St. Paul’s Department of Planning and Economic Development will drop a bid to update the city’s historic preservation ordinance in a way that called for expanding the Historic Preservation Commission’s authority over property owners.

Under the proposed changes, the 12-member commission — whose members are appointed by the mayor — would have increased authority to require owners of historic properties maintain them or face potential penalties.

The proposed changes also would have imposed a $500 fee for reviews before St. Paul’s Heritage Preservation Commission, and they called for shifting jurisdiction over the environmental assessment worksheet process from the city’s planning and economic development department to the Heritage Preservation Commission.

“Over the past several weeks, City staff have listened to feedback from residents, much of which was focused on improving our design review processes,” said DPED director Bruce Corrie said in a statement. “As a result, we are suspending our efforts to update the Legislative Code Chapter 73 so that we can focusing on clarifying and expediting the design review process. The proposed updates were never meant to unjustly burden our residents of historic districts but instead offer an opportunity to reexamine our policies and workflow so we can provide more clarity and efficient service to property owners.”

The move to drop the proposal was announced in advance of Thursday evening’s Historic Preservation Commission meeting.