Tacoma City Council’s Neighborhoods and Housing Committee will meet next week at City Hall to discuss an initiative underway that aims to improve the City of Tacoma’s enforcement codes in order to prevent “demolition by neglect” of historic properties throughout the city.
According to a report prepared by city staff, Tacoma has many distressed properties, some of which are listed on the local and national registers of historic places, either individually or as contributing structures within listed historic districts. Long-term neglect of a historic building becomes very costly to abate, and can lead to the loss of the building. Ideally, intervention early in the cycle of decline is less costly, according to city staff, but existing enforcement codes, including Public Nuisances (Tacoma Municipal Code 8.30) and Minimum Buildings and Structures Code (TMC 2.01), provide few options for proactively abating substandard building conditions before they threaten the safety and longevity of a building.
To address this issue, the City of Tacoma plans to explore the development of an ordinance to prevent “demolition by neglect,” which is defined as the process whereby a property owner neglects a historic building until the only course of action feasible to abate the resulting hazards to public health and safety is to demolish the building. The city will also explore the possibility of creating an “emergency preservation fund” that could be used to help prevent the deterioration of Tacoma’s iconic historic structures.
Key elements of this proposal, according to the staff report, include applying the proposed ordinance to properties listed on the Tacoma Register of Historic Places, National Register of Historic Places, and to contributing properties within locally and federally designated historic districts; addressing existing and commonly used maintenance standards, as well as maintenance standards to protect “character defining features” of historic buildings; providing specific penalties designed to prevent the practice of accumulating violation fines as a “cost of doing business”; providing incentives to encourage owners of neglected properties to find new ownership; and providing means for the City of Tacoma to proactively abate conditions which threaten the existence of a building before it becomes “dangerous.”
Tacoma Historic Preservation Officer Reuben McKnight and Tacoma Interim Planning and Development Services Department Director Peter Huffman will provide an overview of the plan, its scope, and the potential strategies for addressing the issue to Tacoma City Council’s Neighborhoods and Housing Committee during a meeting on Mon., June 3 at 4:30 p.m. in the Tacoma Municipal Building, 747 Market Street, Conference Room 248. A copy of the agenda is available online here.
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EDITOR’S NOTE: Three buildings come to mind when thinking about an ordinance that could help save historic structures from demolition by neglect: the Luzon Building, which was designed by famed Chicago architects John Wellborn Root and Daniel Hudson Burnham, and constructed in the 1890s, and was demolished in 2009 after the City of Tacoma deemed the historically significant building a safety hazard for fear it would collapse after decades of neglect; Old City Hall, which has faced foreclosure, was damaged by a fire set by a transient, was deemed ‘derelict’ by city inspectors, and was listed as ‘endangered’ by a local historic preservation group; and the Winthrop Hotel, which is in need of nearly $16 million in deferred maintenance, according to a report prepared four years ago.
To read the Tacoma Daily Index‘s complete and comprehensive coverage of the Luzon Building, click on the following links:
- What’s Left of Luzon? Report keeps tabs on demolished building’s artifacts (Tacoma Daily Index, February 22, 2012)
- Sidewalk party marks Luzon Building demolition anniversary (Tacoma Daily Index, September 8, 2010)
- Burnham, Luzon Building featured in PBS documentary (Tacoma Daily Index, September 2, 2010)
- Year In Review: Luzon Building (Tacoma Daily Index, December 22, 2009)
- Luzon art show, fund-raiser to benefit Historic Tacoma (Tacoma Daily Index, December 16, 2009)
- Luzon’s Last Dawn (Tacoma Daily Index, September 26, 2009)
- Downtown’s Lost Block (Tacoma Daily Index, September 23, 2009)
- Luzon will come down Saturday (Tacoma Daily Index, September 22, 2009)
- Luzon’s Tough Lesson (Tacoma Daily Index, September 18, 2009)
- City will demolish 1890s Luzon Building (Tacoma Daily Index, September 15, 2009)
- Luzon’s Dark Legacy (Tacoma Daily Index, July 10, 2009)
- What Looms for Luzon? (Tacoma Daily Index, April 28, 2009)
- Luzon Unlocked (Tacoma Daily Index, August 28, 2008)
