A bill for an ordinance designating 1400 Lafayette Street, the First Unitarian Society of Denver Church, as a structure for preservation. Designates 1400 Lafayette Street as an individual structure for preservation in Council District 10. IF ORDERED PUBLISHED, A PUBLIC HEARING WILL BE HELD ON THIS ITEM. REFER TO THE "PENDING" SECTION OF THE FUTURE COUNCIL MEETING AGENDAS FOR THE DATE. The Committee approved filing this bill at its meeting on 8-3-16.
Good evening. My name is Kara Hahn. I'm a senior city planner with Landmark Preservation at Community Planning and Development. This is a landmark designation for 1400 Lafayette Street, the First Unitarian Society of Denver, and this is an owner supported designation. There are approximately 6600 properties that have been designated since the ordinance passed in 1967. The owners of the property are aware that it would that if it is designated, it would go through a design review. It would be designated as is, and there would be no required changes. But that it would have to go through design review and there would be a demolition would be discouraged of the property. Additionally, though, they know there are benefits to the property. If it is landmarked, they would be eligible for a variety of grants, including a state historical fund grant, which is a 7520 5% match. They would also be eligible for historic preservation, rehabilitation, tax credits. And so even though they are a nonprofit, if there's any part of their entity that is income producing, they would be eligible for the state commercial tax credits, which for projects under $2 million would be 25% and capped at $1,000,000. The applicant submitted an application in May. City staff reviewed it and found that it met all the requirements. It went before the Landmark Preservation Commission as well as Council Committee and is currently here at the Second Reading Community Planning and Development posted all of the notifications, toured the property and has been in contact with the applicants throughout the process. So what we're looking at is that at the corner of 14th and Lafayette, the applicant is the First Unitarian Society of Denver. And within Blueprint Denver, it is an area of stability. The Church was initially constructed by the Plymouth Congregational Church in 1893 and then completed in 1899 after they had recovered from the silver crisis . The First Unitarian Society was established in the early 1870s and they occupied many buildings before they found another building of their own. They were oftentimes considered too progressive or too liberal, and they couldn't find housing of their own. They finally built a building in 1873, and this property, which they moved to in 1958, is their third building. The only primary change that has occurred since then is there was a major fire in 1985 that did some significant damage to the interior of the building. In order for something to be designated a landmark, it has to retain integrity. Meet one criteria out of the following three categories History of architecture and geography and the relate to a historic context or theme in Denver history. This property has excellent integrity. There are a few minor changes that have occurred an enclosure in the 1920s, a response to the 1985 fire with some changes to the interior and exterior, as well as the changes to the addition of an ADA ramp. And then in the early 2000, in the mid 2000, they added an elevator. Overall, the property has excellent integrity. The property has direct association with the history and development of the city and county of Denver. Typically, they provided space for historically marginal, marginalized groups that couldn't find a space for themselves. They were very active in the civil rights movement and became a home for the local Congress of Racial Equality. They were very involved in the fair housing movement. They had a free pulpit that allowed other groups to come in and speak when they couldn't find access to something. And then they were heavily involved in the gay rights movement and marriage equality. They held events for other churches. The NCC Church often met here, and then they were heavily involved in the gay coalition of Denver, which started in the mid 19, early 1970s, and they provided space for this group. It then morphed into the Gay and Lesbian Community Center and now is just currently what is the center. They also hosted a variety of weddings in 1975, which was one of the first gay weddings that was held within the within the nation. So this would be the first LGBT site within the state of Colorado that would be designated as historic on either the local, state or national level. So community planning in development is very excited to be able to put something forward that isn't just the history of the wealthy doctor on the corner or the fancy, you know, the fancy Victorian house, but really speaks to all members of our community. The property is also associated with a persons of importance or influence on society, including Governor Lam, as well as his wife, Lady Dottie, Liam and also Helen Walcott, who is significant in the civil rights movement and was very involved with the Congress of Racial Equality and specifically with unfair housing practices and working it for that. Additionally, it is significant under architecture for its Richard Sony in Romanesque style. Its seen in the Ashland Masonry, which is basically the square masonry, the rounded arches, the cross gables and the parapets. It is also significant for the work of a master architect or a master builder or a recognized architect. And in this case, it's for both of those. For Ernest Varian and Frederick Sterner, who are well-known local architects, as well as for a master builder. In this case, it's the Walk in stained glass studio. This the stained glass was created in 1893 by Clarence Watkins, and then the 1985 fire severely damaged it. So Clarence's great grandson recreated the stained glass window from the original drawings. And finally, it's significant for its geography. It has a prominent location on the corner of 14th and Lafayette, and it's a very highly recognizable building. Members of the congregation often speak that when they're giving directions to someone