[OldNorth] Re: Demolition at 721 Seventh Street

[John Lofland]

Jim,

Thank you very much for this excellent report. We are all much in your debt.

John


At 5:47 PM -0700 6/21/05, Jim Becket wrote:
>Hello All:
>
>Sorry I have not reported out last night's DHRMC meeting sooner, but 
>night meetings get harder to take every year, and I felt pushed 
>earlier today.
>
>However: Val and I, and a couple of others, attended. Frankly, I 
>thought the results were pretty positive from the overall historical 
>perspective. For one thing, I think the "new" Commission is 
>beginning to settle in and address issues in a more cohesive manner. 
>The Chair, Rand Herbert, is beginning to demonstrate his knowledge 
>of historical preservation procedures and is also better every 
>meeting with meeting protocol.
>
>A brief item by item summary follows:
>
>4. In the Public Communication section, a) I invited anyone from the 
>Commission who wanted to write an article for davisvilletoday to do 
>so. Chair Rand appeared interested and I will follow up with him. b) 
>Both Val and I talked on the ON sidewalk concerns. Staff was 
>directed to work with PW to make sure the concerns were addressed 
>and also to bring something forward on the previous work done on 
>Landmark designation.
>
>5, 6, & 7, no reports
>
>8. No public hearing on the Community Church request to add office 
>space, as no one from the Church showed up. The addition of access 
>for the handicaped for the front entry caused more discussion by the 
>Commission than the office space, as it will alter the historic 
>features of the building. A request for elevation drawings will be 
>made before it is discussed again.
>
>9. Quite a bit of discussion on moving the bungalow at 511 J and add 
>it to 923 Third (the Montgomery House) property, including a lot 
>split. Some suggestions were made to alter various things of the 
>proposal, but the positive aspects of "saving" the 511 J bungalow 
>were stressed. The property owner, who has already fixed up 923 3rd 
>to a considerable degree, seems very receptive, and I expect he will 
>produce an acceptable plan.
>
>10. The hot item - the demolition (by moving) of 721 7th. The 
>outcome was to send owner Dan Dowling back to get an evaluation done 
>through the City as to whether or not 721 should be a merit 
>resource. Val spoke with considerable knowledge about the history of 
>the house as it relates to the Childs family, as well as her 
>concerns for the structure itself. She represented ON very well. 
>(She did irritate Mr. Dowling by the inference that trees had been 
>cut down to facilitate moving - he said quite emphatically that he 
>had nothing to do with the cutting, but that it had been done by the 
>City.) I did not say much, as the discussion moved steadily toward 
>sending it back for evaluation. Since I thought that was a 
>good course of action, I thought it best not to muddy the water.
>
>Next meeting: July 25. (That is a week later than normal and done at 
>the request of a presenter who wanted the extra week. I thought I 
>heard that it had to do with a B Street proposal, but that is not 
>official.)
>
>Questions? Jim
>
>John Lofland <jflofland at ucdavis.edu> wrote:
>
>for got the agenda. sorry.
>
>
>Tonight, June 20, the Historical Commission will review the
>application of Dowling Properties to ". . .demolish the existing
>structure located at 721 Seventh Street .. ." (item 10 on the
>attached HRMC agenda).
>
>The building is a bungalow dating from the 1920s and lived in my
>members of the Chiles family.
>
>John
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www2.dcn.org/pipermail/oldnorth/attachments/20050621/6b2bb518/attachment.html>