For generations, local governments and communities nationwide have sought to achieve balance between individual property rights and the community’s interest in preserving its important historic structures. This debate has recently resurfaced in Denver, generated by the imminent demolition of, and an effort to save, a mid-century modern home known as the Wallbank House in the Belcaro neighborhood.
At issue is Denver’s four-year-old demolition ordinance, which does two critical things.
First, it gives people an opportunity to evaluate a potential demolition before an important structure is lost forever. Can you imagine waking one morning to find that the Daniels & Fisher Tower on the 16th Street Mall has been bulldozed overnight to make way for a fast food restaurant?
Second, the ordinance, when coupled with the landmark preservation ordinance, provides the city the opportunity to consider the relative civic importance of a particular structure should a demolition notice result in the submission of a community-generated landmark designation application. Through this process, the city carefully evaluates whether the property in question provides a public benefit sufficient to outweigh the individual’s right to demolish the structure. If the D&F Tower truly were facing demolition, wouldn’t we want the city to exercise this option?
The standards for this type of landmark designation are very high and the process includes numerous checks and balances, with action being required by the Landmark Preservation Commission, a key committee of the City Council, and by the City Council itself. Consequently, while designations of this nature are possible, the reality is they are quite rare.
In 2010, the city received 333 demolition applications and 13 applications for certificates of non-historic status. Of those 346 applications, only 10 structures were identified as potentially significant and therefore posted for public input. Of those 10 structures, only two prompted applications for designation. In the end, neither was ultimately designated as a landmark.
On the other hand, the demolition review ordinance generates valuable conversation and compromise about the future of a historic structure. One good example is Fitzroy Place, also in south Denver. In that case, the ordinance brought the owner and interested community members to the table, which resulted in a win-win compromise in which the owner consented to designation of the historic mansion as a landmark, while the neighborhood supported additional residential development of a large portion of the remaining property.
Finally, some have incorrectly criticized demolition review and the landmarking process as unfair surprises to existing or prospective owners. The reality is that anyone proposing to demolish an existing structure in Denver knows in advance that they will face review of that plan, in the very same way that someone proposing a remodel will face review by building department and zoning officials.
Denver’s preservation ordinance has helped guide our growing city for more than 40 years so that development pressures do not win out over important competing considerations simply by default. It is the reason we have been able to retain many iconic structures and neighborhoods such as the Mayan Theater and LoDo, both of which were also threatened until the community stepped forward. The more recent demolition ordinance simply closes a loophole by making sure that a potentially significant structure isn’t destroyed without an opportunity for further consideration.
We anticipate the city will continue to lose mid-century modern resources like the Wallbank House faster than any other type of property, in part because the architecture is only now coming of age and because many residential mid-century structures are located in areas experiencing continued high development pressure. We urge Councilman Charlie Brown and others in south Denver to consider taking proactive action to understand the structures that help make their neighborhoods special and then work together to protect the most significant of these places.
Annie Levinsky is executive director of Historic Denver, Inc., and Robert Musgraves is chairman of the organization’s board of trustees.
