Mr. Mark Yaravitz stated he read the report from the former Director as well as the letter from the State Historic Preservation Office and stated these buildings are noncontributing buildings and asked when or how does the owner of the property get notified that their properties have become contributing properties versus what they thought it always was. Mr. Yaravitz stated SHPO mentions that the properties are considered Historic and have been identified as contributing and added he would like to know how that happens.
Chairman Palacios explained that the State has one map or one zone for Taos that was done in the fifties and the Town has a larger zone that the Town calls the Historic Overlay Zone and the buildings are in that zone and when the studies were done for the State they had two classifications to buildings in their parcel, one was called significant and one was called contributing. Chairman Palacios stated these buildings are in the Towns Historic Overlay Zone which makes them significant, they are old buildings that need to be preserved and the Commissions has already told the property owner they want to save them and the property owner is neglecting them.
Commissioner Choma stated at the end of the last meeting the Commission stated they wanted to know how the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) feels about the demolition of these buildings. Commissioner Choma read a section from the letter from SHPO.
A discussion ensued between the Commission, the applicant and staff concerning the preservation, protection and maintenance of these two buildings.
The concerns the Commission had were the previous conditions they placed on the buildings to preserve, protect and maintain the two buildings.
Mr. Yaravitz stated the project that the conditions were placed on is now void.
Chairman Palacios read from Title 16.16.220.7 Preservation Requirements where it states all owners of properties within a historic overlay zone shall be responsible for the preservation and maintenance of all buildings and structures on their property to prevent decay and deterioration. Chairman Palacios continued to read from the code and added he finds the applicant negligent of the first five items.
Mr. Bellis stated that he was hoping and believed there might be an area for compromise that may preserve one or both of the buildings to re-purpose them.
Chairman Palacios asked the applicant to state their intent for the property.
Mr. Yaravitz stated the intent would be to redesign and resubmit an application for an apartment complex beyond those first two buildings.
The Commissioners asked Mr. Yaravitz to show them site plans with both buildings intact, a site plan with only one building and a site plan without both buildings.
Chairman Palacios opened the Public Hearing.
Those in attendance to speak were:
John Durham stated he is speaking as a citizen and not as a Planning and Zoning Commissioner. Mr. Durham stated he takes this very seriously and does not live in the Town but every day when he approaches the town from the north he enjoys that incredible street scape that we have with all the adobes along Paseo del Pueblo Norte. Mr. Durham stated the structures themselves may not be significant, they make a major contribution but they are an incremental part of the whole. Mr. Durham stated he heard a few things tonight that pleased him, the staff are against the demolition, the Historic Preservation Commission are leaning towards denial of the request, there is a letter from the State Historic Preservation Office recommending denial and he thinks they are going to hear from other people from the Community that don't want to see these buildings demolished. Mr. Durham stated he is very much in favor of down town housing, that is not the issue, but is asking that the applicant be creative with those two structures, he is very much against the demolition of those two buildings.
Lawrence Baker stated she knows there are a lot of people in attendance that are against the demolition and she was prepared to read statements and added she will not read them since it is clear where this is all going. Ms. Baker stated the old building should stay and for the new project, the new building, she would like to urge the developers to place a nice green buffer between the existing buildings and what is going to go behind. She thinks that the owners should immediately rehab these buildings in some way so they don't deteriorate more.
Karen Chertok provided some information for the owners concerning grants for historic properties and added she has been speaking to people about the properties. Her goal was to speak to five people a day and the people she spoke to are against the demolition. Ms. Tarotoc stated she can write a federal grant and added there are people that would like to work on a project like this. She has talked to about 50 people and they are appalled by the request to demolish the buildings.
Stephen Kilborn is against the demolition and he doesn't understand why the discussion got off to other plans he thought the purpose was to discuss whether these building were going to be demolished or not. He doesn't think all this discussion was necessary.
Mr. Yaravitz stated his discussion with Mr. Tarleton is they would like to withdraw the application.
Chairman Palacios stated he thinks these buildings are irreplaceable. |