HPC Agenda 7/2010

[02roadking]

A. Call to Order/Verification of Quorum
1. Approval of Minutes from June 23, 2010
2. Submittal of Speaker’s Cards

B. Deferred Items

C. Consent Agenda

D. Condemned Properties
1. 125 East 3rd Street
2. 1325 North Laura Street
3. 1320 North Ionia Street

E. Landmark
1. LS-10-1 â€" Old City Cemetery

F. Certificates of Appropriateness
   COA-10-407 2216 Oak Street Riverside/Avondale- Demolition

G. Certificate of Appropriateness / Work in Violation

H. OOAs & Minor Modifications to previously approved COAs

I. New Business
  1. 3934 McGirts Boulevard â€" Demolition
J. Information

K. Design Issues

L. Old Business
1. Administrative Review Policy
2. Condemned Properties Subcommittee

M. Addendums

N. Adjournment

  This is the agenda for this month. I saw no full demos on the agenda this month except for the Mcgirts Blvd. area & the one in Riverside on Oak St.
  3:00 P.M. Conference Room 851, 8th Floor, Ed Ball Building

[strider]

I believe you will find that the condemned properties - all three of which are in Historic Springfield - are actually before the commission to seek approval for putting them on the FORMAL TRACK TO DEMOLITION.

Odd that they seem to do this in threes and just about every month. This nonsense must stop.

[02roadking]

Main house:1320 Ionia

Guest house:1320 Ionia


125 E. 3rd.

125 E. 3rd.


1325 Laura

1325 Laura

1325 Laura

[iloveionia]

Thanks roadking and thanks for taking the time to take and post pictures. 
All 3 of these homes have multiple vacant lots next or right near to them.
We can not continue to lose our density.

[TheProfessor]

They don't look like they are going to fall over yet.  I don't see what the rush is to knock them down.  Who needs to be contacted to save these?

[sheclown]

The house on 3rd street is only one of three historic houses on the north side of that block.  The others are gone. 

The property record card states that Lena Castro owns this house.  Is this an owner requested demolition?

[Steve]

I haven't been in the Oak Street one, but it has sufferered from SIGNIFICANT fire damage.  It's in far worse shape than any of the ones pictured.

[iloveionia]

Please send an email of opposition to Lisa in the HPC Office: 
sheppard@coj.net

She and this office is our voice of reason, support, and opposition. 

[sheclown]

Mothballing Historic Buildings
By The Old House Web
Sharon C. Park, AIA

When all means of finding a productive use for a historic building havebeen exhausted or when funds are not currently available to put a deterioratingstructure into a useable condition, it may be necessary to close up thebuilding temporarily to protect it from the weather as well as to secureit from vandalism.

This process, known as mothballing, can be a necessaryand effective means of protecting the building while planning the property'sfuture, or raising money for a preservation, rehabilitation or restorationproject. If a vacant property has been declared unsafe by building officials,stabilization and mothballing may be the only way to protect it from demolition.

more...http://www.oldhouseweb.com/how-to-advice/mothballing-historic-buildings.shtml

[uptowngirl]

Where is the Ed Ball building? I am going to be able to make this meeting (a little late- but still make it!).

[Lunican]

It's right by Hemming Plaza. 214 N Hogan St.

[uptowngirl]

Thanks Lunican!

[02roadking]

Tomorrow, Wednesday, July 28th at 3:00 P.M. Conference Room 851, 8th Floor, Ed Ball Building
 
As an FYI, I did not list all the coa's and other business  for Wednesdays meeting unless it was pertinent to the demos. If you want a copy of the entire agenda, pm me for a copy.

[Miss Fixit]

125 E. 3rd.

125 E. 3rd.

Compare the picture below, taken around 1925, to the second photo of 125 E. 3rd.  I didn't know until tonight where the house in my photograph was located, but here it is!  These little girls lived next door with their mother, Queenie MacDonald Maxwell, who was the widow of David Elwell Maxwell Jr.  Queenie was an amazing woman who became a real estate developer after her husband's early death left her financially responsible for three young girls. Sadly, her house will probably be torn down soon - it was badly damaged in a fire last year.  Before moving to East 3rd Queenie and her daughters lived in my house at 1252 Hubbard, which was built by their grandfather Elwell Maxwell - a celebrated confederate officer who was seriously wounded in the battle of Atlanta but went on to fight at Natural Bridge and became one of the most prominent railroad men in the United States.  He assembled and ran much of Seaboard Air Line Railroad and its predecessor lines.  I was given this photo by his great grandson, whose mother Sarah Maxwell Babbit is on the right.  Mr. Babbit had hoped it was my house, as I have been searching for photos that will help me renovate his great grandfather's home.  I was disappointed to find that it wasn't my house, but now I'm hopeful it may prove valuable to someone else.  This house likely has a rich history, too, and someone should make it beautiful again.

[Timkin]

There MUST be a way to defer demolition of these places.. Seems to me ,if they were properly secured, and made to LOOK presentable ( Lawns kept mowed ,etc)  that this could buy time for them..

IMO... alot of the issue here is MONEY... no one buying the properties, no one fixing them up, no one securing them....and the city, pardon the term , seems to have a Bo^@r for getting these places destroyed, and it is wrong..

PS 4 has been deferred and deferred and deferred...and I believe part of that has been BECAUSE the owner over and over and over and OVER again secured the building (only for the next day, some homeless person or kid wanting to get inside to further destroy the interior) ..but it comlplied with the complaints of code enforcement..AT TREMENDOUS cost over the years to do this... Had this not been done , Historic Landmark or not, demolition probably would have been pushed through .   The same may HAVE to happen for these incredible buildings... though it is true they need alot of work...it is not like they are going to collapse.