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2020.3.4 Ertl commentGood afternoon, I come to you today as the president of Boulder Dushanbe Sister Cities (BDSC). I would like to add to the email that you received from our board member, Sophia Stoller. One member of our board, Anton Relin, is here this evening; others were not able to make it. In principal, I think all of our board is in favor of landmarking – we wouldn’t want the Teahouse to be torn down for housing or painted orange. On the other hand, many of us don’t want it to be frozen in time either. As you know, BDSC has been very active in supporting the Teahouse. As the Initiation memo indicates, were it not for our organization, there would be no Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse. When Sophia Stoller and Mary Hey created Boulder Dushanbe Sister Cities, they were not thinking of a teahouse. I personally take credit for making the phone call to the Dushanbe mayor’s office to try to get them not to send it. But they persisted and shipped it anyway. Since the day it opened, the Teahouse has been an iconic structure. When people ask what our organization does, I reply that we organize exchanges and educate Americans about Tajikistan, but most importantly, we work with Lenny Martinelli and his managers, and the City, to make sure that the Teahouse continues to be the welcoming, beautiful place that it is. The most intense recent example of this was 2018, when we worked to invite Maruf Mirakhmatov, a grandson of the primary builder, to repaint the north wall. We helped juggle the relationship between the City and CU to get him here, and when he arrived here, board members and others spent hundreds of hours making him welcome, opening our homes to him, showing him Colorado, translating for him, and teaching him to ski. This 30-year-old Tajik artist is a very impressive young man, and had a profound influence on those of us that were able to spend time with him. So it came as a surprise when in February, we found out that a group called Friends of the Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse had submitted an application for landmark status, especially since I know three of them. That application was submitted on the day of our Annual Meeting, January 8, but no one bothered to tell us about it, including two of the applicants who were at that meeting. I understand that the proposal for a possible vestibule on the front of the Teahouse, designed by a Tajik architect, was the impetus for urgently placing it on the agenda of the Landmarks Board. Ironically, the vestibule, which was proposed by Joe Castro of the City of Boulder, has been placed on the back burner for the next several years. Members of the Board, while encouraging something that would enhance the experience of dining at the Teahouse, were generally tepid supporters of the idea. Not knowing the implications of landmarking, I was pleased that Vern Seieroe consented to meet with me, Sophia, and Sophia’s husband, Peter to give us a short explanation of those implications. Vern was able to allay some of our fears. I asked him if we could continue to work with Tajik artists to maintain the building, which gives us the opportunity to educate CU students and the Boulder community on the art and, to some extent, the culture of Tajikistan. He assured us that we could do so with minimal interference from the Landmarks Commission. I understand that if proposed changes would alter the character of the Teahouse, then the Board has the authority to forbid the changes. At the same time, I would hope that compatible changes would be welcomed. It is not clear to me what part of the Teahouse would be landmarked. I had some concern that the entire 67,000 square foot parcel would be included, but this evening that has been clarified. I question the need to landmark the quarter acre or so that surrounds the Teahouse. Specifically, there is a planter roughly eight feet from the front door that is a safety hazard in the summer, as servers trip over it getting to the patio, and, frankly, an eyesore in the winter – vase with a big rock on it. Would landmarking require that that remain? On the other hand, I would encourage the board to landmark the Tajik elements of the interior as well. At the same time, the back area and the kitchen, I would think, should not be preserved. In light of recent developments, and an uncomfortable start to the process, I would ask that the Commission slow down the landmarking process. In general, if the Board wants to preserve the Teahouse in its present state, no matter what is proposed, I would suggest that the City leave the Teahouse to the people who have invested the most in it – the City of Boulder, Teahouse management, and BDSC. Whether or not the Teahouse is landmarked, BDSC looks forward to working more closely with the Friends of the Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse to get their participation. Thank you.