- Resolution would facilitate acquisition, renovation of Luzon Building (Tacoma Daily Index, October 29, 2007)
- Renovation in store for Luzon Building: Development of historic site to begin this spring; commercial and residential spaces planned (Tacoma Daily Index, January 13, 2005)
- Pacific Block closer to being sold (Tacoma Daily Index, January 14, 2003)
To read the Tacoma Daily Index‘s complete and comprehensive coverage of Old City Hall, click on the following links:
- Building inspector’s report shows more work needed at ‘derelict’ Old City Hall (Tacoma Daily Index, January 19, 2012)
- Transient linked to Old City Hall fire (Tacoma Daily Index, January 6, 2012)
- Hope for Old City Hall? Historic Tacoma tours iconic, derelict building (Tacoma Daily Index, June 7, 2011)
- Inside Old City Hall (Tacoma Daily Index, May 26, 2011)
- Historic preservation group calls Tacoma’s Old City Hall ‘endangered’ (Tacoma Daily Index, May 24, 2011)
- More trouble for Old City Hall? (Tacoma Daily Index, March 28, 2011)
- Inspector’s report offers grim glimpse inside ‘derelict’ Old City Hall (Tacoma Daily Index, January 4, 2011)
- Historic Buildings, Historic Recession: Questions for Old City Hall owner George Webb (Tacoma Daily Index, December 17, 2010)
- Hope for Old City Hall? Building clean-up, foreclosure prevention efforts under way, says owner (Tacoma Daily Index, December 14, 2010)
- Tacoma City Council to receive Old City Hall update Dec. 14 (Tacoma Daily Index, December 10, 2010)
- Bank publishes notice to foreclose on Old City Hall; City to study public development authority for historic buildings (Tacoma Daily Index, December 9, 2010)
- Old City Hall for sale (Tacoma Daily Index, January 7, 2008)
To read the Tacoma Daily Index‘s complete and comprehensive coverage of the Winthrop Hotel, click on the following links:
- A Building on the Brink: Add nuisance report, falling debris to Winthrop’s woes (Tacoma Daily Index, August 19, 2011)
- A Building on the Brink: A line-item look at Winthrop’s hefty deferred maintenance bill (Tacoma Daily Index, August 10, 2011)
- A Building on the Brink: Property report puts $15.7M price tag on Winthrop Hotel’s deferred maintenance (Tacoma Daily Index, August 9, 2011)
- Leaving The Winthrop (Tacoma Daily Index, August 17, 2010)
- 7-year prison sentence for Winthrop arsonist (Tacoma Daily Index, April 23, 2010)
- Accused Winthrop arsonist pleads guilty (Tacoma Daily Index, February 2, 2010)
- Year In Review: Winthrop Hotel (Tacoma Daily Index, December 29, 2009)
- Living On Edge: Inside the Winthrop arson investigation (Tacoma Daily Index, October 23, 2009)
- Winthrop resident accepts Safe Streets award (Tacoma Daily Index, September 16, 2009)
- Winthrop resident named Safe Streets Superstar (Tacoma Daily Index, September 10, 2009)
- Cleaning up a neighborhood, battling a building’s reputation (Tacoma Daily Index, August 25, 2009)
- Crime Stoppers offers $1,000 reward for Winthrop serial arsonist (Tacoma Daily Index, August 21, 2009)
- Historic hotel or housing? Tough economy shines realistic light on Winthrop development plan (Tacoma Daily Index, August 4, 2009)
- Winthrop history, development ideas equally storied (Tacoma Daily Index, June 4, 2009)
- Inside the Winthrop (Tacoma Daily Index, June 2, 2009)
- THA weighs Winthrop building purchase (Tacoma Daily Index, May 29, 2009)
- One dead in Winthrop Hotel fire (Tacoma Daily Index, March 25, 2008)
- Resolution would sell City-owned property for mixed-income housing (Tacoma Daily Index, October 29, 2007)
- Developer eyes City surplus property for Winthrop Hotel project (Tacoma Daily Index, September 26, 2007)
- Winthrop vote illuminates citys affordable housing concerns (Tacoma Daily Index, March 22, 2006)
- Council resolution on Winthrop rehab expected tonight (Tacoma Daily Index, March 21, 2006)
- Council may vote on whether it supports Winthrop rehabilitation plan (Tacoma Daily Index, March 20, 2006)
- Winthrop repairs mean no evacuations (Tacoma Daily Index, December 19, 2005)
In 2009, the Tacoma Daily Index published a series of interviews with many residents of the Winthrop Hotel. To read the complete series, click on the following links:
- A Voice From the Winthrop: Glenn Grigsby (Tacoma Daily Index, June 16, 2009)
- A Voice From the Winthrop: Otha Adams (Tacoma Daily Index, June 26, 2009)
- A Voice From the Winthrop: Nanette Colby (Tacoma Daily Index, July 15, 2009)
- A Voice From the Winthrop: John Heffler (Tacoma Daily Index, July 30, 2009)
- A Voice From the Winthrop: David Allen (Tacoma Daily Index, August 13, 2009)
- A Voice From the Winthrop: David Miller (Tacoma Daily Index, August 20, 2009)
- A Voice From the Winthrop: Kerry Hudson (Tacoma Daily Index, August 27, 2009)
- A Voice From the Winthrop: Jessica Creso (Tacoma Daily Index, September 1, 2009)