By the fall, a 12-block area in the northeast corner of Butler could be rezoned into the Ritts Historical and Architectural District in a grassroots effort to preserve the Victorian and colonial revival design of homes, prohibit converting houses into apartment buildings and increase property values.

About 16 residents of the neighborhood of 130 houses, bound by Ritts Park, McKean, Pearl and Elm streets, attended a meeting Wednesday in the City Building to learn about the rezoning effort.

The neighborhood contains mostly R1, R2 and R3 zones and one corner is zoned for commercial use even though houses are located there. The R1 zone permits single family homes and R2 and R3 zones allow apartments,

City Councilman Jeff Smith, who lives in the neighborhood, presented a tentative timetable in which an ordinance to rezone the entire neighborhood to R1 would be made to council in July. Council would vote to advertise the ordinance if it supports the idea.

The proposed ordinances would allow neighborhood homeowners who have apartments in their homes to keep them, but they would prohibit adding apartments or converting homes into apartment buildings,

In addition the ordinances would require an architectural review board, made up of five neighborhood residents, to approve the exterior design of major changes to properties such as building a garage, Smith said.

All exterior renovations would have to conform to the historical design of the other homes in the neighborhood. Those design standards would be established with input from residents, said Kevin Caparosa, one of the organizers of the effort. Interior renovations are not subject to the historical and architectural district ordinance.

Chuck Davey, who helped organize the effort, said most of the houses are brick, which would be changed in most renovations projects.

“This will affect the exterior, not the inside. You can’t do much with a brick house,” Davey said.

Smith said the ordinance would not require residents to change the existing appearance of their homes.

“It’s not going to change what you have. It will stop people from carving up a house,” he said.

Bill Callahan, of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, told the residents that preserving historic house designs makes neighborhoods more desirable and increases property values.

He cited the Mexican War Streets neighborhood in Pittsburgh’s North Side as an example.

He said sale prices of homes in that neighborhood are 4 percent higher than homes in surrounding neighborhoods and that difference rose to 15 percent in 2008 after the district was expanded.

“This isn’t a guess. Over the last 20-30 years these kinds of ordinance can stabilize and improve home values,” Callahan said.

The proposed ordinance would be given to the city and Butler County planning commissions for their reviews in August.

Council would introduce and hold the first reading of the proposal and schedule a hearing to accept public input in September.

In October the hearing would be held and council would vote on the ordinance. If approved, council would introduce the Ritts Historical and Architectural District ordinance and submit to the planning commission for a review.

The final vote on that ordinance would come in November, Smith said.