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8A - Update Memo March 4`h, 2009 TO: Landmarks Preservation Advisory Board FROM: James Hewat, Chris Meschuk SUBJF,CT: Update Memo . Revisions to Enforcement Provisions in Historic Preservation Ordinance Once the criminal and administrative penalties have been preliminarily reviewed and comment on by the Board, they will be brought to the Landmarks Board for formal review and recommendation and subsequently to the City Council for adoption, if appropriate. Post WW-II Residential Subdivision Survey and Context The first cut of the reconnaissance survey has been made in selecting the 110 examples that will be intensively surveyed. Tim Plass has been working on the oral historic component of the project. It is hoped that the oral histories will be completed by April. Mapleton School See attached e-mail Valmont Mill Staff is working on a Colorado Historical Society condition assessment grant application. 2009 CLG Grant Application Update at meeting. New and Pending Land Use Review Applications Valmont Park Planning Board Calendar See attached. Stay-of-Demolition Status Summary, March 4th, 2009 Date of Date Stay Date of Address Construction Imposed hxpiration Current Status Have met with applicant to discuss alternatives. G07 Forest c.1937 12/3/2008 04/06/2009 Applicant considers Avenue demolition only reasonable alternative to redeveloping ro ert . Landmark Applications Update:. • 896 17`h Street designated 42.17.2409. • 1918 '/2 Pearl Street City Council hearing 03.03.2009 Attachments: "Historic Jewish Haven in Shanghai Faces Demolition" Luisa Lim. National Public Radio E-mail from Holly Cahill regarding Mapleton School project. Historic Preservation Comments for 3160 Airport Road Sitc review Application. „1 . Historic Jewish Haven In Shanghai Faces Demolition :NPR - Login ~ Regstez• February 20, 2009 World Historic Jewish Haven In Shanghai Faces Demolition by Louisa Lim Listen Now j~ mitt g~secJ add to playlist - Mornin~Editictn, February zi, 2009 • Part of Shanghai's Jewish history is ' ` ~ under threat from bulldozers. . 'y' Y._ ' ~ ` ~ In the 193os, Shanghai was the only place in the world to offer visa-free - - ~S~t, sanctuary to Jews fleeing Nazism - 20,000 ended up in Shanghai. In 1943, ~ : ~ n the Japanese restricted them to aone-square-mile area, which became known ~ ~ ~ as Little Vienna. . v - 'rr A pianist and a violinist used to play popular music for customers at the White Horse Inn, or Das Weisse Rossl. The waitresses wore dirndls - - • . ~ • • • • • • • • • • • • • traditional Bavarian outfits -and the menu featured Wiener schnitzel. ;..~~:<.~e aos c S But the White Horse wasn't in Austria or Germany, it was in wartime Shanghai. And for the city's wealthier Jewish refugees, it offered a memory of homes that no longer existed. "My wedding parry was in White Horse Inn, ~•vhich was fantastic," remembers . ~F., Kurt Mosberg, now go years old and living in Sydney. "It was mostly my ~ a ' _ - friends, mostly Jewish people, about i2o people. Thinking that it was in ~f - Shanghai, it's an amazing thing, you know." • Mosberg's parents started the White Horse Inn in Shanghai in 1939 and ran it for five years as a nightclub. Patrons sit in the courtyard of Shanghai's White Iforse Inn. During World War II, Jewish refugees came to the restaurant Uncovering Layers Of the Past and nightclub to Fnd music and food that reminded them of the homes they left Today, the building still stands. It's easily identified by a distinctive fluted behind in Europe. Now, this and other circular turret. Below that, painted on its wall is the Chinese character "to be historic buildings in the Jewish quarter demolished." The White Horse Inn is among a number of buildings inside the are slated to be razed for aroad- Jewish district to be knocked down to make way for a cvidened road. expansion project. Courtesy Ron Klinger/Kurt Mosberg E1s they start work, the demolition crews are uncovering layers of the past, like unwitting architectural archaeologists. By knoclung down shop facades, old shop signs beneath are revealed, like one for Wuerstel Tenor, a sandwich shop, which had been covered for decades. They will pull down other fading shop fronts at the heart of Little Vienna, as well - those of Cafe Atlantic and Horn's Imbiss-stube (Horn's Snack Bar). "The existing refugee coffee shops [and] restaurants were a shining light in the lives of the refugees, who did not ~l http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100522156 2/20/2009 Historic Jewish Haven In Shanghai Faces Demolition :NPR _ . • know how long their isolation and misery would last, should they survive," . says Rena Krasno, who has wiztten about her experiences living through ' ~ r World War II in Shanghai. - ' - ~ ' "In these eateries, they felt they were back in Europe and for a short time K -.r~ ~ I , eliminated their painful fate from their minds," she says. 3"~-~:r, Dvir Bar-Gal is an Israeli journalist who is writing a book about Shanghai's Jewish past. He also leads tours around the Jewish quarter. For him, the , question is how important it is for a society to keep its past If the demolitions - ~ go ahead, he fears there will be less and less to show visitors, and he fears the little-known story of Shanghai's Jewish past will be in danger of being completely forgotten. . ~ _ ~;~tir: " - ~ y`~ "People will stop coming. There will be no interest in the almost forgotten story of the i94os, the people who were saved here from the Nazis," he says. r.. i.