Free Notarization for Objections to the Proposed Buckman Historic District

As you may have heard by now, Historic Buckman submitted an application to have portions of the Buckman neighborhood designated as a National Historic District.

Some neighbors are opposed to the Historic District designation, for reasons primarily based around the design review process and associated fees that would come with it.

Neighbors who wish to register their objection to the application must submit a notarized objection form. Buckman residents Greg Moulliet and Sheila Baraga are hosting notaries at their homes this weekend, for anyone who wants to come by, fill out an objection form, and have it notarized. You can find more details at Keep Buckman Free.

(NOTE: In order to stop the proposed Historic District, 50% of Buckman property owners + 1 must submit a notarized objection form. So, if this is something you feel strongly about, be aware that every objection counts!)

Saturday January 26, 2013
From 10AM to 1PM
1524 SE Ash St

Sunday January 27, 2013
From 1PM to 4 PM
423 SE 15th Ave

You can read more about the Open Houses and the Buckman Historic District at these links:

Keep Buckman Free – http://keepbuckmanfree.org

Historic Buckman – http://historicbuckman.org

Buckman Historic Association Update

The Buckman Historic Association issued a press release today regarding their effort to establish a National Historic District in the Buckman neighborhood. You can download a PDF of the release here, or read it on the Portland Preservation website here. We’ve also included the text of the release below.

Press Release from the Buckman Historic Association February 9, 2012

When the effort began to form a historic district in Buckman, we had two main goals.

1. Improve neighborhood pride and cohesiveness

2. Protect our neighborhood’s historic resources and unique character through demolition review and design review.

After much feedback, we find that many residents are opposed to the concept of a historic district, mainly because of current design fees and the design review process. Additionally, we have discovered that demolition review only delays demolition, and does not halt it. We had also hoped it would be possible to develop our own design guidelines for the district. The city, despite having standards that are hard to interpret and, therefore, hard to enforce, does not want any help in developing new design review guidelines.

In the meantime, the Buckman Historic Association has committed to work with other Portland historic districts and historic preservation groups to campaign against the outrageous design review fees. We can’t say how long that might take and our success cannot be guaranteed. However, the historic association and volunteers have put in countless hours towards this project and the nomination is nearly complete. We are on track to have the application ready to hand in on March 1st. We don’t want to see our efforts go to waste, or to have to start over from the beginning at some future point, but we also see that continuing as planned would be harmful to the neighborhood.

A solution has appeared!

We have a chance to preserve our work, while also taking some time to pause, to bring the community together and to address the issues causing in ways we all find agreeable.

Our work can be submitted as a “Determination of Eligibility” (DOE), rather than as a nomination for a historic district. This gets our work on record but does not have the restrictions of a historic district. In the meantime, the state, and possibly the landmarks commission, would review and evaluate the DOE. No regulations would be imposed by the city. No design reviews. No demolition reviews. No new fees. If approved as a DOE, it would not become a full nomination until we initiated that process, which would involve outreach and the same review timeline as a historic district.

The Buckman Historic Association and neighbors opposing the historic district have joined    together to share our views and to work towards finding solutions. Over the next few months, we’ll send out information, announcements and updates as we talk to our local politicians and plan gatherings, workshops and events. And as we head towards elections, the Buckman Neighborhood Association and other organizations around the city will host candidate forums and we encourage you to attend and participate.

As homeowners and renters, we all care about our community and are invested in seeing that Buckman is livable, safe and vibrant. Our neighborhood may not have the big houses and broad lawns of some of the other historic neighborhoods, but, as Portland’s first suburb, Buckman has a diversity, history, proximity and character that, very likely, drew you here, too.

Free Notarization for Objections to the Proposed Buckman Historic District

As you may have heard by now, the Buckman Historic Association is preparing an application to have portions of the Buckman neighborhood designated as a National Historic District. You can read more about it at these links:

• Buckman Historic Association home page: http://www.visitahc.org/content/buckman-historic-district
• Article about the proposed district on OregonLive.com: http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2011/12/southeast_portlands_buckman_ne.html
• Post on the Portland Architecture blog: http://chatterbox.typepad.com/portlandarchitecture/2011/11/getting-history-and-fees-right-in-irvington.html

Some neighbors are opposed to the Historic District designation, for reasons primarily based around the design review process and associated fees that would come with it.

