Approves the designation of 227 South Lincoln Street as an individual structure for preservation in Council District 7. (NEIGHBORHOODS AND PLANNING) Approves the designation of 227 South Lincoln Street as an individual structure for preservation in Council District 7. A PUBLIC HEARING WILL BE HELD AT LEAST ONE WEEK AFTER PUBLICATION. The Committee approved filing this bill at its meeting on  8-20-14.
Thank you, Mr. President. I move that council bill six, six, five be placed upon final consideration and do pass. Has been moved and seconded. Public hearing four, six, six, five is now open. May we have the staff report? Savannah Jamison Community Planning and Development for the designation of 2 to 7 South Lincoln Street, the Glover Lynch House. The applicants are Terry and Gulliver. Gulliver and Nita Lynch, who are also the owners. This was brought forward by the owners and they diligently completed the application and did the research necessary for this designation. This may be a home that a lot of you are familiar with, as it does on the main thoroughfare to downtown Denver on South Lincoln. It is in the council district, number seven in the spear neighborhood, although it does border very closely the Baker neighborhood, as well as Walsh Park West. So it's in the little corner right there. And it is just for their property and their lot. Staff has reviewed this, as has the Landmark Preservation Commission at their public hearing and found that the application is complete and it meets criteria and two out of three categories. It is a distinctive queen and home designed by the prominent Denver architect William Leong. The home is recognizable from its prominent location on Lincoln Street and the West Washington Park neighborhood. Reconnaissance survey and history report listed the home as having architectural significance. 2 to 7 South Lincoln Street meets the criteria for local designation in the following categories architecture to a embodying a distinguishing characteristic of an architectural style or type. This is almost classic textbook Queen Anne, and it's a regular form. Has the asymmetrical facade that you can see here, very distinguishing front and prominent front turret turret and a stiff steeply pitched roof also meets criteria. To be is a significant work of a recognized architect. This is the work of William Lang, it says so in the building permits, as are eight other homes along this street, which is very rare. We have very few places where we have that many homes all together. By one architect. He was a prominent Denver architect from 1887 to 1895, and he was a partner in the firm Lang and Pew. He mostly did commercial as well as domestic and is mostly that eclectic styles. This is why it's unique that we have one where it's such a prominent just one style rather than a bunch of eclectic styles. Together by William Lang also meets Criteria three A having a prominent location or being established, familiar and orienting visual feature of the contemporary city. Many of us see it as an orienting feature. As you drive through the thoroughfare of Lincoln Street to downtown Denver, sense of public outreach went to the Landmark Preservation Commission before a public hearing, and the Landmark Preservation Commission voted unanimously to for the City Council with the recommendation of approval, also reached out to the registered neighborhood organizations within 200 feet and received a letter of support from the West Washington Park Neighborhood Association. Community Planning and Development and the Landmark Preservation Commission are recommending approval as application is complete and the House meets criteria for designation, meeting criteria and architecture and geography. Thank you, Ms. James. And we have three speakers signed up today and I'm say all three names and you all can come to the front pew Anita Lynch, Gertrude Grant and John Paulson. So you can make your way up to the beginning. Pew and Anita Lynch can go ahead and start whenever you are ready. Council Members My name is Anita Lynch and I own and live at 227 South Lincoln along with Terry Gulliver. And we thank you for this opportunity to submit this application and to preserve this gem of a house. It was totally refurbished about three years ago, and the integrity is there definitely on the outside and much of it is retained on the inside. And it has some interesting history. I did a lot of research on the people who lived there, and one of the families was the Nicolet family. Who? They lived there the longest. If you get a chance to ever read some of the history, it's kind of fun. And I think it's interesting as we talk about marijuana today, they were there during prohibition and we learned that they were involved in a little bit of bootlegging. So there's some real fun history from this. So we thank you and we hope you will be in support of it. Thank you, Miss Lynch. Gertrude Grant. Good evening, members of Council. My name is Gertrude Grant. I live at 224 South Lincoln, and I'm here in support of this designation. I moved into my house in 1977, and ever since then I've looked across the street at the row of Lange houses. I didn't know they were lying. I just thought they had cool little turrets and I thought it would be neat if they could be saved. But I wasn't willing to undertake it because I had undertaken a bigger house with a lot more problems than any of those houses have. But it's just really exciting. Over the 20, 30, 40 years