HomeMy WebLinkAbout1999-01-25 City Council (15)City of Palo Alto
City Manager’s Report
¯ TO:HONORABLE CITY COUNCIL
FROM:CITY MANAGER DEPARTMENT: PLANNING AND
COMMUNITY ENVIRONMENT
DATE:JANUARY 25, 1999 CMR:132:99
SUBJECT: STATUS OF THE JANUARY 15, 1999 DAMES & MOORE REPORT
This is an informational report and no Council action is required.
BACKGROUND
The further refinement of the Study Priority 1 and 2 Lists directed by the City Council to
identify properties that are potentially eligible for the National Register or the California
Register was undertaken in two parts, with the first report presented to the Ci.ty on
October 15, 1998, and the second report completed on January 15, 1999. The January 15
report identifies whether the Study Priority 1 and 2 properties are potentially eligible for the
National Register, California Register, or no longer under consideration.
DISCUSSION
City staff is currently reviewing the January 15, 1999 report prior to public release of the
final document~ The complete final report is expected to be available on Tuesday,
January 26, 1999.
Potential National Register-Eligible ¯ Properties. The January 15 report ¯ identifies
approximately 300 properties from the Study Priority 1 and 2 Lists as potentially eligible for
the National Register. The consultants provided the City with the addresses of the these
properties a few days prior to submitting the complete report so that letters could be sent to
the owners of these properties inviting them to the Community Forum on January 23, 1999.
Invitations were sent to these property owners because the Draft Historic Preservation
Ordinance, if adopted by the City Council as proposed, would apply regulations to these
properties.
Potential California Register-Eligible Properties. The January 15 report identifies
apprordmately 1,800 properties from the Study Priority 1 and 2 Lists as potentially eligible
CMR:132:99 Page 1 of 3
for the California Register. When the Council considered elements of the draft historic
preservation ordinance at the December 7, 8 and 14, 1998 City Council meeting, the Council
directed that only the mo.st outstanding of the potential California Register eligible properties
be included on the proposed Resource List, due to the large number o,fproperties expected
to the involved. At that time, the staff report estimated that the number of properties
potentially eligible for the California Register would be approximately 1,000. Now that the
consultant’s report has been completed, it is apparent that an even greater number of
properties potentially meet the California Register eligibility criteria.
Given the need to determine objective criteria before the most outstanding California
Register properties can be identified, staff will be proposing to the City Council that staff
continue to work with the Dames & Moore consultants over the next year to establish
appropriate selection criteria and identify a small number of the potential California Register
eligible properties that are the most important and significant to Palo Alto. These properties
would then be proposed for inclusion on the Resource List.
Starting next week, letters will be sent to owners of properties identified in the January 15
report as potentially eligible for the California Register. The letter will say that the property
is not eligible for the National Register and, consequently, the draft ordinance that will be
presented to Council for adoption in February will not directly consider the historic merit of
the property nor its inclusion in the ordinance. However, starting in the spring, the City will
be initiating a process for considering a small number of the most important California
Register-eligible properties for inclusion in the Historic Register, and the property owners
will be provided with ample opportunity to participate in this process. The letter will also
inform the property owner that they may voluntarily request that their property be placed on
the City’s Historic Register.
Properties notPotentia.lly eligible for either the National Register or the California Reg&ter.
The January 15 report identifies approximately 1,000 properties on Study Priority 1 and 2
Lists as not meeting the criteria for either the National or California Registers. When the
letter discussed above is sent to the owners of potential California Register properties, a
similar letter also will be sent to owners of properties that do not appear to meet eligibility
criteria for either the National or Califomia Registers. The letter will inform the property
owner that the City’s study of historic properties has not identified their property for
inclusion in the historic ordinance, and regulations adopted in the historic ordinance will not
apply to their property. However, if they feel that their property has significant historic merit
and should be included in the ordinance, they may contact the City to discuss the matter.
PREPARED BY: Virginia Warheit, Senior Planner
CMR: 132:99 Page 2 of 3
G. EDWARD GAWF
Director of Planning and Community Environment
CITY MANAGER
)N
Assistant City Manager
cc: January 23, 1999 Community Forum mailing list
CMR:132:99 Page 3 of 3