Willow Glen Resident
News
Preservation guidelines are strengthened to save San Jose sites, buildings
By Alicia Upano
Developers looking to tear down San Jose's historical buildings and replace them with high-rises may find the city less responsive to their bottom line.
The San Jose City Council voted 10-1 on May 23 to approve an updated policy to strengthen protection for historic landmarks. Councilman Chuck Reed was the sole no vote.
The move amends the 1998 Preservation of Historic Landmarks policy, adding language that a landmark may only be removed if it is "not reasonably feasible for any interested party" to retain it or the "integrity of the [landmark] district." Further, the amended policy says if a developer does not believe he can profit from the existing building, this is no longer a sufficient reason to knock down a historical structure.
The old policy addressed only buildings designated as city, state or national landmarks based on historical value. The updated policy includes all structures, sites and districts, including single-family homes, which have the potential to become a landmark.
The Historic Landmarks Commission teamed up with the planning department to propose these revisions over the past year, according to a city memo. The change was timed to coincide with Preservation Month in May.
Sally Notthoff Zarnowitz, a city historic preservation planner, said the updated policy language merely bolsters and clarifies the city's efforts to preserve character.
The policy update is a result of both Counter to Council task force recommendations and a response to several development projects where historically significant buildings were torn down, Zarnowitz said.
The Counter to Council task force was charged with making recommendations to improve the city's planning process. It was comprised of business representatives and a sole community delegate, North Willow Glen resident Harvey Darnell.
On the task force last year, Darnell pushed for "community standards" in the city's General Plan, which could outline historic neighborhoods as a way to preserve the look, feel and charm of older communities such as Willow Glen.
Darnell had seen first-hand how developers could sweep in and demolish significant, aging structures during the rezoning process of KB Home's development at the old Del Monte plant on Auzerais Avenue. The developer will build 390 homes on the 14.67-acre industrial site, with no plans to preserve the old plant's buildings.
In April 2005, Darnell and other neighborhood activists encouraged the council to preserve some, if not all, of the 82-year-old buildings, formerly home to the oldest operational cannery in San Jose. Even the San Jose Planning Commission recommended the city council deny the rezoning in favor of using the existing buildings.
But KB Home representatives said reusing the buildings would result in a $2.7 million loss because of the need for extensive retrofitting and upgrading. The Preservation Action Council of San Jose countered KB Home could keep the buildings and still make a $22.2 million profit.
Despite protests by neighbors and preservationists, the council approved the rezoning. However, the KB Home project was one of several that prompted a review of the city's preservation policy.
Willow Glen resident Jim Zetterquist, past president of the Preservation Action Council, said the renewed policy would have been helpful during the KB Home process.
Zetterquist, a contractor, said preserving the city's historic resources is a "win-win" since it keeps the landfills empty and saves energy. He also said preservation efforts typically use more local labor. And he noted older buildings promote tourism, pointing out the city benefits from places such as Monterey's Cannery Row and San Francisco's Ghirardelli Square.
To Bonnie Bamburg, who sat on the Historic Landmarks Commission in the 1970s when the first preservation policy was drafted, the new language will encourage both developers and the city to review alternatives to removing historic landmarks.
"I think it will definitely work to keep neighborhoods as they are," Bamburg said.