that I've lived there, to see the houses across the street be cared for and have people who really care about preserving the historical character. And some of Denver's history. And I hope you will vote for this or this council bill. Thank you. Ms.. Grant Olsen. Thank you very much. My name is John. Also, I'm the director of preservation programs at Historic Denver. We're at 1420 Ogden Street. I'm very much in support of this designation. I first became in contact with with Nita and Terry when they were asking, along with other their neighbors about this block on 200 South Lincoln Street. They're not ready for a designation at this time. But I was very proud of Terry Anita going forward with a designation for their house, partly, of course, because it is a wonderful block. It has all of these wonderful William Lang buildings on them. Historic Denver has a great affinity for the architect, William Lang, as we are an owner of one of his more prominent and well-known one being the Molly Brown House at 1340, Pennsylvania. But as was mentioned in the staff report, this was when we were starting to do the research of this block of South Lincoln. We were very surprised ourselves to find out that there was this much concentration of William Lang buildings all together. He was very prolific architect, but he generally did buildings spaced apart all over the city and again in a very eclectic style. So this is a very rare case. We are also very proud of Anita and Terry for doing this, because designation, especially as a homeowner, is one of the most direct and long lasting things that we can do for our built environment here in Denver. And I think it really adds to the vibrancy and the richness that we have as an architectural climate here in Denver with that mixture of the old and new. So we're going to have this building for many, many years to come and hopefully they will be owners of that property for many years to come, but also for subsequent owners of that building and that block. So we think it's a great thing for you to vote for the designation of this property and add to the richness of Denver. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Olson. That concludes our speakers. So it's now time for questions from members of Council. Councilwoman Sheppard. Thank you, Mr. President. So I may have asked this question before. And John, I think you just alluded to this, but it would have been a nice block, too, to seek historic designation for the whole block. But why was that not there? Were there still some questions from the neighbors and homeowners about what designation means for their area? And so, you know, that's something that still has to play out. And we're still talking to the neighbors about if they want, that. They certainly are eligible for that for that block, because it is a great concentration, not only on the west side of the William Lang Properties, but also on the east side for some wonderful high end Queen Anne buildings. But it just wasn't the right time for them to go forward with a full designation. And because these these properties on this block are very significant in their own right, it was a definite option that Anita and Terry could go forward with the designation on their own. And they decided to do so not only because they wanted to save their own property, but also because they wanted to show their neighbors that, you know, it can be a wonderful thing for them. Since we have the ability to take a little bit of advantage of, you know, being on television. What might be some of the benefits to homeowners seeking a historic designation, say such in the way of tax credits or other things like that that might you know. Certainly, yeah. There's a there's a 20% tax credit for individual homeowners for any properties that are eligible or on a local or national or state register. And so the 20% tax credit is something that a lot of people actually aren't taking advantage of. But we're hopeful that more people will become aware of that the 20%. Tax credit allows for you to do investment into your properties for all kinds of different things. That's much more than just taking care of what people traditionally think of as, you know, historic elements of the property. It's also things like fax systems, plumbing, electrical things that make historic buildings livable are all eligible for tax credits. And that's a direct credit, not a deduction that you can take on your individual state taxes for that year and you can actually push it up for ten years. So whatever investment you put on your property, 20% of that comes off of your liability for your state taxes. There's also a much research that was done to show that property values actually go up at a greater rate, either from individual designations or from historic districts than do properties that are not historically designated. It's a something that allows for the stability of the real estate prices. And so historic designation has always shown to sell very, very well. And if I might ask one more clarifying question, the 20% tax credit that you referred to, is that also two contributing structures in the historic district, or does that need to be something that each individual homeowner applies for that historic designation individually? No, it's it does refer also to contributing buildings in historic districts. So if you are a contributing building in a historic district, you are eligible for that 20% tax credit. And that's something that