and they're like, Oh, it's that castle building on on 14th. So it's really very community. The community's familiar with it and it's a wayfinding us building. So the property relates to late 19th century architecture, the development and growth of Denver, specifically the Capitol Hill area, and for its role in the social justice movements within the city and county of Denver. At the Landmark Preservation Public Hearing, we had received a letter from the original congregation that was signed a petition as well as three emails of support, and then the application included a letter from the current owners. All were in support of this application. The Landmark Preservation Commission evaluated the building and felt that it maintained integrity, that it met all three of the criteria under history, architecture and geography, and that related to the historic context or themes of Denver history. The LPC voted unanimously six zero to recommend designation of the property. Great. All right. We have three speakers. I'm going to call them all up right now, Karen, Derrick Davis, Susan Robertson and John Olson. Susan Roberts in here. Oh, yeah. Great. Yeah. All right. And then Jonathan. So, Karen, you can go first. Okay. Thank you. I know that Kara just told you just about everything about our church, but I am here as a congregant of the church. And one of the reasons I am so proud to be a member of that church is because of our social justice activities. It's we have extensive history of social action. And for decades we've been at the forefront of local and national issues. We have many firsts. Kara mentioned a few. One that we're really proud of is we were integrally involved in one of the first well, the first charitable organization in Colorado, Pioneer Ladies Aid Society, which was led by a member of our church, Augusta Tabor. And there's a landmark downtown for her and the location of our congregation at the time of that. Women's suffrage also was a thing that she was involved in while she was a member of our church, which at that time was called Unity Church. We were, as Karen mentioned, one of the first churches, the first church in Colorado to conduct gay weddings and one of the first in the nation, first home of many organizations that currently we now take for granted, like the center. And we actually are the first church in Colorado to achieve Energy Star rating. So we really try very hard to walk our talk and live our values. We're really excited about being the first landmark that's recognized for LGBTQ activism. That's something that we've been very involved with the civil unions. And I was remembering with Susan when we first started doing the standing on the side of love services on the Capitol steps. It started out with about ten, 15 people and wondering what was going to happen with it. And then civil unions passed and we have hundreds of people that come and now we actually are changing to standing on the side of love is now our focus is on other issues like Black Lives Matter and immigration. Our congregation explicitly decided to remain on Capitol Hill rather than moving. And we want to improve our building and take care of it and make it restore it back to its beauty, shining beauty in Capitol Hill. Thank you. Thank you. Soaps. Karen, can you come back up here and just state your full name for the record? Karen, Derek Davis. Perfect. And Councilman Brooks as my councilman. Yeah. Good to see you. All right. Susan Robertson. Thank you for having us here. And I want to thank you on behalf of our entire congregation for considering this proposal. This effort to secure landmark designation for our church was really a long process for our church. We went through a lot of sort of community meeting process and so forth. We ended up with a near unanimous vote. Only one person in our entire congregation voted against it. So I come tonight representing all those people and also representing the first Plymouth Church, which is now located over at Hampton and Carter Boulevard. And they have we have the strong support of their congregation as well. They occupied the building from 1893 until 1958, and it was very fun to go see their archives. And we actually learned a lot about the early history of our building from them. So it's very interesting. The educational process that we went through in exploring our history was really, I think, something that empowered us as a congregation. And I think some people knew some of the history, but I think it's become much more a central focus to really try to bring that history alive. And so, for example, nowadays when we're working on Black Lives Matter, we can do that sort of rooted in the history that our congregation was actively leading efforts during the 1960s and Denver to make sure that that African-Americans could be hired at places like Safeway and King Soopers in the Denver Dry Goods. And so it's really empowering for the the work that we're doing today to understand, you know, where we've all come from and the importance of all that. We also in the 1970s, we hosted a variety of organizations in our basement and in buildings adjoining us. And there were organizations such as the National Organization of Women, the American Civil Liberties Union metric, Metropolitan Community, Church of the Rockies. Even organizations like Community College of Denver that first started out in the basement of our church. And so we really are very proud of all the organizations that were incubated in our space, the historic well, the current uses of our building. I think a couple of things too that are really important is that our building is currently used for many social justice issues, such as housing homeless populations. We host House to Populations of People Women, Women's Homeless Initiative every other Friday night and family promise for 7 to 10 nights every quarter. So there are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people who have been housed in our building, fed in our building and volunteer hours that support those people. The historic landmark application. Our process well designation will certainly help us to access the state historic funds, which we feel are really important because we are working to preserve our building