A bill for an ordinance designating 2900 South University Boulevard, the Wellshire Park Cottage, as a structure for preservation. Approves an individual landmark designation for property located at 2900 South University Boulevard in Council District 4. The Committee approved filing this item at its meeting on 6-26-18.
And move that council bill 18 0688 be placed upon final consideration and do pass. It has been. Moved and seconded. And do we have a technical amendment for this one, Councilwoman Sussman? We for this one. So technical limit. All right. So, Councilwoman Sussman, will you offer your technical amendment? Well, I mean, find out where it is. This one I was not told about. I move that council bills 18 dash 068 be amended in the following particulars on page one line 12 strike the date February 20th and replace with June 19th. It has been moved and seconded. Any questions from members of Council Councilwoman Susman? This technical amendment corrects the date of the Landmark Preservation Commission hearing for this designation. Thank you very much, Councilwoman Sussman. See no other questions or comments, Madam Secretary Rocca. SUSSMAN Right. Black. Brooks. I. Espinosa. I. Flynn. I. Gilmore. Herndon. Katherine. Kinney. Lopez. I knew. Ortega. Sussman. Hi. Mr. President. I. Madam Secretary, please. Because the voting announced the results. 3939 as Council Bill 688 has been amended. The public hearing for Council Bill 688 is now open. May we please have staff report? Good evening, council president, council members. This is four 2900 South University Boulevard for a landmark designation application. As Andrew just said, this is in Council District four in the Wiltshire neighborhood on the corner of University Boulevard and Bates Avenue. The property was constructed in 1926 prior to the incorporation into the city. PJ is the owner of this particular property. The current zoning is SBF and the request is for a landmark designation for this property. This was submitted to Glenmark in May. On the 21st, it went to planning board for the rezoning and then for the Landmark Preservation Commission for their approval, which was unanimous. Then went through Rudy Mayor Council at first reading and we are now at the public hearing as required by the landmark ordinance which was established in 1957. Sorry, it is required to meet the designation criteria in at least two of the following categories history, architecture and geography. To maintain its historic and physical integrity, which basically means it should look like what it used to look like. And it should be considered how it relates to a historic context or theme. This particular property, which was constructed in 1926, was through was for a dreamed of the development of the Wiltshire Park neighborhood. This was the first house that was developed with this neighborhood. You can see it on the 1925 Park Plat. This was also developed in coordination with and the developers coordinated with the Wiltshire golf course in an attempt to build an upscale neighborhood kind of in the southern part of Denver. This was developed by Elinor and Phil and Wider, who are developers within the city and county of Denver. They did the brawny Bonnie Brae development, and this was hoped to be a second version of Bonnie Brae just a little bit further south. They hired landscape architects to design the layout of the streets. It was intended that it was going to be multiple. Lots would be put together for larger homes. In 1925, owner took out a mortgage in order to help build this particular structure. He had planned to build more. However, he went out of business and so he sold this particular property and with sort of everyone else in the late 1920s when the Great Depression hit, it hit him as well. And so his business of the Wiltshire Park ended up going under and no other buildings were constructed as part of the Wiltshire Park development until after postwar. Into what we see today is more of a postwar suburb. So this property is representative of the initial dream of building the Wiltshire neighborhood but didn't really come into fruition except for this particular property. And the Wiltshire golf course. The Landmark Preservation Commission and staff feels that this meets the history criteria for the development of this of the city of Denver. The application also talks about it being a historic for its architectural style or type. This is a French eclectic style. It was constructed in 1926, and this particular style was brought back to the United States after World War One, after soldiers had been banned in France, and they brought this particular style back to the United States. It's rarely seen in Denver. It's been used more popular other places in the country, but it's rarely seen in Denver. Some of its defining characteristics are steeply pitched, complex, rough types, a lot of hipped dormers stucco walls and often seen as stone, used as sort of a whimsical detail, as if it's a French farmhouse. There are multiple pane windows and French doors and then entryways that typically are arched and stooped, but without a large porch in front of it. And so these are the character defining features of the French eclectic style as seen in this particular property. And finally, it is also significant for its geography and the geography of promoting and understanding the appreciation of the urban environment by means of distinctive physical characteristics or rarity. This is both a rare and distinctive building for Denver and particularly for this part of the this part of Denver. The French, a collective style, is very unusual for Denver and extraordinarily rare in this particular area. And it's sitting on a very large lot in comparison to the other buildings that are around it that are smaller. One story ranch houses on smaller lots. And so this is both a distinctive style for the area and for Denver as a whole, as well as a rare as a as a style that's not seen on a large lot. After meeting all three of the criteria, our property still has to maintain its historic and physical integrity. Does it have the ability to convey its historic and architectural significance and being recognized as belonging to a particular place in time in Denver history? This is a photograph on the left taken in about 1935. It was given to the authors of this particular designation as they were doing the research from a former owner and resident of the property. And so you can see from the 1935 photo to today that the very the form of the building is still there. The application does note that there have been multiple additions to this particular building, but these additions are very small in scale. They're stuck structured, so they maintain the same compatible the same compatible material with the rest of the building. And there are small size and scale, and they're also easily removable. And so it still retains its historic integrity, even though there are a few small additions on the building. And finally, the Landmark Preservation Commission considered how the structure related to the historic context and themes in Denver history. This particular area was projected as an area of development and growth. It was initially started post-World War One when there were hopes that there were actually more materials available and people available to start building it. There was an initial part of the development or planning of it. But eventually, due to the decline and then bankruptcy of the owner business in the late 1920s, it did not get fully developed in sort of fits within the theme and context of the Great Depression. So the landmark staff in the Landmark Preservation Commission found