A bill for an ordinance designating 910 Galapago Street as a structure for preservation. Approves an individual Denver landmark designation for property located at 910 Galapago Street in Council District 3. The Committee approved filing this item at its meeting on 12-1-20.
I. Madam Secretary, please close the voting and announce the results. Well, right. 12 I's Council Bill 20 Dash 1184 has passed. Councilman Hines, would you please put Council Bill 1399 on the floor for final passage? Thank you, Madam President. I am of the Council both 20 dash 1392 1399 be placed on final consideration and do pass. Thank you. It's been moved and we've got the second in there from Councilman Herndon. The required public hearing for council bill 20 dash 1399 is open. May we please have the staff report, Kara? Anything. You want me to share my screen for just a moment. Can you? I'll figure. Mm hmm. Good to go. Thank you. We are here for 910 Galapagos St, which is located in Council District three. As you can see on the map, it's at the corner of Gallup, Pico and Ninth Avenue, and it currently has a use overlay in zoning for use overlay three, which provides incentives for designation. If property is designated, new uses can be applied to the property, so use overlay is already there and so the property owner is coming forward for designation. Be able to take advantage of this landmark designation. I'm actually here to add to anything on that and historic Denver assisted with the application the completion of the application for this designation application and they should also be here if you have questions for them. So per the landmark ordinance, in order for a property to be designated, the structure needs to maintain its integrity. It needs to be 30 years of age or older or of exceptional importance. The structure must meet at least three out of the ten criteria, and the LPC needs to consider the structures historic context. This particular property is significant under three criteria, and we'll go through all three of these. So first, the property is associated with the development of the city. It's directly tied to the development of Denver's West Side, which is one of Denver's oldest residential neighborhoods and has historically been a working class and immigrant. Neighborhood. In the 1870s. Alexander Cameron Hunt, which later on went on to become a territorial governor, was an early resident and developer of the area. He homesteaded the land that is the park within on the Lincoln Park and then subdivided the surrounding neighborhood and which was started the beginning of the early development of the neighborhood. Followed by him was another notable Denver businessman who started developing the neighborhood. John W Smith. Smith had platted subdivisions in the Capitol Hill area. He developed some of the early water supply. Smith's ditch, of which there's still a remnant in. Wash. Park, is named after him. And so then following E.C. Hunt, Smith also began subdividing the area. He did land and provided money for the construction of the chapel at the corner of what was then ninth and Water Street. In 1882, the chapel was constructed for the Church of the United Brethren, and it was situated on the outskirts of the city, as was moved by the Rocky Mountain News at the time of its construction. And so Smith used this likely as a form of advertisement for his subdivision in order to show that there was a viable community. He built the chapel to show that the community was strong enough in order to support a church. And so it is likely that the church was something that he did in order to help sell his subdivision. But it represents the growth of the area that the neighborhood was well-developed enough to support the church as well as from other commercial commercial area commercial buildings in the area. It was one of eight churches between 1882 and 1893 that were constructed in what we now know as the Lincoln Park neighborhood. As you take a look at this one, one map to the left, it shows where the church is located. And this is reflective of an 1897 mapping overall. This is one of the oldest remaining churches in the Ormeau Park neighborhood and is significant as it represents the historical development of the city. The property is also distinct, is also significant for its distinctive, visible characteristics of the Gothic revival style. The property is designated on the State Register of historic properties for its architectural style, as can be seen in the steeply pitched gable roof. The ash square masonry, which is really stone and actually means that it from rough edges on the front of the property, on the front of the brick, on the front of the stone. It can also be seen in the engaged buttresses on the corner, as well as the Lancet doors and windows, which are the pointed windows, and then finally in the prominent steeple. And so this shows the characteristics of the Gothic revival style is significant for its architectural style. And finally, the property is associated with social movements, institutions that contributed significantly to the culture of the neighborhoods, community and city. This was historically a working class immigrant community, and it changed from a primarily European to Latino residents in the 1930s, as started to see a change in the number of residents and the residents who resided there . This is partially as it goes into the postwar era through the Presidio program, which invited guest workers to come to the area because Denver need additional workers. And there was a promise of free housing and there was already a Latino community in the war on the Lincoln Park neighborhood. That's where a lot of residents resided. Also in the 1930s, you saw through the Homeowners Loan Corporation, the redlining map or the map that we know now is redlining. And in this area, which you can see here, this area was noted as redlining. And so there was a lot of disinvestment into the neighborhood. And so with this disinvestment into the neighborhood, discriminatory redlining and then postwar, you had white flight to the suburbs. The Church of the United Brethren dissolved. And so a Denver Area Council of Churches want to start an interdenominational organization in the downtown area. They started the Denver inner city parish, and