and we need to make some repairs that are really important to a beautiful stonework on the outside and so forth, which is failing at this point. And so we are planning to access the historic grants, but we also feel that it's important at this point to help raise awareness of some of the social justice issues that we're so proud of. We're excited to have the recognition for LGBT, and we feel like this is a great public venue to really bring that history alive . So all that said, we are very grateful for your support and it's been a wonderful opportunity to go through this process and work with your staff. And we thank you for it all. Thank you. Can you state your name for the record? Susan Bridges Robertson. Thank you. John Olsen. Last but not least. Last but not least. My name is John Olsen. I'm director of preservation programs at Historic Denver. I'm here to fully support this designation of the First Unitarian Church at 14th and Lafayette. I'm very proud to be working with this group. I think this is a group that is completely invested in their property, in their neighborhood and the state they've been around dealing with the many social issues that we've talked about women's suffrage, civil rights, gay rights, immigration reform, all different kinds of things, including bless you, including the the many social activities that are happening right now. And they have made just a concentrated effort to really make this their home. And because this is their home, they're very proud of their home. And they have talked through their full congregation about how they could reinvest in their property yet again. And one of the first steps was to recognize the history that this property had for the city, for the state of Colorado, as well as for them as a congregation, and for all of the many people that need this building to continue the social services that are in there. I just want to, you know, commend them on all of their amazing effort, the effort that they've done with the LPC to get this done. And I hope that you will vote for the designation of this property. One of the great benefits of the designation, if this were to pass, which I very much hope that it does , is the grants that are out there for buildings like this so that they can have the improvements to make all of these social programs happen. And we're very hopeful that this is a grant that's going to be approved by the state historical fund so that they can continue their work there and do all of the things that really make this neighborhood in this city special. So thank you very much. Thank you, John. Questions. This concludes our speakers questions by members of council. Seeing none comments councilman do. Well, districting has the largest percentage of historic structures and districts and we're so proud of of what what you're all doing to help preserve. And this this building is a perfect example of what's going on in district ten and how the need to preserve that. So it's a beautiful building. I love those stained glass windows and it's just gorgeous. And I'm looking forward to the improvement and the expansion of service programs. So thank you so much for working so hard to do this. And and John, thanks for your leadership and appreciate all that you're doing for historic preservation in District ten. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman. You and I'm going to close that public hearing because I should have done that before you spoke council counsel that that's the public hearing for council. Well. 566 Councilman Espinosa. Sorry. So the architecture of the building is impressive and undeniable. But what's more impressive is the history. And there's no way of. For me anyway. As an architect. No. To know that history. Just by looking at the building. And so. But it makes me very proud to know what sort of things were. Were originated there and had go on there. Because those are important important things to be ahead of and be part of. For this society to move forward progressively. And so the only thing I just wanted to throw out in my commentary was this this idea that something you should consider is partnering with a nonprofit and looking at the Denver Arts and venues piece You Are Here grant program because I think it's a real opportunity to bring awareness to that history, that legacy and that the work continues and to sort of that passers by just not only recognize it and it's great architecture, but actually there's a prominent, important piece of Denver history socially that has gone on here so that programs out there, that grant deadline is the end of September. Something to think about is you've got a lot of right away there. Maybe there's something creative that can be a temporary installation. So look into that program. I think it's a great opportunity to sort of bring what we was just presented to us and which is summarized in beautifully in the write up to bring some notion of that so that people who are driving by or passing by or walking by or biking by can actually go, whoa, this is this happened here, and the work still continues. So it's totally an aside, but I just know that I'm greater for having heard it and maybe others would be too. So thank you. Thank you, Councilman Espinosa. Councilman Cashman. Thank you, Mr. President. I really look forward to supporting this designation. I've been in the building any number of times over the years, but I've driven down 14th Avenue thousands and thousands of times since 1971 and never failed to look over at that building. That's a beautiful structure. I mean, it is this is one of those designations that in any number of ways is pretty easy. I would designate the building if it your congregation didn't exist and I would designate your congregation if the building didn't exist. It truly is. It's special to to have the opportunity to recognize what goes on within the building. And yeah, I could talk on for hours, so I'll just say thank you for what you do. And I will support this. Thank you, Councilman Cashman. Councilwoman Cannick. Thank you very much, Mr. President. I just, you know, couldn't resist chiming in affordable housing and LGBT rights. I always knew those two things went together. But seriously, recently, we had a very tragic