Downtown leaders hope a meeting tonight will help restart a project aimed at making it easier for downtown property owners to restore and maintain their historic buildings.

Downtown Lawrence Inc. will have an informational meeting about establishing the downtown area as a historic district that would be recognized by state and federal tax officials.

Local architect Stan Hernly is leading an effort to designate part of downtown Lawrence as a historic district, allowing property owners the benefit of tax incentives. Hernly discussed the issue Tuesday at the former Carnegie Library, Ninth and Vermont streets, which is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The district, if formed, would make it easier for property owners to qualify for tax credits that would offset up to 45 percent of the cost of renovating or maintaining buildings in the downtown area.

“These tax credits can be a real incentive to make projects happen,” said Stan Hernly, a Lawrence architect and member of Downtown Lawrence’s economic development board.

“I see this as a real economic development tool. We have had a lot of renovation and continue to have renovation in downtown, but as Lawrence continues to grow, we need more tools to keep downtown strong, and I think this is another one of those tools.”

The federal government has been offering its 20 percent tax credit for historic renovations since the mid-1970s, but the state only began offering its 25 percent tax credit a little more than a year ago.

Hernly said that in the past year his architecture business has seen a large increase in the number of downtown property owners interested in using the tax credits for renovation or maintenance projects. The problem, though, is since the downtown area isn’t included as part of a state historic district, it is difficult for a project to qualify for the tax credits unless it is on the National Register of Historic Places.

“The people who talk to us get all excited about the tax credits until they realize what they have to do,” Hernly said. “Basically today if you want to use the credit and your building is not listed on the National Register, you have to get it listed and that is at least a year-long process. It can be a very daunting process.”

Hernly said if downtown property owners go through the process of forming a historic district, the availability of the tax credits would increase. Basically if the district were formed, any building 50 years or older and deemed to “contribute to the historical character” of the area would automatically qualify for the tax credits.

The idea of a creating a historic district downtown has come up before. More than two years ago downtown leaders discussed the subject but the effort never moved forward, in part because some property owners feared the designation would severely limit what they were able to do with their properties.

Hernly said he hopes some of those fears have subsided. Since that discussion the city has adopted downtown design guidelines requiring almost all downtown projects to be reviewed by the city’s Historic Resources Commission.

Hernly said the historic district designation only would require one additional review, which would be conducted by the state’s historic preservation office, and only would apply to those projects seeking to use the tax credits.

Dennis Enslinger, the city’s historic resources administrator, said the creation of the district would not add many new steps for downtown projects to win approval, but would make it slightly more difficult to remove historically significant design features from downtown buildings.

The district would have to be approved by the National Park Service and the boundaries of the district would be determined at that time but could include large parts of Massachusetts Street in addition to selected areas on the side streets.