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Corrales Seeks Funds to Protect Business District Buildings, Scene |
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Written by Jeff Radford
Corrales Comment
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Tuesday, 09 March 2010 |
If a grant request is successful later this year, Corrales will develop
a plan to save historic and culturally significant buildings in its
commercial district.
Mayor Phil Gasteyer announced at the February 23 Village Council
meeting that his administration has filed a letter of intent to seek a
$50,000 grant through the Scenic Byways program in Santa Fe for a
“historical and cultural resource protection plan.”
Such a plan would help implement recommendations from the Architectural
Review Task Force earlier this year. Those recommendations, intended to
preserve the context of older farmhouses along Corrales Road as the
business district develops, are being considered by the Corrales
Planning and Zoning Commission.
Comments from the P&Z board will accompany the report when it is
formally presented to the Village Council in the weeks ahead.
Commissioners held a work-study session on the task force
recommendations March 3 to consider how Corrales’ land use
regulations might need to be revised.
The letter of intent to request a grant explained the funds would be
used to “help finance the development of a historic and cultural
resource protection plan and legislative implementation required to
ensure integrity of the plan.”
The mayor’s letter went to Laurie Frantz, state scenic byways
coordinator for the N.M. Tourism Department. He noted “The protection
of these cultural and historic resources is a core value of our
community that has kept an agrarian identity intact for 300 years.…
Millions have been invested in Farmland Preservation through
conservation easements and education to protect keystone resources
along this ancient corridor.”
A final paragraph mentions tourist attractions such as “historic
acequias, farms and buildings alongside a bosque preserve that is
habitat for many species of wildlife.”
The goal of protecting the farming community ambiance of Corrales’
business district has been recognized and widely supported for decades.
The final report of the Architectural Review Task Force created by the
Village Council in 2005 and re-constituted in 2008 recommends changes
to ordinances that would protect historic buildings in the business
district as well as their surrounding context.
(See Corrales Comment Vol.XXVII, No.13 August 23, 2008 “Master Plan
Proposed for Corrales Business District” and Vol.XXVIII, No.9 June 20,
2009 “With Sewer Coming, New Controls Needed for Business Area”)
The task force report was produced by Ed Boles, Tom Waldron, Ron Reder and Mary Davis.
Davis and Boles have worked through these issues on and off since the
mid-1980s. Both have extensive careers in historic preservation and
long affiliation with State or local MainStreet programs.
Davis was formerly the City of Albuquerque’s Historic Preservation Planner, the position Boles now fills.
Waldron is an artist who lives in the Old Church Road Historic Zone.
Reder is an engineer who consistently attends Planning and Zoning
Commission meetings.
The basic approach is to hire professionals to determine which
buildings or other features, including open fields, in the community’s
commercial core contribute to the character of the village that should
be preserved and then apply land use controls to accomplish that.
That is apparently what the $50,000 Scenic Byways grant would begin.
An introductory section of the report explains. “It is important to
also note that, in addition to specific properties that exhibit the
elements that help define the character of the village, it is also the
collection of properties and the way they complement and contrast with
each other that define the character of the village.
“To put it another way, preserving one or two adobes, for example,
while allowing them to be surrounded by large, out-of-character
buildings does not preserve the character of the village but merely
preserves one or two memorials to the past.”
Any new restrictions would apply only within limited areas of the
village that would be “designated as overlay zones, a type of
designation not now found in the Zoning Ordinance.”
Such areas would be determined after a “formal, professional survey has
been performed to identify the properties that contribute to either the
agricultural or historic character of the village. Once the
survey has been completed, its results should be used to define the
boundaries of the overlay zones such that they contain most, but
perhaps not all, of the contributing properties as well as a small
buffer area around them.”
The concept of “contributing elements” is essential to understanding
the task force’s recommendations. The idea is that some properties or
aspects of land use “contribute to the village character or have
historical significance” more than others. The report contains the
following illustrative lists.
A. Agricultural heritage- contributing elements:
• orchards
•connections to old acequias
• fields
• high number of pre-1950 houses close to the road with open fields behind
• long, narrow lots reflecting traditional Spanish land divisions
• presence of native cottonwoods
• adobe buildings
• original Wagner farm stand.
B. Historic significance - contributing elements:
• houses once belonging to notable old families
• old stores, bar
• first school, location of noteworthy local events (courthouse, tragic happenings)
• early home post office
• dance halls
• community building
The recommendations section of the task force report reads as follows, verbatim.
“1. Hire an experienced professional architectural history or
historical architect to perform a survey of all properties in the
Corrales Road commercial area and Historic Zones;
“2. Based on the survey and existing historic research, develop
historic context statements that identify for each zone area its
history, significance and defining physical characteristics.
“3. Based on the results of recommendations 1 and 2, determine if any
area should receive an overlay zone designation that will conserve its
character. This will require amending the current zone code to include
overlay zone designation as a zoning tool. Overlay zones do not change
the underlying zoning but do contain regulations to conserve physical
and/or historic aspects of an area deemed worthy of conservation.
“4. If such overlay zones are created, appoint a group of three persons
knowledgeable and experienced in architecture, history and/or
related fields that will advise in a timely manner the [Planning
and Zoning] Commission or Village staff when items relating to
properties in an overlay zone or the H[istoric] Zone are being
considered.
“5. Each overlay zone (if any) and the H zone must include a
designation of contributing properties (i.e. those that exhibit the
physical characteristics and/or history illustrative of the
significance of the zone area) and non-contributing properties.
Regulations for the zones should include demolition regulations for
contributing properties. Standards for alterations and additions to
contributing structures should be primarily based on the massing,
styles, materials and placement on the lot (including relationship to
major roads) of those contributing structures. Alterations and/or
additions should not obscure or remove architectural elements that make
the property contributing.
