of it, it was a little conflicting, from one section to another.”

The compromise measure awaited approval in the House as of early Wednesday afternoon. The new legislation stripped out changes approved by the House of Representatives last month, including one that opened a loophole for cities to take down monuments.

Allen filed the bill at the beginning of 2016, a few months after governments around the South began removing Confederate symbols and monuments after the massacre at Emmanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., where a white supremacist shot and killed nine people, all black.

Following the attack, Gov. Robert Bentley ordered the removal of Confederate flags from a memorial outside the State Capitol, while legislative leaders removed the flags from the Old House and Senate chambers in the Capitol. Birmingham officials made moves to take down a Confederate monument in Linn Park in that city, but the effort stalled after an unsuccessful lawsuit brought by a group called Save Our South. Allen has denied the bill aimed to protect Confederate monuments.

The bill that got to the Senate floor Thursday would protect those monuments and many, many other buildings. Unlike earlier versions, the bill completely bans the removal or alteration of historic monuments and “architecturally significant buildings” 40 years or older. Governments that wanted to remove or alter buildings and monuments between 20 and 40 years old would have to apply for a waiver from a newly-formed Committee on Alabama Monument Preservation.

Critics said the definition of an “architecturally significant building” – described in the bill as “a building located on public property that by its very nature, inherent design, or structure constitutes a monument” – was so broad that it could staunch economic development.

“The Chamber thinks this bill, regardless of its intent, is an overreach of government,” said Beth Marietta Lyons, government affairs director for the Mobile Chamber of Commerce.

Allen said the bill would not prevent cities from basic structural repairs on public buildings.

“Painting, making sure that the building is structurally sound, but changing the outside appearance of a building, the architecture or design of a building is what it’s thinking of,” he said.

But Figures said she would have preferred the Senate send the bill back to conference to address those issues.

“When we write legislation, we should make sure it’s clear and not open to varying interpretations,” she said.