Titusville's New Tax Exemption for Historic Structures

Congratulations to the City of Titusville, its Historic Preservation Board and to the indefatigable Roz Foster for seeing that the city has instituted the first tax exemption program for historic structures in Brevard County!

The City of Titusville has created an ad valorem tax exemption for qualifying improvements of properties designated on Titusville's Register of Historic Places. The exemption program was adopted by City Council on January 9, 2018. They believe the program provides a positive financial incentive for local designation of historic structures; encourages rehabilitation/restoration of locally designated historic structures; stabilizes and improves property values; and improves the appearance of designated structures, revitalizing neighborhood within the City.

For more information on the program click here to view their website.

Below are some of the properties that have been added to their register in the past few years.

Funniest Legal Opinion EVER!!

So the other day one of our dedicated volunteers, Wendy Whitney of Rockledge, was going through her daily pile of old land abstracts that she is indexing for us, when she called my attention to a lawsuit included among the papers. Now, there is nothing usual about this, we quite often find lawsuits over property included among abstracts, which are meant to sum up the long and often unremarkable history of a certain piece of property. What WAS unusual is that this particular lawsuit resulted in a legal ruling that had us in stitches from its beginning to end. I don't think I have ever seen a funny legal opinion, so this one certainly takes the cake. Even more interesting is that the lawsuit was brought by Gus Edwards, certainly one of Brevard's more colorful founders, and the opinion delivered by Judge Volie Williams, obviously an equally interesting individual.

Searching thorough our photo collection I was fortunately able to find photos of both of the major players in this case and added them below for your enjoyment.

Judge Volie Williams

Gus Edwards

 

While I first thought to just abstract the funny parts of the legal opinion, I realized that it was all funny, so have added the entire ruling below. It is only four pages and I promise you well worth the read. Sorry about the quality, but it took quite a bit of effort just to get them to this point. Hope you enjoy!!