that it met the criteria under history of having a direct association with the historical development of the city, that it reflected the architectural style of the French eclectic style and architecture, and that it met the geographical criteria as being both distinctively physical, distinctive physical characteristics, as well as being rare for the area that the property maintained its historic and physical integrity, and that the LPC considered how the structure related to the historic context and themes of Denver history and recommended approval for it. Thank you very much. We have one individual signed up to speak this evening. PJ Paterno, you are up for 3 minutes if you'd like it. Again. My name is PJ of Toronto. I'm going to watch my words more carefully this time. Again, I sold a property that was 1900 and purchases property. I never took the time, effort, energy to do their historical research last time. And I think there's price and cool characteristics of that building. So it was kind of fun to do it this time and learn a lot about the building. It's helping me get to the usage that I wanted. A little fun. Fact is, there's for the last 15, 16 years, it's been a daycare for autistic kids that which they used for the back doorstop for all those 16 years. As we were cleaning some things up, it looked very interesting to me and it turns out it was the missing Keystone piece above the door. So there's these lovely rocks that go around the door and there's one piece is just missing. And I've been trying to figure out to get somebody to fabricate. And all of a sudden I realize the back doorstop was that that piece. So one small improvement and hopefully lead to many others. It's cool property. I intend to you know again, anyone driving by it for many, many years will recognize it. The outside, I think it's a really great building. So thank you. Thank you. That concludes our speakers. Are there any questions from members of council? All right. Seeing none of the public hearing for council Bill 688 is closed. Comments by members of Council Councilwoman Black. Thank you, Mr. President. Again, thank you, P.J. Patino, for your willingness to buy this property and invest in it. Numerous people had looked into purchasing the property and they wanted to build townhomes there. And it wasn't something that would really fit into the neighborhood. It wasn't really desired by the neighborhood. And to find a buyer who was willing to land market and to spend the resources to restore it to its probably better than its original glory is really a gift to Denver and to the community because as we all know, a lot of historic buildings are being torn down. So I'm really, really thankful, P.J., for your willingness to do this. And thank you to all of you at CPD for helping with this. And my community is very excited about this. Thank you, Councilwoman Black. Councilman Flynn. Thank you, Mr. President. I am going to vote yes on this tonight, but I do want to state that I don't concur with the. The history criterion have direct association with historical development of the city, state or nation because the subdivision never went forward. In fact, Wilshire Park is not even in our records. Was this part of Arapahoe County when it was subdivided? So we might not have the records, but it was recently it was replanted in, I think, 1955 as Southern Hills. And so nothing it's association. It's direct association with the historical development. The city is really zero. But I believe that it does qualify under to the two remaining categories. So I intend to vote yes on. I just wanted to state that I disagree with the historical finding. Councilwoman Black, to you. I would like to respond to that. This the statistical neighborhood actually is Wilshire. And the Wilshire End still stands in the Wall Street golf course, and it's all part of the same community. So I disagree with you. As is your right. All right. Thank you, Councilwoman Black, Councilman Espinosa. Yeah. I mean, I guess you could argue that the fact that there is a different community and this is the one fragment to, you know, if it would have been significant, if it had succeeded, it's also sort of significant that it failed. It's sort of weird. It's all part of the history of that place, whether it looked all like these French structures or at all looks like what didn't happen. It's sort of interesting what we you know, what what traces and remnants we the tell tale of of of our of our location and our history as a city. Each iteration, what we sort of choose to to say is significant and what's not. But what is significant to me and worth commenting on is first, I want to thank you for for for pursuing this designation. But I also wanted sort of noted, I probably should have called you up to ask this question to sort of emphasize the point is that you made it very clear your financial your financial advisor, you run a series of companies or amalgamation of companies that all deal with money. And there's often this question about the value of preservation. And and and I would think that somebody who knows the numbers had done that math and said, hey, this makes sense for my business and for the long haul. And so so I hope that that's factored in. And I hope you do. I'm glad that you sort of postponed your improvements because you you know that there are some tax credits that will come along with this. And as you save those receipts, you'll be able to to to take those deductions year in and year out relative to that, unless you have giant receipts and you take them one year. But, you know, it's there is there is value to the structure. There's value to our place, our history, and there is value to the owner. And and I think somebody with this background on a property like this has made that that factored into that calculus part of the calculation and determined that it makes sense all around. And so thank you for for coming to that realization when others might not have, because generations down the road will sort of recognize this anomaly and go, how the heck did that get here? And what is that connection to other parts of this place, as Councilwoman Black noted. So thank you for doing that. Thanks. Thank you, Councilman Espinosa. Councilman Cashman. Thank you, Mr. President. I want to add my thanks as well to Mr. Putnam for moving forward with this designation. I know this property so well, having driven by it for years and years, and it's one of those that you look at and go, wow, that that certainly has potential. But boy, it needs some love, needs a whole lot of love with 34,000 square feet, I think, and a large building. And Mr. Turner was actually directed an error to my office originally because he's right across the street from a District four, from my District six boundary in District four and had a chance to chat with him about his thoughts. And I thought it was a great idea then. Thank you, Councilman Black, for bringing this forward. I think it's a it's something that is going to make South Denver better. So thank you, sir. Thank you, Councilman Cashman. And seeing no other comments. Councilwoman Gilmore, we need a motion to pass as amended. I move the council bill? All right, I move that council bill 18 068 be placed upon final consideration and do pass as amended. It has been moved and seconded. Madam Secretary, roll call. Black eye. Brooks. Hi, Espinosa. Hi. Flynn. I. Gilmore. Herndon. Cashman. Carnage. Lopez. All right. New Ortega assessment. I. Mr. President. I. Madam Secretary, please close voting in those results. 3939 as comfortably. 688 has passed. As amended. Kalsoume Gilmer, will you please put Council Bill 699 on the floor?