Downtown Commission reviews plan for equitable historic preservation

Members of the Downtown Commission debated and mostly praised the draft version of the city’s Equity-Based Preservation Plan, which is open for public feedback through the end of May.

At last week’s meeting, the commission looked beyond the scope of the downtown core to express concerns and hopes related to the plan, which is intended to balance the need for more housing and prevent displacement with the goal of preserving historic structures in a fast-growing city.

The plan, which has over 100 recommendations, was crafted over two years and addresses the priorities for preservation, which bodies and departments are most involved in preservation efforts, and how to simplify and streamline the preservation process.

One of the first questions from the commission concerned how to assist property owners or new developers who wish to replace a deteriorated structure but learn during the demolition approval process that the structure is potentially historic and barred from demolition.

“They’ve had engineers go in that say, this is not even salvageable. They try to get a demolition permit to scrape the property, and then the city stops them and says, this is historic or potentially historic,” Commissioner Ralph Ishmael said. “In those instances, why has there never been funds available for the city to step in prior to these structures falling down? It just seems unfair to me that neither the family nor the community nor the city bothered to try to take care of these houses.”

Cara Bertron, historic preservation officer for the city, said the plan includes a goal for the Law Department and other city bodies to adjust the rules regarding instances of demolition by neglect, and finding funding sources to assist in the rehabilitation of historic properties for owners who can’t afford to retain ownership.

Another concern was over the incentives for historic preservation included in the recent HOME initiative to encourage density. Commissioner Liz Coufal worried that longtime homeowners in East Austin with historic homes would have high costs and face a lengthy waiting period to take advantage of the ability to add more residences onto their lots.

JuanRaymon Rubio, a member of Historic Landmark Commission who has contributed to the plan, said those considerations are being discussed for further revisions to the land code tied to the HOME initiative.

“Some felt that the preservation bonus didn’t do enough to help citizens be able to do that with the (accessory dwelling unit). If I’ve been in the east side of Austin for generations and my family has never gotten those loans because of redlining districts, then how am I as a third-generation Austinite gonna get that loan if I don’t have the credit and I don’t have the equity to do that?” he said. “A lot of organizations were asking … now can you create a mechanism for us to get loans so that we can enter into agreements and easily educate us how do we do that so that someone can build it in the back of our house?”

Chair August Harris noted the importance of the recommendation to hire an archaeologist who would be available to step in when demolition and redevelopment efforts lead to the discovery of historically important artifacts that need to be protected. Harris pointed to incidents like the destruction of Native American middens discovered during the construction of a trail along Walnut Creek as an example of what the city should avoid going forward.

“That resource is now gone forever and the ability to tell the story of the people that lived along Walnut Creek, that’s gone because the city didn’t have an archaeologist, and (Austin Transportation Department) was in a hurry to build their trail. There are sites like that all over Austin and Travis County,” Harris said.

“If we have resources for an archaeologist and we’re cognizant of that process going forward, we might not lose some of the few bits that are left.”

Photo made available through a Creative Commons license.

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