Archives & Architecture

SPUR commented this last month on the draft EIR for the Diridon Station Area Plan prepared by the City of San Jose. Their support letter brought up a number of issues on how area planning like this should move forward

SPUR supports the broad outlines of the City of San Jose’s draft Diridon Station Area Plan. This area is an opportunity to implement the vision and policies set forth in the city’s Envision 2040 General Plan, including strengthening and expanding downtown and achieving the ambitious target to grow walking, cycling, transit and carpools to 60% of all commute trips. It is also an area of regional and statewide significance given the projected transit investment. Of primary importance is ensuring significant and high-quality development in the station area to achieve high transit ridership while successfully implementing the placemaking and transportation policies discussed in the plan.

Read the whole letter here.

Of particular interest to those involved in the Cultural Resources field are their comments on Land Use and Cultural Resources (2 sections below). They succinctly state that “building on existing urban fabric, not entirely replacing it, enhances the authenticity of place.”

There should be greater protection of historic resources, particularly pre WWII
housing north of the station area. In Impact CUL-1, the DPEIR notes that “The
DSAP would make a cumulatively considerable contribution to previously
identified significant impacts to historic resources.” Greater attention should be
placed on enabling development in such a way that preserves the existing street
fabric and historic structures. We do not think that there is enough information to
evaluate the cumulative impact of the loss of these resources. In particular, the
Northern Innovation zone includes several blocks of pre-WWII housing on
Autumn Street and Autumn Court that should be kept as part of the fabric and
history of the area. To treat this area as simply an opportunity site to wipe clean
misses part of its unique selling point — its history. We do not support the extent
to which the DSAP and DPEIR assume total loss of those resources and
recommend that the city assume retention of as much of the existing fabric and
historic buildings as possible. We recognize that part of the challenge lies in
CEQA where Structures of Merit are not considered significant resources for the
purposes of CEQA, even though they “contribute to the historic fabric of the
city.”
• The DPEIR does not properly analyze the need for the realignment project to
also remove the existing buildings east of Autumn Street towards Los Gatos
Creek. As stated earlier, there is no reference to existing structures that would
need to be removed in this area.

An article March 10, 2014 in the Monterey County Herald about the Golden State Theater states that the property is going into escrow (click on the thumbnail below to view the article). The prospective owners are Eric and Lori Lochtefeld, who have also owned the Fox in Redwood City since 2010. They hope to turn the Golden State into a performance venue. This is great news, as older theater buildings continue to have reuse issues that limit their ongoing viability. As more and more of these are returned to active uses, it encourages more owners to try  adaptive reuse of their underutilized buildings. 

http://www.montereyherald.com/news/ci_25314092/golden-state-theatre-escrow-prospective-buyers-are-bay

NBC Bay Area news 3/4/2014 continues the public discussion on the fate of the Century Theaters near the Winchester Mystery House, with San Jose Councilmember Pete Constant going public with his position in favor of demolition.

 

 
The San Jose Historic Landmarks Commission will be considering the National Register nomination for Century 21 next Tuesday 3/11/2014 at 6:00 p.m. at City Hall. Archives & Architecture was retained by the City of San Jose to prepare an independent analysis of the nomination that was submitted by Docomomo/NOCA. Both reports, and the property owners objections can be read at this link.

The California Office of Historic Preservation has just posted online our nomination of Mission Soledad to the National Register of Historic Places. The State Historical Resources Commission will be hearing the nomination on April 22 at their meeting at Asilomar before being forwarded to the Keeper in Washington D.C.
Click here to view the pdf.

County Assessor Larry Stone has announced that his office will be holding a Mills Act workshop on March 20, 2014 at 5:15 in the Board Chambers at the County Administration Building on Hedding Street, San Jose. His words are below:

I write to inform you of an invitation I received from the Santa Clara County Historical Heritage Commission for my office to provide a workshop on the Mills Act, which provides property tax relief to encourage the preservation of qualifying historical properties.  The hour-long workshop is scheduled for Thursday, March 20, 2014 at 5:15 PM in the Santa Clara County Board Chambers, 70 W. Hedding Street, San Jose.

 

In addition to my brief remarks, Senior Appraiser Vickie Lopez will lead a detailed PowerPoint presentation followed by questions from the audience.  Her presentation will cover several topics as they relate to valuation of Mills Act properties:

·         Assessor’s role in valuing annual assessments for Mills Act participants

·         Benefits to property owners

·         Benefits to local municipalities

·         Valuation process of the Mills Act with examples

·         State regulations governing valuations of Mills Act properties

·         Examples of how the tax incentive values are calculated

 

Since Mills Act contracts are between the local jurisdiction and the property, this presentation will not cover the process of entering into Mills Act contract and is geared more toward policymakers and administrators. 

 

As someone who has worked on these issues in your community I wanted to extend an invitation to you to attend this workshop.  In addition, I encourage you to forward this invitation to others you think may be interested.  While you do not need to RSVP to attend, we would appreciate knowing in advance if you are attending so that we may know how many hand-outs to prepare.

 

Please RSVP to Debra Lee at debra.lee@asr.sccgov.org.  As always, if you have specific assessment-related questions about the Mill’s Act, please email Vickie Lopez (vickie.lopez@asr.sccgov.org).

 

Sincerely,

 

 

Lawrence E. Stone

Assessor

The 39th annual California Preservation Foundation Conference is now open for registration. To be held at Asilomar, Pacific Grove, from April 22025, 2014, the conference this year is titled Redefining Preservation: Dialogues and Directions in Cultural Heritage.  We will be updating this topic page with hot topics for workshops as we learn more.