List predicts delayed demolitions

Monday, September 15, 2008

By Henry Sweets

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-Earlier this summer, Jackson decided to help developers think twice before demolishing a part of the town’s history. A map released last week designated the 40 “historically significant” buildings whose demolition would most likely be reconsidered.

A Demolition Review Ordinance, passed in July by Jackson Town Council, was described by preservationists and town officials as a way to keep track of what buildings might be demolished, and give ample time to work with the owner to move the building, preserve it or at least properly record its place in history.
The Teton County Historic Preservation Board can now review all requests for demolition permits for up to 21 days, and if they see fit, can recommend a 90-day hold on the permit to explore other options for the building.

Though it cannot keep anyone from knocking a building down, the ordinance gives town officials  the “lens of historic preservation,” as “another method of analysis” when reviewing a development proposal, said George Phocas, treasurer of the preservation board and the lawyer who wrote the ordinance.

Time will determine the efficacy of the nonbinding recommendations, but as Jackson assesses what “community character” means during its Comprehensive Plan rewrite, preservationists and officials say the map could generate community dialogue about which buildings help define the community’s character, and how they might be preserved.

Jackson Town Planner Tyler Sinclair said the ordinance and map are “a good first step,” and could be forbears to more elaborate preservation mandates in the comp plan rewrite, but that property rights must be considered if any future, more serious ordinances were created.

The ordinance is part of the town council’s initiative to “Maintain the unique character of Jackson Hole,” Phocas said. Mayor Mark Barron said that, among other things, that initiative has so far included preserving the boardwalks, maintaining the stagecoach concession on the town square and supported events like Old West Days and the town shootout, as well as keeping cigarette butts off the street. He also cited the Town Square Overlay, which is a marked area that has more guidelines controlling what type of development goes within a certain distance of the town square.

But strict guidelines about what can and can’t exist are tough to define in Jackson, because there is no one type of architecture that defines its character. Log cabins from the ‘20s, and motels built in the ‘50s are both represented on the preservation board’s list of historically significant structures.

“The freedom of expression in different architectural styles has always been a strong sentiment in this community,” Sinclair said. “I would say, in Jackson it is less about what is our community character as defined by a specific architectural genre … but what was a buildings impact on our community.”

Larry Kummer, preservation board member, said for the last 10 or more years the board has done various surveys to gather information about what people, events and architectural achievements have made a certain building significant. He said the list will significantly grow from 40. But despite his desire to preserve historic buildings where they lie, Kummer said he personally did not expect to see any future ordinances with more teeth in his lifetime in Jackson, because of the economic loss that could be incurred on investors by stricter demolition guidelines. He said  certain development tools, like the PMD, make the value of some of these historical properties too expensive to be preserved and that a certain component of the Western spirit makes it difficult to preserve here.

“The West is not easy to sell preservation in,” he said. “It’s not like out there in Gettysburg and Philadelphia … it’s a different sentiment and it’s ‘my land is my land and I can do with it what I want’ and for a lot of people who have been living [in Jackson] for a while, that home they’re sitting on is their retirement, and they don’t want anything to happen to it.”

Kummer wanted to dispel any rumors that preservation efforts would trump people’s property rights.
But he also saw evidence of hope for preservation through development projects in Jackson that razed structures, and then were stalled by pressures in lending markets.

“There might be room for historic preservation here by way of a flat economy, maybe,” he said.

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List predicts delayed demolitions | Planet JH News Article: General News

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