Neighbors who wish to register their objection to the application must submit a notarized objection form. Buckman resident Greg Moulliet is hosting a notary at his home tomorrow, Saturday, January 14th, for anyone who wants to come by, fill out an objection form, and have it notarized. You can find more details and a link to Greg’s website below.

(NOTE: In order to stop the proposed Historic District, 50% of Buckman property owners + 1 must submit a notarized objection form. So, if this is something you feel strongly about, be aware that every objection counts!)

http://keepbuckmanfree.org

Saturday January 14, 2012
From Noon to 4PM
1524 SE Ash St

Buckman Historic Association Website Updates

The Buckman Historic Association recently made some updates and additions to their website that we wanted to bring to your attention, as this is an issue that has been generating a lot of interest and discussion among neighbors. Among the changes are:

1. A proposed district boundary map
2. A timeline (under project description) which, although no longer accurate date-wise, gives a good idea of the process
3. The PowerPoint presentation from the City of Portland on Historic Design Review

Visit the Buckman Historic Association website here: http://www.visitahc.org/content/buckman-historic-district

 

A Perspective on the Buckman Historic District

We recently received an e-mail from a Buckman resident with some questions and concerns about the proposed Historic District in Buckman:

I own an historic home in Buckman that we have lovingly restored over many years. I am concerned that it will become more difficult and more expensive to do the kind of good work that we are doing to our home. In addition, I am concerned that some of the good infill that is happening in our neighborhood will come to a stop while the old, ugly, and poorly build 70s development will continue to fall into disrepair. Is there a way for me to log my concerns and hear feedback?

We know there are many people in Buckman who probably have similar concerns. Tim Askin, a member of both the BCA board and the Buckman Historic Association, weighed in with his thoughts:

We thank you for your interest in the project and your concern. We in fact share many of your concerns. The city’s design review fees are both unreasonable and counterproductive. They are admittedly the highest such fees in Oregon and as research by the Irvington Neighborhood Association has shown, they are most likely the highest in the nation. The Buckman Historic Association and presumably the Buckman Community Association will be joining with Irvington, the Architectural Heritage Center, and many other neighborhoods in filing written complaints to the city and forcing current mayoral and council candidates to address the issue in public forums.

As to your own restoration projects and that of our neighbors’, presumably most of your work is interior. The historic district does not add any new regulation to interiors. It simply tries to assure that exterior changes are done sensitively and appropriately as yours have been. I am sure you have seen several beautiful 19th century houses all around Buckman and Portland where insensitive additions and changes have been made.

Finally, as to infill. Most of the recent projects in Buckman have been much more tasteful than the buildings constructed in the 60s and 70s. However, they have not necessarily been as respectful of their neighbors in size, scale, or massing as might have been liked (without regard to anyone’s preferences on design/style/aesthetics). Within the district boundary (http://visitahc.org/files/pdf/Buckman_Map.pdf) there is simply no inventory whatsoever of vacant, buildable land (Washington High School notwithstanding, the city that owns the grounds now and PPS which maintains ownership of the building are not going to part with those parcels under any circumstances). One of the primary goals of this project is to prevent demolitions of the wonderful buildings we currently have, which historically has been by developers who have no social stake in our community. Nothing in the city’s historic district regulations will prevent demolition of buildings constructed after 1938 (in Buckman’s district, the cutoff year is district-specific).

To this point, the Buckman Community Association has taken no official stance on the district proposal. I have been asked to draft the response, but I cannot speak on its behalf. I speak only for myself and the separate Buckman Historic Association.

As Tim mentioned, the BCA has taken no formal position on the Historic District effort. Our goal at this time is more to facilitate community members’ involvement in this interesting and important process.

Buckman Historic District Page on the Architectural Heritage Center Site

The Architectural Heritage Center has a page on their website devoted to the Buckman Historic Association’s efforts to establish a historic district in Buckman. You can check it out here: http://www.visitahc.org/content/buckman-historic-district.