can be handled through the Landmark Preservation Commission. And so you can put an application forward for tax credits and you can certainly talk with their staff about that as well as there's staff available at the State Historic Preservation Office, otherwise known as History Colorado, which you can find out all about what benefits the tax credits are for your property. Thank you so much. And in full disclosure, I own a property in a district, a district that is in desperate need of some help. So thank you. No problem. Thank you. Councilwoman Sheppard, any other questions from members of council? And seen nonpublic 39665 is closed time for comments from members of council. Councilman Nevett. Thank you, Mr. President. I'm happy to see this this historic designation come forward. I'm happy to see you guys stuck to your guns after the attempt at the historic district. You're doing your own house. So Team Gulliver Lynch is to be to be commended for for for bringing this forward. And it it make I bet it comes as a surprise to some people that there are these beautiful old queen ends on Lincoln. We don't think of, you know, sort of, you know, the Denver's finest buildings being right on a busy thoroughfare. And it's sort of one of the tempers of our car focus built environment that, you know, you want the the the nice houses to be away from the thoroughfare. But back in the day, they built those nice houses there because they were on the thoroughfare. They were there to be seen as people moved at a more stately pace than we do today. And so it's nice to have these buildings, which many people whiz by on their way to downtown from I 25, and now they're being called out. So thank you for. Thank you, Councilman. Councilwoman Sheppard. Yeah, I'd like to say a few words. So, you know, there's a tremendous amount of development happening all across this city. And there's a deep concern among many residents how we may be losing the character of our neighborhoods. And sort of the expression I hear over and over is killing the goose that laid the golden egg. And I just want to put it out there that folks it's for folks to understand that this is another tool in the toolbox for not only preservation of individual homes, but of neighborhoods. You know, if you do the proper research and have the proper input from neighbors and in the supporting evidence. And the other thing that is so interesting about that process is actually learning the history of your home and of your neighborhood. And I, I live in a small, historic district called Witter Coalfield in northwest Denver. It's three blocks by three blocks. But fortunately, my neighbors in the summertime, in the 1980s, went through the process for historic designation, and then they created a book about it that every one of us that who has a controlling structure in that district owns. And I cannot tell you the amount of joy, you know, that we get reading through that and, you know, learning about the old, you know, interesting characters that, you know, used to listen live in our neighborhood and who, you know, who visited and what, you know, terrible loss of fortunes befell some and, you know, some of the rags to riches stories. And it's just fascinating. And I think it really it really adds to the quality of our life today to have this kind of understanding of, you know, where we come from. So I just want to make it clear to folks that are listening that this is another tool in the toolbox, you know , for that very important historic preservation, especially in the face of such a, you know, such a rapid pace of redevelopment in our city today. So thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman Sheppard. Councilwoman Ortega. I just want to add my thoughts as well. I want to commend folks in the neighborhood for working on this effort to sorry to hear that the actual district did not move forward. And I don't know if those efforts are still underway or not. But as we have seen development activity across the city, in my own neighborhood, the Highlands neighborhood, part of that community was created as a historic district a number of years ago under Councilman Sal Carpio. And. The development is not impacting the historic part of the neighborhood. It's impacting the area below that. So it's the lower highlands neighborhood. So it helps preserve the character of our neighborhoods because when it's all just open for, you know, the free market, if you will, you start to see drastic changes to the character of a community. And it changes the demographics, you know, the socioeconomic makeup of the community. And so by being able to create a of that kind of stability, it just, I think, preserves a lot of the quality that we have in our city of Denver. And so I just want to express my support for this application tonight moving forward. Thank you. Thank you. Councilwoman Ortega, any other comments from members of council? Scene on Madam Secretary. Raquel Nevett I. Ortega from Shepherd Susman Brooks Brown. I. Fights I can eat lemon Lopez I. Monteiro, I. Mr. President. I. Memories. Madam Secretary, please close the venue and the results. 3939 664 has been placed upon final consideration and does pass. Congratulations. Seeing no other business before this body. This meeting is adjourned. Denver eight TV. Your city. Your source. Denver. Eight on TV and online. Stay connected to your community, your city, your source. You are watching Denver. Eight TV's Your City, your source.