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Monday, September 13, 2004

By Victoria Leon Guerrero

City planners are proposing new regulations to protect Portland's historic architectural gems from the wrecking balls of change.

The regulations would allow the city to stop the demolition of buildings on the National Register of Historic Places and some structures in historic districts listed on the national register. Also proposed are incentives to help property owners find ways to preserve these historically significant buildings.

Although the city boasts a large stock of historic resources, many of its prized properties -- such as the former Portland Hotel on the block that is now Pioneer Courthouse Square and the stately cast-iron buildings that once existed around the Skidmore Fountain in Old Town -- have been torn down.

"Portland would infinitely be a better city if they were here today," said Bill Hawkins, an architect and co-author of a book that details the history of Portland's greatest houses and buildings. "We would have absolutely first-rate pieces of architecture in our city with as much quality as the Pioneer Courthouse."

Most of the city's historic structures were destroyed decades ago, but seven national register buildings have been demolished since 1996. City planners say these buildings could have been saved if Portland had demolition-review regulations now used by at least 274 jurisdictions nationwide.

The Bureau of Planning proposals, which have been years in the making, may rankle some property owners. Opponents and supporters can testify at a Portland City Council hearing Wednesday, September 22, when the council will consider amendments to the Historic Resources Code.

A person priority

Mayor Vera Katz says that saving Portland's historic resources from demolition has been a personal priority since she took office almost 12 years ago.

"It is an important part of my values," said Katz, who pushed for the proposed amendments. "I told myself that as long as I was mayor, history would be maintained."

Katz would have loved to have prevented the demolition of Portland's historic resources while in office, she said. But the city doesn't have the authority to deny demolition permits in most cases.

Historic resources are in danger of being torn down in every city, Katz said, and there wasn't a particular demolition in Portland that inspired the proposed regulations.

Katz anticipated that the recent recession would increase pressures to demolish more of Portland's old buildings. She noted that a proposal to create midtown park blocks between the North and South Park Blocks would require demolition of historically significant buildings.

The City Council asked the Bureau of Planning to propose amendments to the Historic Resources Code four years ago. The first phase of the project, completed in 2002, amended the code so it conformed with state preservation law.

The second phase includes amendments that were generated by the bureau and by an advisory group appointed by the mayor, and made up of property owners, developers, public agencies and other interested parties. The amendments propose broadening the city's authority to review demolition proposals and to give owners more incentives to preserve and reuse historic resources.

The amendments "will increase the possibility that these resources will be saved and not demolished without people understanding their true value," said John Czarnecki, chairman of the Portland Historic Landmarks Commission.

Demolition review

Currently, demolition of historic resources can be delayed but not denied unless property owners have signed a special covenant with the city.

Under the proposals, the City Council could either approve outright, approve with conditions or deny a demolition request for the 481 buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the 1,342 structures in historic districts listed on the national register, said city planner Nicholas Starin.

"It's not a demolition denial, it's a demolition review to make sure that serious options for rehabilitation, relocation and refinancing are looked at before destroying a historic building," Starin said.

According to the proposed amendments, demolition of a building may be approved if a property owner can show that the merits of demolition, coupled with the merits of development on the site, outweigh the merits of preserving the building. The proposals also would grant demolition if not doing so would deprive the property owner of all reasonable economic use of the site.

The Rev. Rex Loy, minister of First Christian Church in downtown Portland, said he does not support eh changes. The church owns the historic Ladd Carriage House on Southwest Columbia at Broadway. The building, which is on the national register, was built in the late 1800s by businessman and one-time Mayor William Ladd as part of a larger estate.

Church members have discussed tearing down the carriage house, now used for offices, to build a parking structure to accommodate a larger congregation. No decisions about the property have been made, Loy said.

If the church does decide to demolish the building, Loy said the city should not have the right to deny that option.

"I would be opposed because if takes away our rights as property owners," he said.

Art DeMuro, a real estate developer who sat on the mayor's advisory group for this project, said the regulations are not intended to hinder an owner's ability to make a profit. "The process is designed so that if yo have a lovely historic building and you really try to save it, but you cannot make a fair profit, then you are entitled to tear it down -- denial is not meant to trump entrepreneurship or fair profit."

The proposed amendments include zoning and building code changes and financial incentives to help property owners find alternatives to tearing down buildings.

Included in the incentives are increased parking for historic properties, exemption from all minimum housing-density requirements and revisions to seismic upgrade provisions.

Also proposed are amendments to the Portland Development Commissions seismic loan program and development opportunities services program, which provides seed money and technical assistance in evaluating development projects. These incentives will make owners of national-register historic buildings eligible for more financial assistance.

A proposed incentive that would allow non industrial use of historic buildings within industrial zones in the central city could help DeMuro save a historic building.

DeMuro, president of Venerable Group, Inc., owns the Rhodes Bakery Equipment building in Northeast Portland.

The building used to belong to the Northwest Fence and Wire Co. and was significant in the early 20th century. He will nominate the building to be on the National Register of Historic Places and hopes the proposed incentive would allow him to use the industrial space for office lofts.

"The incentives package is meaty," DeMuro said. "It encourages us to do the research, and thereby discover hidden significance in a building that we would have never known of."

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