2008/11/19 Council Agenda Packet

Jan Meston From: Fred Josephson [fredjosephson@yahoo.com] Sunday, September 07, 2008 9:18 AM Jan Meston Cc: Katrina Lindahl; Karol Dereg; Steve Fox Subject: Historic Overlay Commissioners, I got my notice about a hearing for a proposed historic overlay zone by the Everett Historical Commission on Wednesday Evening. An previous commitment will likely prevent my attendance, too bad because I might hear information there to sway my negative impression of the proposal. Historic overlay zones are intended to preserve the historic character of an area by placing building constraints, and an additional level of review regarding building with view to preserving the historic character the area. I am sure it becomes more difficult to add more zones, as developers point out the size of areas already protected. Historic preservation protection therefore should be conferred only on the most deserving areas, and only if the protection is going to have some tangible effect. The proposed zone is zoned residential most of it the very restrictive R-2 zone, some of it along Everett Ave and south is zoned R4, there is only one business in the zone the Fireplace Tavern, and it is grandfathered and in a sense a historic establishment. Curiously with in a block of the proposed overlay zone there are at least five 19th century structures, and within the zone not a single one. But my point was that development pressure in the R2 zone is very low, and the new design rules would not apply to commercial buildings. Imagine if the east end of Hewitt Avenue, a place with buildings on the national historic gister was historic overlay zone. And businesses there were compelled to incorporate atures reminiscent of historic Riverside. But in the case of proposed zone the design rules will do nothing but make it more difficult to build a garage. So in my opinion the historic structures in the proposed overlay zone are not really threatened by development, and proposed zone would just take up space on the map, in the place of some area that would actually benefit from being a historical overlay zone. But I should address whether the proposed zone is deserving of protection. Within the zone there are really two different areas, one is the Baker-Virginia Avenue area mostly in the Everett "I" division plat of 1902, and the Ready Land Co plat of 1910. These are relatively new parts of Riverside which as the neighborhood organization is proud of proclaiming was established in 1892. And from a historical and architectural stand point these two neighborhoods have more to do with Bayside than they do Riverside. The point is that though Baker and Virginia represent pretty streetscapes the kind of structures on them are not at all scarce in the north end. The ready land company development is a little more novel, but not I judge even close to the extent that the ill fated Donovan District was. respectfully Fred Josephson 2711 California St. 1