Dougherty County, GA Historic Preservation: Historic-Cultural Monuments (2026)

4 establish the Albany-Dougherty Historic Preservation Commission to protect places, districts, sites, buildings, cemeteries, structures, objects, landscape features and works of art with special historical, cultural or aesthetic value. Under § 2-12-9, a 'historic property' can be an individual building, structure, site, object or work of art, effectively covering cultural monuments and markers, not just buildings. The nine-member commission, appointed evenly by the Albany City Commission and the Dougherty County Board of Commissioners, inventories eligible resources, recommends designation of specific historic properties or districts, and reviews applications for a 'certificate of appropriateness' before any material change in appearance, including reconstruction, demolition, relocation, or a change in the location of advertising visible from the public right-of-way.

Section 2-12-11 requires a public hearing, published in three consecutive issues of the local newspaper and mailed to owners and occupants ten to twenty days beforehand, before the county or city can adopt a designation resolution. 1 requires the commission to act on a certificate-of-appropriateness application within forty-five days, treating inaction as approval, and allows appeal of a denial to the Albany City Commission or the Board of Commissioners within fifteen days. 3 lets the commission cite an owner for allowing deterioration by neglect and, after 30 days without repair, perform the work itself and bill the owner.