~~~,f_~: ~;,_;~eit Ruan Yisan, a professor at tihanghai's preserving History Difficult, Unpopular Tongji University, has launched a campaign to try to save historic buildings In 2005, the Chinese government declared ~o acres of the Jewish ghetto a in the Jewish quarter. He says being a conservation zone. The White Horse Inn and buildings slated for demolition conservationist is a lonely job in China. are inside that zone, but aren't designated protected buildings. Ruan Yisan, a professor at Tongji University in Shanghai, oversaw the - designation of the conservation zone three years ago. Yet he had no idea about the demolitions until alerted by NPR: After visiting the area, he vowed ,o take action. i ~ { "I'll start making appeals to see what options there are," he says. "These are ~ ~ important historical sites in the conservation zone. If you knock them down, - it will never recover." - but the professor notes that preserving history is difficult - -and unpopular - in China. - ` r' - f "Normal people all want these buildings knocked down, the government - ~,roants to knock them down, the developers want to knock them down. It's only us conservationists who want to keep them." ~ Officials Try To Strike Balance Chen Jian from the liongkou district For local government officials in Shanghai, the case is a classic example of the government says the buildings will be challenge they face in balancing the city's modernization with conservation of demolished to construct new exits to a its past. But Cheng Jun from the Hongkou district urban planning and major road. He says local officials have management bureau says the demolitions are necessary to form part of a had to balance history with the demands larger road network. of the present. "In the future, the amount of traffic will be far greater. And we must build roads for that, otherwise the traffic in the city center will be a catastrophe," he Related NPR Stories says. June t6, aoo6 "When we drew up the conservation zone, we decided then to widen this http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1005221 S6 2/20/2009 Historic Jewish Haven In Shanghai Faces Demolition :NPR Ginter Revives Shanghai`s Je~~ish particular road, as the impact would be relatively small." Histrn~~ Another official, Chen Jian from the Hongkou district government, emphasizes that many other historic buildings, dating back to the time of the Jewish ghetto, still remain, including the Ohel Moshe Synagogue, which has become the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum. "~Ne'll do our best to remove and save some of the most valuable artifacts, if feasible," he says. "But that's not to say that we won't demolish these buildings." Vanishing Without A Trace? That decision will not be welcomed by Gary MaUdorff, an 83-year-old refugee who now lives in California. He remembers the White Horse Inn clearly, because his father went there every afternoon to sip coffee and chat. "I'm very saddened to hear that it's really going to be demolished," he says. "It's not a happy thought that this area is going to be destroyed for the purpose of so-called progress." Back in 2983, one former refugee, Fred Marcus, returned to Shanghai. His first reaction, noted in his diaries, which have just been published posthumously, was shock. "It was as if we had never been there!" he wrote. "More than 20,000 people vanished without a trace!" His initial confusion was due to the rundown nature of the area, rather than demolitions. But his words now sound like a prediction, as building for China's future obliterates its past. Recent First Thehnl_Francisco (Fgla~ wrote: . I hope the Jewish community does something about it quick, so W~i~dR;',~~,R4~~a1}'y'~~~6~41f~1?