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JOHN OXIAN: I would appreciate you getting in touch with her and ask her to get the <br />information to us. The third thing that I would like to bring up is that Catherine informed <br />me that a demolition permit was granted concerning the Carpenter building on South <br />Lafayette; which is the oldest Studebaker building. What I would like to do is to put an <br />interim protection on this unless I get a different opinion from Bob Yapp. I want the rest <br />of you to look at it and if you think it's not worth preserving then we can cancel it from <br />going on with land marking. <br />JOHN LIVINGSTON: It has gone through the formal process and a demolition permit <br />was issued by the building commissioner. <br />John Oxian gave brief history on what has happened with the owner and this building in <br />the past. Commissl n members had a brief discussion about the building and its <br />condition. They dis ssed what steps if any the commission could take to try and save <br />the building from being demolished. John also had Catherine get a hold of Bob Yapp <br />prior to the meeting so he could be there to give us his professional opinion about the <br />building and its condition. <br />BOB YAPP: The request from John was quick so I didn't get a chance to really check it <br />out too much. I did drive by it and take a look at the building and the context of the <br />historic Studebaker area and I do believe the building is significant and I believe it could <br />be used for adapted reuse for any number of things. It is in disrepair, there's no question <br />about that. But, it is a fact that the city is poising to tear down one of our most historic <br />factory sites in the country using taxpayer money with no effort whatsoever to try to find <br />adaptive reuse developers to come in and use those buildings using a 1970's <br />redevelopment urban renewal mentality to just tear down the buildings at taxpayers' <br />expense. I still think that it could be adaptively reused if anyone in redevelopment would <br />take the initiative to try to market these buildings for adapted reuse; like get on an <br />airplane, fly to silicone valley and start finding these young start up companies that are <br />more than willing to come into communities with some incentives and adaptively reuse <br />these buildings, live in them, work in them, and create economic development for our <br />community instead of vacant land with no promise of any economic development. <br />JOHN OXIAN: I would like to make a motion that the Carpenter building on South <br />Lafayette on the west side of the street be put into interim protection with the possibility <br />of it being declared a local landmark. <br />BOB YAPP: Sometimes I think we are so insular in this community that we forget to <br />look outside the community and see what other communities are doing in situations like <br />this. Other communities are being creative in going to the high schools and getting the <br />art classes to take plywood panels to secure the building and painting scenes of people <br />inside the building and doing fun and interesting things so that people when they drive by <br />abandoned buildings that can be moth balled for later use are smiling instead of feeling <br />bad. I would love to see our commission make some kind of statement on this. <br />MARTHA CHOITZ: Seconds the motion and it passes. Joann Sporleder abstains. <br />JOANN SPORLEDER: If we are going to actually enter an interim protection then I <br />think we should make some serious attempts at assessing its structural ability and giving <br />some kind of guess as to what it would need to make it usable. <br />3 <br />