in 1961, the parish acquired the chapel. The building served as a place of worship, a social agency, a food bank, a school and a meeting center in the Denver inner city parish lobby for welfare reform, student reform, and for farm workers rights. And over time, it became a meaningful institution at the heart of the community. It was one of the many mutual aid societies that were arising in the Lincoln Park neighborhood that were associated with the Chicano movement. And within Denver, Tullahoma, Lincoln Park neighborhood was really part of the heart of the Chicano movement, as part of the National Civil Rights Movement, as part and included things such as opposition to Vietnam fight systemic discrimination and have had affected the West Siders through federal funding, through Denver Opportunity. The community had a lot of mutual aid societies that were forming. Denver Inner City Parish is one of those that were coming at the time in which of movement. There were leaders forming within the community, some of which were serving as directors of Denver Inner City Parish. And so the West Side and Lincoln Park in particular became central to the Chicano movement within inner city, was an important component of both the neighborhood and the Chicano movement. And that can probably best be typified by the blow out of 1969, which was later called the central event in Denver for what was become what is called the Chicano Movement. So in late 1968, there were walkouts in L.A. from their schools. And as we saw through the protest this past summer, as protests start to grow. Not long after, in 1969, we started seeing protest here in Denver, particularly at the West High School. There was a history teacher who was very poorly treating these students and had ongoing insults about the Chicano culture. There was nothing. There was nothing was occurring. There was there was no ramifications for the teacher. So on March 20th, about 300 students and family members walked out and so it became known as the blowout. Police arrived wearing gas masks, carrying billy clubs. And so protesters sought to avoid police brutality by fleeing from the area, some of which sought shelter within Denver inner city parish. And as you can see on the image here, this is a still from a documentary. This shows the parish in the background. So if you're looking at the map, here is the high school and here is the Denver inner city parish. And so as students and protesters were fleeing from the police, some stopped at the parish as a place to seek seek respite. Others continue on to a march to La alma Lincoln Park. And so the Denver inner city parish is really a significant part of the Chicano movement and is an institution that is central to the kind of movement here in Denver. And so it meets the criteria, Jake. For designation. So in order for a property to be designated, in addition to meeting the three criteria, it also needs to be related or still needs to demonstrate integrity, which is just basically the preservation way of saying just the building looks like what it used to look like. And although there have been additions and changes over time, these changes were within the period of significance, which is basically the time period for which a property is important. So the large addition was that in 1923 there was a cross gable that was added. Some of the windows had been changed, but overall the property looks like what it used to look like first when it was originally constructed in the initial and then with the addition of the 1923 additions, was still there when it was significant as part of the Chicano movement. And so the property retains integrity. The Landmark Preservation Commission also considers the historic context of a property in historic context should be ideally strongly related to the criteria for which a property is designated. So for this property, at the time it was constructed in 1882 and 1910, Del Picco was one of the first chapels or churches in the neighborhood. And so it really reflected the growth of the Lincoln Park neighborhood. It was designed in the Gothic revival style, which is a prevalent architectural style for churches at the time. And then in the 1960s, the chapel became the home of the Denver Intercity Parish, which was an organization that was directly associated with the important movements and leaders of the Chicano in Denver. So the OPC found that the historic context was reflected well in the persecution application. For this particular property. There were two public comments that we heard a receiver. One was a written comment in support of the designation application. And then there was one public comment in support of the Landmark Preservation Commission meeting. In summary, the designation meets the criteria. It's over 30 years of age. The application meets at least three out of the ten criteria. It retains its integrity and the LPC considered its historic context in its deliberation. Landmark Preservation Commission unanimously motion to forward it to you for your review and CPD staff recommends approval of the application. All right. Well, thank you so much for the staff report tonight. Council has not received any written testimony on Council Bill 1399. And tonight we have five individuals signed up to speak. And our first speaker is Matt Slaby. Mountain. You might have to have you meet yourself there. I got it. My name is Matt Slaby. I'm the owner and the steward of the building. I'm here tonight to be available for questions that anybody might have about the the property just by way of interest in the building. We're particularly interested in the adaptive uses that are available under landmark designation. You know, as as you see right now, it's, it's only available to use under the RH three as as functionally as condos. And, you know, our intention is to use it as office space for a business that I own, but then also to use the remainder of the building to lease back to similarly situated organizations like Inner City Parish that sold the building. That was something that we represented to them at the time of sale. So with that, thank you to Kara and Jamie Taurus and the folks of historic Denver. And if there's anything that I can do in the way of answering questions, I'm more than happy to be available to do