Historic District Presentation

A preliminary presentation of the proposed historic district in the Buckman neighborhood will be made to the Landmarks Commission on Monday, June 27th at 1:30 pm. The location is 1900 SW 4th Ave., Room 2500A.  It is scheduled as the third item on the agenda (link opens a PDF file):

http://www.portlandonline.com/bds/index.cfm?c=42443&a=318380

Historic District Committee Article in the Oregonian

A group of Buckmanites are working to have a portion of the Buckman neighborhood added to the National Register of Historic Places. Read all about ’em in the Oregonian:

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2011/04/buckman_historic_district.html

TONIGHT! – Historic Designation Meeting

Tonight is the monthly Buckman Community Association general meeting. This will be a special meeting, as we’ll be turning over the bulk of the agenda to the Buckman Historic Designation Committee to talk about their effort to establish a National Register Historic District in the oldest part of Buckman.

We encourage to join us and learn more about just what it means to own property in a historic district. Speakers will include:

• Ian Johnson, State Historic Preservation Office
• Dave Skilton, Bureau of Development Services
• Liza Mickle, Bureau of Planning
• Art deMuro, Venerable Properties
• Stephen Zylstra, Ladd’s Addition resident
• Cathy Galbraith, from the Architectural Heritage Center/Bosco-Milligan Foundation, will say a few brief words

There will be time for questions from the audience.

The meeting with take place from 7-9pm at Central Catholic High School, located at 2401 SE Stark St. We normally meet in the library at Central Catholic, but due to the size of the planned event, we will be meeting in the cafeteria.

The BCA Board will meet prior to the main meeting, in the main floor conference room at 6pm.

Work on a Buckman Historic District to be Revived

Discussions are on-going regarding the creation of an historic district in residential Buckman.  The assistance of a PSU intern may be available along with a small grant to help with the work.

The area around Buckman school seems to have the highest probability of being selected due to the number of Victorian residences there and the significant landmarks.

Work on the historic district was discontinued a year ago due to the lack of resources and the likelihood that an historic district would not protect the entire neighborhood from future incompatible development.

We will need the help and involvement of the residents in the area selected.  You are encouraged to assist with the project and respond to inquires as they occur over the coming months.

Main Street, Portland Coalition News

The Portland Main Street Coalition has been active this spring. Several weeks ago we co-sponsored a workshop about the future growth and densification of inner city residential neighborhoods in order to allow neighborhood representatives the opportunity to express their concerns to local officials about the potential degradation it too much unregulated growth occurs.

Related to this is Senate Bill 907 which is intended to expand design review along Portland’s main streets and in town centers.  Unfortunately this was not successful due to the powerful homebuilders lobby and a senate committee that did not have any Portland representatives.  We were very pleased with the support given by our Mayor, Sam Adams, and many other progressive organizations and individuals.  This discussion will continue until ways are found to insure quality development in Portland.

And finally we have been focused on the upcoming development of the Portland Plan that will direct the future growth of Portland for the next thirty years.  This plan has been delayed due to the city budget reduction and will be scaled back or possible even discontinued in favor of more specific shorter range action plan that will result in specific improvements in Portland.

St. Clair Apartments Restoration

Buckman’s St. Clair apartment building was built in 1900 and suffered an unfortunate ‘modernization’ many years ago that involved encasing the building in stucco. The original design and balcony structure have been restored along with the original siding and trim. This one hundred year old this building typifies a medium density project that enhances the surrounding Buckman neighborhood.

The building, at 13th and Taylor, was restored from plans by Communitecture, the Portland firm that specializes in sustainable, community-oriented design. The architect for the project is Buckman resident and leader, Christine Yun who has involved herself with the renovation of Washington High School Community Center, the restoration of Buckman Pool, the Buckman Historic District, and the Main Street Portland Coalition.

One finds in the Claire apartments, twenty apartments with studios, one, and two bedrooms. The kinds of materials in this building will never be found in a new building, such as the Ionic columns in the foyer made with old growth Douglas fir. Inside, the building’s historical accuracy has been thoughtfully maintained. We hope that more of the historic older buildings as well as the newer buildings of dubious quality are redone in a similar manner.

Amanda Fritz at Historic Association Meeting

City Council candidate Amanda Fritz is coming to speak and hear Portland’s neighborhood concerns Monday, October 13th at the monthly meeting of the Buckman Historic Association.  Come hear her at 7 pm and then stay to find out more about the Association.

The Buckman Historic Association is forming a cross-neighborhood coalition to address development policies in support of sustainable neighborhood growth, preservation of existing historic neighborhood character and livability, creation of walkable and green neighborhoods, compensation of increased density with neighborhood amenities, enforcement of development policies, and more.

The meeting will be held at Hinson Memorial Baptist Church, SE 20th & Salmon St.