Two Denver neighborhood groups have applied for historic designations on homes they do not own, sparking bitter disputes among neighbors and concerns that such actions could become a trend in fighting development.
Preservationists say so-called hostile designations are one of the few tools neighbors have to protect the structures that lured them to the area.
But as the city grapples with a skyrocketing rate of home demolitions, the use of the application on a 120-year-old home in West Highland and the north Denver compound of a man who designed many of the city’s parks has made some uneasy.
“Historic designation is being used partly as a tool to preserve structures that are truly historically significant, but also as a tool to try to just slow down change,” said Steve Turner, Historic Denver Inc.’s director of preservation services. “And that is not necessarily the appropriate use.”
The use of hostile designations on residential property is rare if not unprecedented. Some similar applications have been made in the past on commercial property such as the Mayan Theatre, said Nicole Hernandez, preservation coordinator with Historic Denver.
“But now the climate has changed so much in Denver,” she said. “It is not just the commercial buildings in Denver – we’re starting to lose neighborhoods.”
In April, John Locke’s 120- year-old house just west of the trendy Highland Square shopping district was under contract for $719,000.
Then Locke and the buyer learned the West Highland Neighborhood Association had put a landmark application on the West 32nd Avenue house. The buyer pulled out, Locke said, fearing renovation restrictions that would come with a historic designation.
The house has been on the market at $640,000 ever since.
“That’s a huge amount of money,” Locke said. “We’re not big developers. We were counting on that for our retirement.”
The landmark application on Locke’s house was scheduled to go to the City Council earlier this month. But Councilman Rick Garcia delayed the hearing and helped broker a compromise.
In exchange for the neighborhood association’s dropping its application, Locke and Keith Swanson have agreed to stipulate that their house cannot be destroyed for two years after it is sold.
West Highland Neighborhood Association spokesman William Johnston could not be reached for comment on this story. But minutes from a Denver Landmark Preservation Commission hearing show neighbors believe the house has significant historical value.
It once was home to former Denver Mayor W.F.R. Mills. One of the city’s first female doctors, Mary Ford, also lived there.
“It would be tragic to lose this house,” Alan Culpin told the landmark commission. He is a historian and another former owner of the house.
In south Denver near Harvard Gulch Park, neighbors are proposing a small historic district of six buildings to protect the former artists compound of S.R. DeBoer.
“He is really considered the father of landscape architecture in Denver,” said Turner. “A lot of the park system that we see today is a direct legacy of DeBoer.”
Moreover, John Thompson – noted in the landmark application as the “dean of Colorado painters” – once lived and trained other painters on the East Iliff Avenue property.
Leigh La Fon said she and her husband bought a house 15 years ago at the artists enclave because of the historical significance.
“We bought (our house) 15 minutes after it came on the market,” she said. “There is no other place in the world I have wanted to live.”
But she’s worried DeBoer’s heirs plan to sell their plot to make way for demolition and redevelopment.
“This is not a neighborhood in transition,” she said. “Our ties to history are huge.”
Unlike those seeking historic designation for the house on West 32nd Avenue, La Fon and some neighbors who formed the DeBoer Preservation Committee included themselves in the landmark application.
Councilwoman Kathleen MacKenzie said neighbors have few other options.
“We are very weak on the tools to protect areas of stability,” she said. “I wish we did have better ways to protect things that people love about their neighborhood when the zoning often allows greater density than what is there now.”
But DeBoer’s heirs say their nest egg is being taken from them. The family refused to comment for this story, citing the quasi-legal nature of the landmark designation. But they did not mince words at a Landmark Commission hearing in June – when they referred to La Fon and her neighbors as “bullies.”
Cynthia Geraud, DeBoer’s great-granddaughter, said the family can’t afford to maintain the property.
“We’re not rich,” she said, according to draft minutes of the meeting. “This is our entire legacy. Visit his public parks. He wouldn’t want his property seized.”
Catherine Potts, DeBoer’s granddaughter, told the commission that she was never told about the application before it was public.
“We’ve owned 50 percent of the proposed district for over 20 years,” she said. “I’ve lived next door to the La Fons, and they never notified me. The applicants chose not to consult the heirs.”
The Landmark Commission delayed a decision on the application until Sept. 19. The City Council will have the final say if the commission approves it.
Whatever the outcome, preservationists say the DeBoer and West 32nd Avenue applications represent frustration on the part of longtime residents.
“I think what you are seeing is a cry from the neighborhoods,” said Hernandez. “If this is not the right method to do this because it is so contentious, we really need to look at some other tools so that our whole city is not constructed by developers.”
Staff writer George Merritt can be reached at 303-820-1657 or gmerritt@denverpost.com.
