Historic Preservation: Prop. 207 making it tougher for a city to save this old house 

This William Grier House, built in 1901, could be among the last of its kind in Phoenix – a “unique example of colonial-revival style,” according the Phoenix Historic Preservation Office.

It could be the last of its kind in another way as well. It was placed on the city’s register of historic properties in November 2007. No homes have been listed since.

It comes down to 2006′s Prop. 207, officials say.

“Right now, with Prop. 207, our whole approach has been to do nothing,” says Kevin Weight, a city historic preservation planner.

The voter-approved initiative bars state and local governments from classifying or rezoning property in a way that would decrease its value – without compensation. An historic designation can be a roadblock to development plans.

Eighty-one-year-old Jessie Trujillo, though, wants to spare her own home from future development and preserve it for her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She moved into the Grier House near the Capitol on West Adams Street in 1967, more than six decades after it was built.

“I guess I always loved old houses,” Trujillo said one morning while seated in her living room on an antique-looking couch that’s well-suited for a 108-year-old house. The wall behind her is filled with photographs of her extended family.

The house has a lot of Trujillo family history. But the house has its own history as well, and Trujillo wanted to save it, so in March 2005 she wrote to the Phoenix Historic Preservation Office.

“I am very interested in having my property approved for historic preservation,” Trujillo wrote. “It’s the William Grier House. My property is very close to the Capitol.”

She pointed out that the house already had been recognized as historically significant in a 1987 survey of historic properties near the state Capitol. Her letter got the attention of the Historic Preservation Office and planner Weight.

To be listed on the register, a structure must be at least 50 years old. Beyond that, it has to be tied to a notable historical event or person or have unique architectural character. The Grier house qualified. So did the house next door, which the city also listed after the owner agreed. That house, the Pinney House, was built in 1899. It’s one of 30 remaining 19th century buildings in Phoenix.

William Pinney came to Phoenix in 1883. He was a progressive sort – one of the first three people in Phoenix to own a bicycle, the Historic Preservation Office states in a report on the property.

Pinney died in 1930. His house will live on, for now. But Weight says other properties might not fare so well.
It’s not just single homes that are in jeopardy; entire neighborhoods could be at risk, he says. Since the mid-1980s, the city has designated 35 residential areas as historic through special zoning. It’s a barrier to redevelopment.

“Historic preservation is basically a down-zoning,” Weight says.

Down-zoning is not something a developer with big plans wants to hear. It was just such a developer that led to the city to halt listing residential properties as historic.

The property in this case was a one-story, four-building cluster of 32 apartments between 13th and 15th avenues on the north side of McDowell Road. The Palmcroft Apartments were built in 1943 to house returning war veterans.

They were just south of the Encanto-Palmcroft Historic District, a diverse collection of homes built in the 1930s and later. They range from simple brick houses to near mansions. It’s a high-end, middle-class neighborhood of professionals.

Todd and Drew Templeton moved into their house nine years ago. They have a plaque on the front-patio wall declaring its listing on the National Historic Register, which is a separate recognition from the Phoenix register – though often there is an overlap. Each listing has certain advantages. Phoenix will match homeowners up to $10,000 for historical restoration to a home’s exterior, and the city will increase the match for low- to moderate-income homeowners.

The funding comes from Phoenix bond elections, Weight says.

Homeowners on the National Register can apply for a property tax break through the State Historic Preservation Office. Assessed valuation is reduced to 5 percent from 10 percent of full cash value.
Standing on the patio, Drew tells a reporter the house was built in 1936.

“We have to keep it like it is,” she says. “We have to send in a photograph every other year.”

The photograph goes to the state Historic Preservation Office.

The Templetons live just north of the spot where the Palmcroft Apartments once stood. The apartments were demolished in July 2007 by California developer Scott Haskins. He had fought the city, which had moved to include the apartments in the Encanto-Palmcroft historic district.