“6. Regulations guiding new construction should be based on the
massing, styles, materials and placement on the lot (including
relationship to major roads) of contributing properties in that overlay
zone. Regulations guiding alteration and/or additions to
non-contributing properties should also be developed, since they are
likely to affect the appearance and character of the area, but they
should be less stringent than those for contributing properties.
“7. The review process should be commensurate with the scope of the
project; the regulations should exercise only enough control to prevent
inappropriate change. Routine building maintenance in any overlay zone
or the historic zone should not require staff or (P&Z) Commission
approval. Replacement of existing features with compatible substitutes
should only require staff approval.
“8. If open fields are determined to be contributing to an overlay zone
or to the H zone, strategies such as a special setback should be
developed to conserve a degree of openness on that property.
“9. The Village should develop methods that encourage the retention of
contributing properties. These could include: simplification of site
development plan submission requirements, lower sewer connection rates,
reduction in parking requirements or shared parking agreements, tax
abatement, higher lot coverage percentage, and giving such projects
priority for Planning and Zoning building permit staff.”
Those nine recommendations are based on the “findings and conclusions”
section of the report which begins by noting that “The task force
concluded that the character of the village is determined to a large
degree by its agricultural heritage and the farm-based community that
grew from it.…
“In addition to Corrales’ agricultural heritage,” the authors
continued, “the task force believes there are certain buildings within
the village which are of historical importance and that also contribute
to the village’s character. The task force believes both types of these
‘contributing properties’ should be preserved.”
The task force discussed the charge given them by the mayor and council
and “concluded that the greatest potential for loss of contributing
properties lies within the Corrales Road commercial Area (CRCA). In the
absence of other constraints, the task force believes current economic
forces will generally influence commercial development toward
demolition of existing small buildings and their replacement by large
buildings. If there are contributing properties within the CRCA, and we
think there are many, the task force concluded they are the properties
at highest risk of loss or degradation.
“The conclusions and beliefs of the task force about contributing
properties stated in the preceding paragraphs are just that. They are
not facts. To validate its conclusions, the task force recommends that
the Village contract for a professional survey, performed by
individuals with expertise in historical and architectural
preservation, to identify contributing properties, if any, in the CRCA
and Historic Zone of the village. The results of this survey
should form the basis for the Village to decide what should be
preserved and how to do so.”
Assuming the professional consultants do identify structures and other
features which significantly contribute to Corrales’ distinctive
character, “the task force proposes that the Village should create
overlay zones to encompass contributing properties and their immediate
surroundings. The task force does not recommend that the zone
classifications of the properties within an overlay zone be changed.
Instead it recommends that the Village should amend the Village
[Zoning] Code to create overlay zone regulations that preserve the
contributing properties and control changes to the surrounding,
non-contributing properties within the overlay zones in a way that
supports preservation of the village character.”
Such an approach would not save all the “contributing” elements that
make Corrales what it is, the task force noted, but developing methods
for the commercial district and the already-designated Historic Zones
would be a start. “The task force recognizes that there probably are
properties that contribute to the village character or have historical
significance that are outside the CRCA and the H Zone. While it would
be desirable to include the entire village in a survey, we believe that
would be too expensive. Therefore we recommend that the scope of this
effort be limited to the CRCA and the H Zone for the present.”
A “chronology” section of the report relates the recent history of this
current effort to find some way to preserve the character of the
commercial area.
“The Architectural Review Task Force for the Village of Corrales was
originally created by the governing body of the Village in early 2005
and presented its report to the Planning and Zoning Commission on April
26, 2006. This report was found unsatisfactory for several reasons.
Among concerns included in a June 12, 2006 letter from the Corrales
Village attorney were: 1) a recommended review process that could be
lengthy and cumbersome, 2) the powers of the recommended architectural
review committee could possibly deny a project without provision for
appeal, and 3) a lack of defined standards by which projects would be
considered.
“In late June of 2008, the governing body passed Resolution 08-034
which re-created the task force to advise it about making changes to
the Village ordinances to conserve the historic, traditional and unique
character of the village within the C, H, M and O zones of the Village
[commercial, historic, municipal and professional office zones].
“The members of the task force were appointed by September and they met
for the first time in early October. Over the course of the next 15
months, the task force met to discuss what gives the village its
character, what can and should be conserved in order to retain that
character, and what changes to the Village ordinances the task force
should recommend in order for the governing body to implement a
conservation plan.
“In November of 2008, members of the task force walked a section of
Corrales Road from Calle Bonita to the post office, noting
characteristics of the agricultural, residential and commercial
properties. Following this walk, the task force created a rough list of
properties in that vicinity to help focus discussions about how best to
preserve the village character.
“In April of 2009, the task force met with two representatives of the
N.M. Historic Preservation Division to walk around part of the Corrales
Road Commercial Area. During this meeting the representatives noted the
still-visible presence of elements related to Corrales’ agricultural
heritage, and that the CRCA might qualify as a historic district if its
significance was based on that heritage.
“From July to September of 2009, the task force spent considerable time
reviewing the recommendations of the [Corrales] MainStreet Master
Plan…. Of particular concern was the extent to which the
recommendations supported and/or conflicted with the goals of the task
force. This effort culminated in a conference call with Ms. Susan
Freed, a consultant who worked on the MainStreet Master Plan, at the
task force’s regular meeting on the evening of September 16.”
The City of Albuquerque has recently begun steps to create a similar
“historic overlay zone” for the Silver Hills neighborhood along Silver
and Gold Avenue in the vicinity of University Boulevard.
The City’s Landmarks and Urban Conservation Commission approved such a
recommendation to the City Council last month. A Silver Hills Historic
District was listed on the State Register of Cultural Properties in
1986. |
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