HomeMy WebLinkAboutRIGDEN FARM, PHASE 1 - PDP - 56-98C - CORRESPONDENCE - HISTORIC PRESERVATIONfinal approval on the intersection improvements will be delayed. Should you decide to
wait for the city to initiate the intersection improvements, you may be waiting in excess
of a year for its final approval.
Please direct any further correspondence on this issue to Karen McWilliams rather than to
me, as she is the Historic Preservation staff liaison for the project.
JYours truly,
1( 1'
1Trdy Jones
Project Planner
Commu..AEy Planning and Environmental vices
Current Planning
City of Fort Collins
Dave Pietenpol February 5, 1999
Wheeler Commercial
1027 W. Horsetooth Road, Suite 200
Fort Collins, CO 80526
Dave,
This letter is to clarify the Landmark Preservation Commission's stance on the Johnson
Farm historic site. In talking with Karen McWilliams about your January 27th letter, she
pointed out that the LPC has neither rejected nor approved your development team's
proposal. They have not ruled out the possibility (as you proposed) of moving the
structures to the Neighborhood Center location; however, the Commission does not feel
they have sufficient information, including other alternatives, to choose from. The
Commission is concerned that the current proposal, to relocate the buildings to a
neighborhood center in the midst of the new development, does not fit the intent of the
Land Use Code as it relates to historic preservation.
When this topic was last presented to the LPC on November 18, 1998, several
Commission members requested that your team explore relocating the buildings back a
short distance on the same corner site, and adaptively reusing them, possibly in an office
complex. From conversations with Scott Griffin, Karen also understood that Wheeler
intended to hire an outside preservation design firm to study alternatives. The
Commission would appreciate the opportunity to see and comment on these and any other
alternatives.
,(Because this historic site is affected by the intersection, and because the intersection
approval must happen prior to the first phase PDP approval, you now have two directions
you could go. First, you could wait until the city is ready to make the improvements, at
which point Matt Baker would coordinate with the LPC on the Johnson Farm, or second,
you could speed up the process by working with the LPC to design one or more
alternatives that they can support. Keep in mind that this issue is more complicated than
whether or not the historic buildings are to be moved to your neighborhood center. The
issue is that until an appropriate new location and adaptive reuse can be worked out, the
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