It was, for Haskins, a bit of a hollow victory. His bid to build an 87-unit, high-end condominium complex was frustrated, in large part, by Encanto neighborhood-activist G.G. George. Among other things, George sought to block Haskins from getting the city to abandon an alley bordering the proposed development.
When it came to stopping Haskins, “we did everything we could,” George says.

What George couldn’t finish off, the economy did. Haskins lost the property to foreclosure. The lot now sits empty. And for the Templetons that’s just fine. The Palmcroft Apartments, they said, had become run-down and crime-infested.

“There were as many as 10 people living in one unit,” Drew Templeton says. “We had condoms and needles of all kinds thrown into our backyard, in our pool.”

Her husband, Todd, said the residents living closest to the apartments favored demolition.

“The farther you got from the complex, the more people wanted to keep them.”

None more so than George. She moved into the neighborhood in 1969, looking for an affordable house. At that time, the Encanto neighborhood was run-down and threatened, she says. She founded a neighborhood association to preserve the Encanto-Palmcroft neighborhood as a historic district. It was listed by the city in 1987. The Palmcroft Apartments were left out of the district.

After Haskins bought the property and announced plans for development, George sought to include the apartments in the Encanto-Palmcroft overlay.

Haskins, through his lawyers, argued the overlay expansion wasn’t justified. His attorney, Janet Jackim, told officials her client was a well-known art preservationist. Haskins, she said, “understands the importance of preserving communities, but says the Palmcroft Apartments are not worth preserving.”
Todd Templeton agrees; not every old building is historic, he says. And, for those still standing, they weren’t built with historic preservation in mind.

“People seem to forget that at some point a developer built their house,” Templeton says.

George goes along one point. “Not every old building is historic,” she says.

But the Palmcroft Apartments were, she says.

For one thing, she says, “they were on the National Register of Historic Places.”

George cited their historic significance as housing for returning war veterans, built by Andy Womack.
“Mr. Womack built and paid for those out of his own pocket for his contribution to the war effort,” George says.

The Phoenix City Council, at first, sided with George, granting the historic overlay. But it backed away after Haskins threatened to sue for $40 million, citing Prop. 207. The historic overlay would reduce the fair-market value of his property by that much, he claimed.

With the city backing down, Haskins demolished the Palmcroft Apartments. As he failed to follow through on his development plans, however, the lot now sits empty. He paid about $4.5 million in 2005 for it, old apartments and all.

In June, Michael Sklar of Sonata Properties purchased the property at auction for $500,000. He used to live in the Encanto-Palmcroft neighborhood.

Sklar did not return a call but is quoted in The Midtown Messenger as saying he had no current plans for the property.

For the city, however, the threat of a Prop. 207 lawsuit had an impact beyond a strip of land facing McDowell. It halted plans to expand historic overlays for a number of neighborhoods.

“For the longest time, we were kind of designating one neighborhood after another,” Weight said.

Before Prop. 207, he says, the office generally sought approval for an overlay with a petition signed by owners representing two-thirds of the acreage. The process also involved public hearings and final approval by the City Council.

As it stands, the city is not ready to throw in the towel. Officials have their eyes on expanding the Coronado historic district, now bounded by Seventh and 14th streets, Virginia Avenue and an alley near McDowell Road. Some of the homes were built as early as 1907.

Tentative plans are in place now to proceed, with caution – though not with the extreme caution advised by the League of Arizona Cities and Towns. It recommended getting consent of every property owner affected, Weight says.

The Historic Preservation office came up with slightly lower, if still difficult, threshold for the number of signatures needed.

“We need at least 80 percent, and we will look at the remaining 20 percent and we will evaluate the risk,” Weight says, adding: “So far we have not gotten to that point.”

Even now, property owners agreeing to an overlay must sign a waiver holding the city harmless. Trujillo signed such a waiver. As it is, anybody seeking a zoning change has to sign the waiver, even if new zoning would enhance the value of property.

Not everybody sees a historic overlay as a killer of property values, Weight says.

“I get Realtors who call and say, ‘Hey, can you tell me what’s the next neighborhood going historic?’”