HomeMy WebLinkAboutMemo - Read Before Packet - 8/4/2020 - Memorandum From Karen Mcwilliams Re: Responses To Questions On Landmark Designations Of Housing Catalyst Properties
Community Development & Neighborhood Services
281 North College Avenue
P.O. Box 580
Fort Collins, CO 80522.0580
970.416.2740
970.224.6134- fax
fcgov.com
Planning, Development & Transportation
MEMORANDUM
Date: July 23, 2020
To: Mayor and Councilmembers
Thru: Darin Atteberry, City Manager
Kelly DiMartino, Deputy City Manager
Caryn Champine, Planning, Development & Transportation Director
Paul Sizemore, Community Development & Neighborhood Services Director
From: Karen McWilliams, Historic Preservation Manager
Re: Responses to Questions on Landmark Designations of Housing Catalyst
Properties
Introduction
This memo addresses questions raised at the July 21, 2020 City Council Meeting regarding
landmark designation and specifically the designation of three properties owned by Housing
Catalyst. In addition to staff’s response, memorandums from Housing Catalyst and the Landmark
Preservation Commission (LPC) have also been provided.
Landmark Designation and Effective Use of City Resources and the LPC
Landmark designation is a core function of the City’s historic preservation efforts, and
supports Council’s goals and major focus areas identified in the 2020 Strategic Plan:
o Affordability: Provides owners access to equitable funding opportunities for
rehabilitation and repairs; furthers options in housing regardless of income level;
o Equity, inclusion, and diversity: Recognizes important elements of Fort Collins’
history that reflect the lives and culture of all residents, past and present;
o Environmental sustainability: Recognizes that older buildings (20% of Fort
Collins’ buildings) can be made energy efficient through simple, low-cost
rehabilitation; and that their demolition contributes to the loss of embodied
energy, increased landfill waste, and financial, material and energy expenditures
for replacement buildings;
o Community vibrancy: Protects and retains aspects of our community that provide
Fort Collins with its unique character and promotes residents’ sense of
stewardship and belonging.
Landmark designation furthers the action items identified in City Plan’s Historic Resources
Preservation Program Plan and in the 2018 Historic Preservation audit, by “Encouraging the
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designation of historic properties to retain Fort Collins sense of place and to promote the
City’s social, economic and environmental sustainability goals.”
The City has adopted the U.S. Department of the Interior and National Park Service (NPS)
standards for evaluating the eligibility of properties for designation. These Standards regulate
the standards and methodology for determining historic eligibility, evaluating for
significance in one or more of four categories and for retention of integrity against seven
measures The NPS standards require that eligibility be determined by professionals whose
education and training meet federal requirements.
Prior to being presented to Council, an application for designation is first vetted by
professional staff for its ability to meet the NPS standards. Most older building do not have
the requisite levels of significance and integrity to meet the standards for individual
designation. Those that do qualify are brought to the Landmark Preservation Commission
(LPC) for its consideration. The property is then forwarded to Council with LPC’s
recommendation to approve or deny the application.
Economic studies show that historic designation is often associated with a stabilization or
increase in property values relative to comparable non-designated properties, with the
increase being more pronounced for commercial properties than residential. For example,
Clarion Associates, Inc. found that, between 1979 and 2016, the value of buildings in the Old
Town Historic District increased by 629% compared to 279% for immediately surrounding
non-designated buildings. Property values in Denver’s residential landmark districts
increased modestly (238% to 197%) or remained flat relative to non-designated areas, while
Durango saw property values in its historic residential districts rise by only 155% compared
to 199% in non-designated areas.
Housing Catalyst Properties
At Council’s August 4, 2020 meetings, staff is bringing forward for consideration on Second
Reading the landmark designation of three properties, 331 S. Loomis Street, 1016-1018
Morgan Street, and 228 Whedbee Street. As with virtually all designations, these are
voluntary requests by Housing Catalyst. The properties are unusual in that they are subject to
federal oversight due to Housing Catalyst’s relationship with the Department of Housing and
Urban Development.
The primary motivation for designation of the three properties is to meet Housing Catalyst’s
federal Section 18 requirements for continued protection of the properties following sale:
o Landmark designation will maintain the properties’ eligibility for National
Register listing; and will mitigate any adverse effects of their sale by ensuring that
they continue to receive protection from alterations that do not meet the federal
Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Historic Properties, adopted by Council
as the City’s standards.
o A benefit of Landmark designation of these properties is that it furthers Housing
Catalyst’s interest in ensuring that the new owners have access to financial
programs to help fund sustainable rehabilitation and repairs.
These three properties are not part of the City’s current Historic Survey Project for
proactively identifying eligible properties. As part of the Section 18 review of the sale,
Housing Catalyst contracted with a professional consulting firm to survey and assess the
historic eligibility of all 44 properties, of which these three were identified as significant. The
properties’ eligibility was confirmed by the State Historic Preservation Office.
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If Council chooses to not designate the properties, Housing Authority and the State Historic
Preservation Office will enter into a process to identify an alternative strategy to maintain the
properties’ eligibility following their sale and protect them from inappropriate alterations in
the future. This will delay Housing Catalyst’s sale.
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