The owner of one of Washington’s most historic houses wants the city council to consider the affects of possibly allowing a house near his home to be converted into a multifamily dwelling (boarding house).

Don Stroud, who lives at 127 E. Second St., is schedule to address the matter during the City Council’s meeting Monday. He wants the city to place a moratorium on subdividing a single-family residence into a multifamily dwelling in the B1H (central business district) zoning district. Currently, the city’s zoning ordinances prohibit converting existing single-family houses in the residential historic district into a two-family or multifamily dwelling.

Stroud appeared before the council’s Sept. 14 meeting and asked to be placed on the agenda for the council’s meeting Monday so he could further discuss the matter. Stroud, an attorney, is a former chairman of the city’s Historic Preservation Commission and current president of the Washington Area Historic Foundation. At the Sept. 14 meeting, he expressed general concerns regarding converting single-family houses at 121 E Second St. in the B1H district into multifamily dwellings. That house was sold to California-based McLean Investment Co. LLC on Aug. 28 for $171,000, according to Beaufort County deed records and other real-estate transaction records.

“They have submitted building plans to install 11 separate apartments. That home was built as a single-family residence. It is a significant contributing structure in the historic district,” Stroud said. “There is not adequate parking in the neighborhood as it is with the downtown merchants, the City Hall traffic and the church traffic. There’s just not enough parking there. If you have 11 apartments in that building, it’s just too dense.”

Stroud hopes city officials will understand his opposition.

“The City Council saw the wisdom, several years ago, of banning the conversion of single-family residences in the historic district into multifamily dwellings. That’s already in the ordinance. That same logic ought to apply to buildings constructed as single-family residences in the B1H district,” Stroud said.

The city’s zoning regulations note that the B1H district is “primarily designed to provide convenient shopping and service facilities by promoting compact development of commercial, office, and service uses while preserving the historic character of the district.”

In 2003, Kevin Clancy, representing KARC Enterprises, met with the Historic Preservation Commission to discuss plans to convert the house just west of Stroud’s home into a hospice home. That proposal never reached fruition.

The council meets at 5:30 p.m. Monday in the Council Chambers in the Municipal Building, 102 E. Second St. To view the council’s agenda for a specific meeting, visit the city’s web­site at www.washingtonnc.gov, click “Government” then “City Council” heading, then click “Meeting Agendas” on the menu to the right. Then click on the date for the appropriate agenda.