Historic Preservation Trust Fund - Press Conference Tomorrow, May 18th

[Miss Fixit]

The following email from Wayne Wood, founder of Riverside-Avondale Preservation, is circulating to various preservation groups in town.  This is an important issue - if you are able, PLEASE come out to help fight City Council President Clark's outrageous proposal to use Historic Preservation Trust Fund monies to build a parking lot.

Dear Friends of Preservation --


As you have likely heard, a bill is moving through City Council that will wipe out the Historic Preservation Trust Fund, in order to build a parking lot for the Landing.


As if this were not absurd enough, JEDC has a strong prospective buyer for the Laura Street Trio, the three most significant endangered buildings in downtown. The $3.2 million in the trust fund is crucial to making that deal work.


The Trust Fund was established in 2002, the result of a 6-month Historic Preservation Task Force involving over 100 people. It was the centerpiece of Matt Carlucci's term as City Council President. Ironically, this new bill (which the Times-Union aptly called a "raid of the historic building trust fund") was introduced by the current City Council President, Richard Clark.


This is a bad bill and a bad precedent, which will put a dagger in the heart of efforts to pump new life into our historic downtown and its landmark buildings.


Therefore, a press conference has been called by members of the preservation community to protest and stand against this outrageous ordinance, to be sure it is defeated by the City Council. This press conference is scheduled for tomorrow, Tuesday, May 18th, at 12:00 noon in front of City Hall/The St. James Building.


I know it is short notice, but please make every effort to be there and stand with us against this misguided attack on our historic preservation efforts. A large crowd will send an important message. Please forward this to others and urge them to attend.


Also, there are two City Council Committee meetings which are taking up this bill. The Finance Committee meets today (Monday) at 2:00. The Recreation Committee meets tomorrow (Tuesday) at 2:00. Please attend these meetings also and speak out.   Note: Matt Carlucci requested that these meetings be deferred, since he is out of town this week and wanted to speak against the bill. Matt told me that he called President Clark last Friday, and Clark told him that he would not defer the bill, then hung up on him.


Nonetheless, if you plan to attend either of these two committee meetings, please double-check the agenda to make sure has not been postponed at the last minute.


The press conference will go on, even in the unlikely event the bill is deferred.


Please let me know if you can be there.

Thanks!


Wayne

[nvrenuf]

Why does this city have such difficulty in understanding Historic Preservation? Reminds me of Joni Mitchell "they paved paradise and put up a parking lot". Just what we DON'T need, another empty lot downtown. There is plenty of parking for the Landing, people just have to understand that they may have to walk a block or two.

[Captain Zissou]

We need both of these projects, and there is money for both, but we need to prioritize how we spend our money.  

ROI for Laura Trio= Immense.  
ROI for Landing Parking= Huge.  
ROI for Metpark landscaping= Close to Nil.

Let's not handicap or kill our great projects in favor of nonsensical ones that won't benefit the core for years.

[thelakelander]

Why does this city have such difficulty in understanding Historic Preservation? Reminds me of Joni Mitchell "they paved paradise and put up a parking lot". Just what we DON'T need, another empty lot downtown. There is plenty of parking for the Landing, people just have to understand that they may have to walk a block or two.

The Landing needs dedicated parking to attract first tier anchor tenants.  I hate that this is shaping up to become an argument over preservation vs. the Landing. In reality, we need both.  Here is an email response I sent to a friend earlier today about this topic.

I’ve been following this.  Unfortunately, officials in this city are making this into a Landing Parking vs. Historic Preservation issue.  The truth is that the historic fund should be preserved and the city should live up to their 23-year-old promise to provide the Landing with the necessary dedicated parking to attract first rate tenants.  What should be targeted is the mayor’s plan to spend $8.2 million on Metropolitan Park, which is a mile away from the downtown core.  $3.5 million of the $8.2 million was money intended to go towards the Landing before the Mayor moved it.  

The solution to this issue is to move the $3.5 million back to the Landing and phase the Metropolitan Park proposed improvements.  With this solution, all three projects move forward, especially the two (preservation and Landing parking) that impact downtown the most.

[Lucasjj]

Lake

Have you voiced this to any of the people you have contact with in City Hall? I know it has been stated here several times, but I was just curious if you voiced this to them, and what their response was.

[thelakelander]

Just online.  However, more detailed information will go directly to them after a meeting tonight.

[Kay]

I just heard the Council's Finance Committee amended the bill to take the funds from the Metro Park project instead and it passed with only Crescimbeni voting no (He believes the City is not obligated to pay the money until a garage is built.).  I happen to agree with him.  

[fsujax]

Good news!

[thelakelander]

Happy to hear the bill has been amended.  If we're serious about revitalizing DT we can't leave the DT's premier and most popular destination out there hanging for a garage that doesn't need to be built and won't be anytime soon in this economy.  Nevertheless, it would be nice if the parking money could some way be tied in to having Sleiman immediately move forward with reconfiguring the Landing to better integrate the center's shops with the courtyard where the Jackson statue is currently located.  If this can be done and the proposed Barnett/Laura Trio projects become reality, they would help anchor the city's investment in Laura Street.

[tufsu1]

Agreed Lake...but I highly doubt Sleiman will do anything major to the Landing anytime soon.

I know folks on here think the Metro Park projects are a waste of money....but we have a relatively poorly maintained park system...how does taking money away from them help?

[Steve]

Maintaining it and adding unneeded features are not the same thing.  Planting grass and landscaping doesn't cost 8.6 million.

[tufsu1]

Maintaining it and adding unneeded features are not the same thing.  Planting grass and landscaping doesn't cost 8.6 million.

that's not what they are doing....the $8 million is solely for Kids Kampus and includes fixing the water features (which btw have now been closed...great move in summer)

[Kay]

Happy to hear the bill has been amended.  If we're serious about revitalizing DT we can't leave the DT's premier and most popular destination out there hanging for a garage that doesn't need to be built and won't be anytime soon in this economy.  Nevertheless, it would be nice if the parking money could some way be tied in to having Sleiman immediately move forward with reconfiguring the Landing to better integrate the center's shops with the courtyard where the Jackson statue is currently located.  If this can be done and the proposed Barnett/Laura Trio projects become reality, they would help anchor the city's investment in Laura Street.

Can you suggest that to John Gaffney, chair of the Recreation committee where the bill goes tomorrow?

[thelakelander]

Agreed Lake...but I highly doubt Sleiman will do anything major to the Landing anytime soon.

I know folks on here think the Metro Park projects are a waste of money....but we have a relatively poorly maintained park system...how does taking money away from them help?

$3.5 million of the $8.2 million was originally intended to resolve the parking obligation for the Landing.  This still leaves $4.7 million for a phased approach to Metro Park.  DVI just released a study about how spreading out resources has made it difficult to stimulate synergy and vibrancy in downtown.  Metro Park is over a mile away from the heart of the Northbank.  Parts of San Marco and Springfield are actually closer to the intersection of Laura and Forysth than Metro Park is.  The ROI on the Landing and historic preservation for the health of DT are higher than the ROI for an isolated Metro Park.  Also, as far as maintaining parks go, a more sound investment would be to spend some money around the Landing (the courtyard and grounds surrounding the center are public parks/plazas), Hemming or Springfield's parks.  All would be more sound investments for the community in general.

Btw, the water park is also closed this summer because the city plans to remove it.  

[CS Foltz]

lake, part of the problem, imho, is trying to do too much with too little!