that. All right. Thank you, Matt. We appreciate that. Next up, we have Annie Levinsky. Hi, everyone. I'm Annie Levinsky. I'm the executive director of Historic Denver, and we're located at 1420 Ogden Street in Denver. And for those of you who don't know us, we're a membership based nonprofit organization that supports historic preservation, advocacy and technical assistance. And so tonight, we're here on both accounts, and we've had the opportunity to work with Matt on this application to produce a landmark designation. But we actually have a deeper history with this particular building. So I just wanted to share a little bit of that. We first became involved with what is Smith Chapel or Denver Inner City Parish in the early 2000 when we helped the building get listed on the State Register of Historic Places. And that was done in order to make the building eligible for grants and incentive programs like the Colorado State Historical Fund. So after that listing, we applied for a series of restoration grants on behalf of Denver Inner City Parish and worked with them to get work on things like window restoration and other improvements to the building that made it functional and useful for them that resulted in the parish donating a preservation facade is meant to historic Denver in 2015 and that provides some additional exterior protection to the building and runs with the building and the land. And so that easement continues in effect today, even though the parish did sell the building. So we find this to be a very special asset and are really excited to be here tonight to support Matt and to the next phase of life for the building. And I think there's a couple of reasons that this is particularly special. First, as you heard and Kara discussed at length, this building is really associated with Denver's Chicano movement, and particularly with the West high blowout, but but also the many leaders who, you know, cut their teeth in this neighborhood and went on to become important people in our city who who made significant change for our community. So we hope that it's the beginning of a series of designations that can use this cultural criteria to really acknowledge the our social movements of our past. But the second reason I think tonight is particularly special is that this designation offers the owner an opportunity to take advantage of an incentive that comes with designation. That's something we've talked a lot about in Task Force work with some of you over the last few years. And while the use overlay is not new, it's great to see somebody able to take advantage of that and to do so in a way that will allow the building to continue to be used and accessed by the community and used by organizations that are based in the community, and that will continue even if the building's ownership changes over time. So thank you so much for your consideration. Thank you to Matt for taking on this project. I know it can sometimes seem daunting and particularly thank you to Councilwoman Torres for her help and support to us and to Matt in getting it completed. All right. Thank you. Annie. We appreciate that. Next up, we have Anna to pack. You might. There you go. There we go. Okay. Here I am. I'm Anna Chapek, and I live in the neighborhood. I'm at 871 Box Street, so almost across the street from Smith's Chapel. And I. I just want to say very quickly that I hope the council will vote. In favor of giving the. Chapel landmark status. I'm very happy that this application is is going forward. I've lived here for over 23 years. And so we have been, you know. Very aware. Of the chapel and its involvement. In the community. And I guess you could say historically, it always has been a community. Building as a church. And then moving into different owners and organizations in there. But I am happy that it sounds like. Matt is interested in continuing that. Community. Involvement. And so I asked the City Council to vote in favor. Of the landmark status, and that's all I had. All right. Thank you, Anna, for joining us this evening. Our next speaker is Jesse Paris. Good evening. Members of council, those watching at home. My name is just past and present for Denver. Home with our low last toss. The moment itself, the first positive active commitment to social ties as well as the Unity Party of Colorado and Mile High. Those and I will be there next November and 2023. I am in favor of this historic landmark conservation. I am a graduate of West High School. I graduated from West High School in 2005, have two degrees. I received diplomas from the school and the program. I was in Center for International Studies. I'm very aware of the significance that this has to the Latino community of the West. So that being said, presentation and even do it justice. But. We'll give you the context and the history of where this is coming from. I have no choice but to approve this self preservation work to see that the owner the owner is willing to work with the community and easement to preserve the church. So with that being said, I approve this historic preservation and good choice. All right. Thank you, Jesse. Our last speaker is Shannon Stage. Thank you. Good evening. Council members hopefully can see me here. My name is Shannon. I am the preservation coordinator at Historic Denver. Our address is 1420 Ogden Street, Denver, Colorado. And I wanted to just reiterate a lot of what Annie said, but also add to that we are really thrilled to be here to show our support tonight for this Miss Chapel designation at 910. Galapagos St Care's presentation did a great job explaining why this chapel is significant for its association with the historical development of Denver's West Side, embodying the Gothic revival, architectural style, and being integral to the Chicano movement of the 1960s and seventies. Over the last few years, we at Historic Denver have been working with the law in the Lincoln Park neighborhood on a project to research and inventory the long history of the neighborhood up to and including the Chicano movement. This research has helped inform the designation process for this chapel and ensured that the chapel is not only recognized for the art for its architecture, which was the case when it was previously listed on the State Register of Historic Places, but is also recognized for its cultural association and for the years it was occupied by the Denver inner city parish. We hope that the neighborhood project will continue to support additional recognition and designation for Denver's Chicano and Chicano movement history, with this chapel being a great step in this direction. In closing, historic Denver fully supports the Smiths Chapel landmark designation, and I'm also happy to answer any questions about the application as I was very close to helping write and finalize that application. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Shannon. And that concludes our speakers questions from members of Council on Council Bill 1399. Councilman Flynn. Thank you, Madam President. I don't know if Councilwoman Torres would want to go first with any questions, if she had any. Because I want to respect. No. Okay. Thank you. I have a couple of questions, Kara, on the use overlay. Are we also through this bill? Are we also rezoning or applying use overlay three or is that a later action? It's actually already been to have it. So. So there are few areas in the city that have the U.S. really like a lot of capital already has it. I see some areas over here in LA on the Lincoln Park, so it's already there. This is just allowing them to take advantage of it. Okay. And I'm very interested in that 1923 addition. How does that function and maybe is it Mat? I could answer this as well as Kara maybe. But how does that 1923 addition interplay with the 1890 structure of the church? Does it function as a single structure? Is it? I've not been inside of it, so I. I don't know. It does. I mean, it is one single structure, but I have not been inside either. So I think Matt might be one who's better situated to answer that. Okay, Matt, would you be able to answer that? Yeah, of course. So when I was out of the parish, it was the classrooms that were adjoining the chapel portion. The chapel portion was used as a gymnasium for its latter years. So it's it's three levels. And then when it was designed, it was designed to match. If you look at the. The architectural features on there, you'll see that it's designed to match the chapel itself. And so it's remained intact since 1923. And the best of my knowledge, it hasn't changed that look. I can see where it imitates some of the aspects of the chapel, but of course it's stone versus red brick, so it's not quite a match up. So that leads me to my last question. Do we have other examples of Denver landmarks that incorporate adjoining structures of different eras and different construction styles? Are there other. Yes. Yes, we do. We do probably the one that that most comes to mind and one that you guys might have seen more recently was the Emily Griffith Opportunity School. Oh, yeah. Actually a series of multiple different buildings with different styles. And so it's significant for a couple of different architectural styles on that one. So there are there are some that's the most recent one that you guys have. We have. See. You're right. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you, Madam President. I'd just like to thank Matt for his commitment to not only purchasing this property, but to preserving it and and maintaining it as a as a landmark. Thank you, Matt. All right. Thank you, Councilman Flynn. And see know their hands raised for questions. The public hearing for council bill 20 Dash 1399 is closed. Comments by members of Council. Councilwoman Torres. Thank you so much, Madam President. And thank you, Keira, Anna and Shannon at historic Denver and thinking about Slaby, the property owner, really being diligent and supportive of the designation of this property. I knew it only as academia, so the applications research even gave me more context and appreciation for the building and its role in our West Side history. I'm very proud that this is our first application or seeing under the new landmark designation criteria, which includes culture and specifically this language abbreviated associated with social movements that contributed significantly to the culture of the neighborhood, community, city, state and nation. So very proudly, I asked my colleagues to join me in supporting this as it meets the criteria this evening. And thank you also to Anna Chapek for your testimony. Jamie Jacob, who wrote in a comment and to Jesse, I didn't know you were West High Cowboy. Thank you. Just be. Thank you, everyone. Thank you, Councilwoman Torres. Councilwoman Sandoval. Thank you, Madam President. I would just like to also offer my support as I believe this meets all the criteria. I remember learning about the West Denver walkouts and the importance that that piece of land played in the history of the Chicano movement. And when I was working for Councilwoman Monteiro, who represented not only the park neighborhood, oftentimes she and I would think about how we could proactively save structures that had importance. But as to Councilwoman Teresa's point, there was no criteria in the landmark ordinance that talked about cultural significance. And I just want to thank everyone in the West Side for getting this done. I think it's so important to have these structures to remind us of who came before us. And they will also and they'll be forever in history in Denver. So with that, I would also ask my colleagues to support this. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Sandoval. And seeing other hands raised, I'll go ahead and add in as well. It's wonderful to see the structure finally protected. I went through my master's program with Dusty Gourlay, and it was amazing to learn about the Crusade for Justice and all of the work that her and her family did over the years and continue, quite frankly, to do for our community. And so I am very honored to support this tonight, seeing that it meets all of the criteria for this preservation. And with that, Madam Secretary, roll call, please. Correct. I. Like I. See the bucket? I. Clark. I. Flynn. I. Herndon. I. Hi. Hi. Cashman. I. Can I? Ortega. I'm not seeing Ortega. Sandoval. I. Sawyer. I. Madam President. I. Madam Secretary, please close the voting and announce results. Well by 12 Eyes Council Bill 20 Dash 1399 has passed. Councilmember Hines, will you please put Council Bill 1444 on the floor for final passage?