Rochester resident Alex Ball didn’t have to look far to make his case that redevelopment pressures have started to creep in on some of the city’s oldest neighborhoods.

Ball, who spoke in favor Wednesday night of a proposed landmark district for the city’s storied Pill Hill area, pointed to the recent sale of a 106-year-old property just outside the neighborhood’s boundaries.

The former home of a Rochester mayor, now being used as a 10-room boarding house, sold last month for $1.4 million — with plans for a 12-story, 360-unit apartment complex to be built in its place.

“This sale is a stark reminder that once those structures are gone, they will be gone forever,” Ball said during a public hearing before the Rochester City Council.

Ball’s Pill Hill home is one of about 130 properties in the neighborhood — known as much for its Colonial and Tudor revival architecture as its famous past inhabitants, including Mayo’s founders — that will soon be insulated from those pressures after the City Council voted unanimously Wednesday to establish a historic district for the neighborhood.

The vote followed more than a year of campaigning by Pill Hill residents, more than a half dozen of whom showed up at City Hall to support the proposal. Many of the neighbors, including Ball, cited Rochester’s poor track record of preserving historic structures as motivation for seeking local landmark designation.

“Pill Hill is unique in a city that in the name of rapid growth has erased much of its history,” Ball said. “Past expansions may have been necessary, but unchecked development does not need nor should need be an indefinite course we continue to follow without reason.”

While the historic designation does not limit what homeowners can do inside contributing properties, any major exterior renovations or demolition will be subject to review by the city’s Heritage Preservation Commission. If disagreements emerge, the request would go to the City Council for a public hearing.

Martha Grogan, who helped lead the charge for a historic designation, said the protections have been met with overwhelmingly positive feedback from neighbors, many of whom sought out Pill Hill for its historical character and walkable streets.

“Most people, when they hear what the property restrictions are, are willing to accept them for the goal of preserving these historic structures and the good for generations to come,” Grogan said.

The establishment of the district, however, was met with pushback from one property owner who argued it could present challenges to her plans to redevelop the site for affordable housing.

That property is one of 20 “noncontributing” sites in the district that are not subject to the same level of review as landmark properties. Still, any new structures built on the properties have to follow design guidelines aimed at preserving the integrity of the neighborhood.

“No one famous has ever lived there; it was built in 1955,” said Renee Rice, who requested the council remove her property from the district’s boundaries. “We have made a lot of headway, and I do fear that this process will make that more difficult in adding more steps to the process.”

Council Member Nick Miller, whose Ward 2 includes Pill Hill, proposed an amendment to remove several noncontributing properties, including Rice’s, from the boundaries. However, the amendment was defeated by a 4-3 vote, with the majority supporting the original boundaries the neighborhood favors.

“We have lots of room in this great community for high-density housing,” said Council Member Andy Friederichs, in opposing the amendment. “Pill Hill is not an area for it.”

With deep links to Mayo Clinic’s early development, Pill Hill stands as Rochester’s most storied neighborhood. Original occupants include Mayo’s founders, two Nobel Prize winners and numerous other leading figures in medicine.

It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1990, though the designation is mostly honorary and offers little protection from redevelopment.