February 1992 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

demonstrated sufficient owner support. Their petition, as attached to the proposal sent to the Common Council, shows sixty-three (63) signatures. According to Portage Township Assessor records there are three hundred and ninety owners (390) of parcels within this area (counting all lots, not just those with structures on them). The neighborhood group therefore has demonstrated initial support from 16% of the total. This is not enough to assure that we will have cooperation from owners in the responsibility of enforcing district standards. Due to time constraints, and the number of properties involved, we have been unable to assess the proposed area as to types of ownership, etc.. However, it is general knowledge that this area has a very high rate of absentee ownership, primarily landlords. In addition, the poor maintenance of structures in sections of the neighborhood demonstrate an inability, or unwillingness, on the part of a significant number of owners to attend to basic needed repairs. This can be readily demonstrated by the regularity that city Code Violation Hearing Dockets contain properties from within this geographical area. To enforce historic preservation standards in such an area would be difficult at best. CONCLUDING REMARKS In an address given by preservationist Paul E. Sprague in 1974, he cautioned that "[c]are should be exercised, whenever historic districts are contemplated to guard against the temptation to create districts primarily as an aid in stabilizing urban areas. Preservationists wanting to conserve historic sites and structures of cultural interest should ... avoid the temptation to fight for the preservation of urban areas that are without significant cultural resources."[6] This seems to be the case in this neighborhood; it is an area that is in dire need of stabilization but it is not an area containing a sufficient concentration of historic fabric to be designated at this time. It is difficult to stand in the way of people wishing to employ Preservation --and historic districting --for plausible reasons. However, the HPC must guard against employing designation, a far-reaching and long-term decision, to areas that do not obviously justify such protection based on objective criteria. Perhaps in this case there may be a compromise proposal that can be suggested in place of this one. From initial analysis, the staff has identified at least one, and possibly two, smaller areas within the bounds of the N.N.N. proposal that might be considered as smaller districts more closely falling within the criteria used in this report. The first (see map, #1) is a collection of structures surrounding