Downtown Pembroke may be on its way to a facelift thanks to a decision at Monday night’s City Council meeting.

The council members approved a set of design guidelines recommended by the Downtown Development Authority. These guidelines will be required of any future business that opens in the historic district of Pembroke, and current businesses are being asked to comply with these new guidelines as well.

“We’ve put together a list of design guidelines to preserve our historic district in downtown,” council member and DDA Chairman Tiffany Walraven told the council. “This prevents buildings from being painted odd colors like pink, and this prevents the destruction of the brickwork and mason work.”

Walraven also said all repairs and renovations within the historic district will have to meet the new rules. Business owners will soon have a color scheme to go by, and paint maker Valspar is currently working on color chips with formulas to be presented to all businesses in the district, she said.

Read more in the June 11 edition of the News.