}5~:~~c~'~'~•t . i'elissa Rec~nm nd ~ Report abuse ~ Roger Cershavy (RGersh, wrote: We have toured China two times and one of the highlights was that of the Shanghai Ghetto with Dvir. The history of that time needs to be conserved so we are knowledgable enough to NOT repeat the past. What is next...Do we tear down what Sassoon had built,..Do we tear down the history of the Plying Tigers...Do we tear down the Burma Road? China has grown and survived because of some of these major events. When do the future generations learn from the past. If wider roads needed by development groups are the answer than we all have a problem. In answer to Fuzzy Chicken and the concern over the Yalestinians...other reazby countries would not accept them...but the Chinese at that time in history did and many survived. "The Shanghai Jews during internment were not wealthy and http://www.npr.org/templateslstoiy/story.php?storyId=100522156 2/2U/2009 Hewat, James From: Cahill, Holly Sent: Tuesday, February 03, 2009 12:29 PM To: Hewat, James Subject: Mapleton Update Good afternoon lames, tried to call but you must have been away from the phone. Quick recap: Glen S, BvSD, brought copies of the work they had completed, as-built drawings, the ALTA survey, and environmental hazards update report. Several of us had just attended a Q&A session for interested providers; only 6 came but we have had phone calls from others. The deadline for the letters of interest 2/13. We also discussed an evaluation grid that could be used by the committee to evaluate the letters. We will not be ranking them, just trying to see if they meet guidelines and are a good fit. A subcommittee is meeting next week to discuss what is needed in a business plan. We are trying to keep costs down so that we can have enough budget to contract for schematic plans. As far as community outreach, we have an article in the City of Boulder Spring Newsletter. We're working on a Mapleton Newsletter intended for community outreach, probably in February. We're thinking of a community meeting when we have the business plan. We're anxious to start on the schematic plan piece. We think we have an approach as far as financing it. As I get further along, I'll let you know more so that the Landmark input can be as early as possible, right when the consultant starts. Holly x1829 P Historic Preservation Comments for Site Review Application 3160 Airport Road The Parks and Recreation department is proposing to relocate the Landmarked 1908 farmhouse 700' southwest of its current site. Parks and Recreation intends to use the farmhouse as a community meeting facility. The house is historically significant for its association with James M. Platt (the first Water Commissioner for Boulder County) and the Platt family, and for i.ts role in the agricultural develvpment of east Boulder. The house is architecturally significant as an intact example of an early-20th century farm construction and environmentally significant for its proximity to the North Boulder Farmers Ditch and the Boulder and Left Hand Ditch, which played significant roles in the agricultural development of the Valmont community. On January 7~, 2009, by a vote of 3-2 (Spitzer & Kornblum dissenting), the Landmarks Board denied the application to relocate the house finding that it did not meet the standards for issuance of a Landmark Alteration Certificate (lac) and would adversely affect the special character or special historic & architectural value of the landmark. In particular, the Board found that the proposed new location for the building would not preserve its historic "rural" setting. To this end, the Board suggested that the site plan for the park be redesigned by moving the proposed parking lot further north and/or relocating the house further east on the property, nearer to its current location. The Landmark Board's denial of the application was "called-up" by the City Council on January 20~, 2009, per 9-11-16 of the Boulder Revised Code. City Council's review of the decision is scheduled for March 3rd, 2009. Since being called-up, city Parks & Recreation, Transportation, Fire, Planning, and Historic Preservation staff has met to explore alternatives to the proposed plan in an attempt to address the Landmark Board's concern that the existing plan does not appropriately preserve the "rural" setting of the Platt Farmhouse. Based up these discussions, three alternatives have been developed (options A- C). Option A & B do not change the proposed new location of the farmhouse, but both call for the parking area to be moved north and significantly away from the building. Option A calls for the parking area to be accessed from at the north end with a limited access fire lane across from Butte Street. Option B provides access to the parking across from Butte Street. Option C shows the farmhouse to be located approximately 240' northeast of that shown in the original scheme and in options A & B. In option C, the house would be served by a limited access driveway and accessible/service driveway. Options A & B do provide for a more rural setting for the house by keeping the parking area at least 90' from the building. Option C appears to provide the most rural setting for the building by keeping it several hundred feet back from the road and parking area. It is unclear from the plan how the "pump track" (approximately 60 west of the building) would visually impact the historic house. Please contact James Hewat at 303.441.3207 if you need more information regarding this matter.