incident in Orlando. And right around that time, I had the privilege of being at the Stonewall Inn, which was the first major LGBT national landmark that was designated. And I think this is a really important bookend to that in some ways. I mean, the LGBT community for many years. Bars were a place where, you know, they could we could commune and find fellow travelers and, you know, sometimes be safe, sometimes not so safe. But I think that, you know, those stereotypes, too, about, you know, the beer community. And I think that having a faith community also being designated and I think not just because of perhaps LGBT folks who may have been attending, but because I would imagine then and maybe still now because of the straight allies who took up the fight. And it's funny what I always notice when I drive by because I drive by, you know, almost every day on my way to and from Park Hill is that the Black Lives Matter sign? It's one of the few Black Lives Matter signs that I see outside of northeast Denver. And it's always noticeable to me and it almost feels more significant. And so that that that theme of being an ally. Right. So again, you know, it is you know, the architecture is amazing, but I want to just thank you for for being that voice as as whether it's with members of those communities or as allies. So with that, I will happily support this designation. Thank you. Thank you. Councilwoman Canady, Councilman Clark. Thank you, Mr. President. I still remember the very first time I ever saw this building, and it stuck with me because it was so striking. And, you know, I think my colleagues have said everything so well that I wish I could just say. And that, too, I think that the significance of the building, the significance of the history, there are so many things that we do in this job and a year and still getting used to the whole gamut that that runs. But to have the opportunity to have a vote in this is really something that's very special for me to be a part of that. So thank you for all the work. I know it wasn't easy to bring it. It's one of those stories and structures, as Councilman Cashman, I think, captured when he said it, that you kind of look at it, you're like, wait, that's not already protected. That's not already designated. But, you know, there are structures like that in our city, and it takes the hard work and dedication of the people who are there to bring this forward and to provide that. And so we are all in your debt, and I'm just so excited and honored to be a part of it tonight. So thank you. Thank you, Mr. President. Yeah, thank you, Councilman Clarke. I'll just I'll just add this, that all of our city, we have a huge problem in CPD because there are congregations that are dying and we're going to, you know, folks want to come in and redevelop and redevelop the property. And as a person of faith, it's a little sad to see. But this congregation here is so alive and so passionate about what's going on in the city and it's so encouraging to see. So just thank you guys for sharing that. And hopefully you can be an encouragement to some other communities of faith to to get involved and be socially active. I know we're talking about a building here, but what makes this building beautiful is the people inside it and who are alive and have a historical way of doing that. So thank you so much. Madam Secretary, Roll Call. New Ortega Black Eye Clark Espinosa. Flynn Hi. Gilmore, I. Catherine Hi. Carnage. Lopez. Hi, Mr. President. I Madam Secretary, closed the voting and announced the results. 11 Eyes 11 eyes council bill 566 has passed. There is no pre adjournment announcement I think for the first time ever. So seeing no other business before today. This meeting is adjourned. Are you on the bus? Folks in a greatly appreciate it. Say your last name. I'm sorry if I mispronounce it. Amy. From a. Performer. I live here in Denver. I'm also an organizer with the Denver Justice Project. And I just want to follow up Paul. Lopez's words that if any council members here tonight are on the fence about passing this measure that you consider. Letting letting it go to. The ballot and letting the. People vote on this. Also, I want to. Again, kind of reiterate what I might have spoken in the Charter and Governance Committee meeting, which is that I really appreciate the current OEMs offers. Not only are they extremely knowledgeable, they're forward thinking, they're progressive. And I think their recommendations and policy recommendations reflect this. I also think they do something. That we don't acknowledge. Often is how proactive. They are in terms of addressing. Police. Practices and patterns. And like you said in the committee. That that is. An office when they are so forward thinking and part of the solution that should be institutionalized, respected. And. Given more. Authority. They're also setting a precedent for being proactive. You know, of course, they're dealing. With abuse complaints and dealing with. The different investigations. And things like that that are in line with I think their approach is in line. With. What is going on nationally in terms of reform. But like I said. I really want to emphasize the fact of. How proactive they are being in terms of. Whether it is adopting technology that helps improve or improve police practices, whether it is community outreach or bridging the gap. All of those things should be valued, and. I think it's. Definitely something that needs to be have that respect and authority by being put in. The charter. So thank you. Thank you, Mr. Farmer. We have. I'm going to call out your applause, please. I'm going to call five other folks up to the front. Michael Raich, James seven, Dale McDonald, David Larsen and Alex Lando. Michael Raich, you will be first. R e y i k is what I have, but maybe that's Hugh. Come on up. Maybe we got entered in wrong. Michael Barisic. Yes. Your first year. On Park Avenue. I've never spoke before acceptance speech class in high school and I wasn't prepared for this anyway. What's coming up? I'll make it quick. I went and talked to the state representative, Joe Salazar, not long ago in his office for a half hour. He immediately I told him the little story. He says, may I see the documentation? I.