Worth Protecting
Worth Protecting
Historic Preservation — Reports from the Front Lines
Rick Gonzalez, AIA, President of REG Architects in West Palm Beach, is the immediate past chairman of the Florida Trust for Historic Preservation and an accomplished preservation architect. His resume includes the restoration of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club and the 1916 Palm Beach County Courthouse.
Kathleen Slesnick Kauffman, AICP, Preservation Chief of Miami-Dade County, oversees 127 individually designated sites, 43 archaeological sites and zones, 5 historic districts, and the 24 municipalities within the county that don’t have their own ordinance. She has served as the executive director of the Florida Trust and as the Historic Preservation Officer in Fort Pierce and Lake Park.
Christine Dalton, is the Community Planner and Historic Preservation Officer for the City of Sanford. She is an adjunct professor at Rollins College where she teaches Introduction to Historic Preservation. Protecting the American-way-of-life-as-we-know-it
Protecting the American-way-of-life-as-we-know-it
Opinion
Editor's Note: Articles written by citizens reflect their own opinions and not the views of the Winter Park Voice.
I have always believed in looking to the past to find ways of dealing with the present. That is why I have been impressed by the way in which Winter Park’s anti-preservationist (AP) forces have employed the tactics of fear to cope with the issue of historic preservation.
This method has been employed successfully throughout American history by groups who discover that some evil force is threatening the American-way-of-life-as-we-know-it. Such groups regard the tactics of fear as the only course of action in the face of apocalypse.
Historically the tactics of fear have followed a well-established pattern. First the prime movers discover a conspiracy that poses imminent danger to the structure of society. They publicize it as a threat to the American-way-of-life-as-we-know-it. They marshal opposition to stamp out the evil force.
Given the gravity of the threat, no method is unacceptable. Misstatement, fabrication, even character assassination are all permitted. No compromise is allowed, because that would be to placate a demonic force.
Commission Okays Skinny Lots
Commission Okays Skinny Lots
Ignores Staff Recommendation
A snug row of four large homes soon will occupy what is now a vacant, tree-shaded lot on Pennsylvania Avenue. Lot frontages will average 60 feet, instead of the 75- to 85-foot minimum called for in city laws.
A majority of city commissioners at the September 28 meeting had no problem with that tight squeeze. They ignored city planners’ recommendation to deny the request and snubbed a formula that staff has used for some 30 years to come up with such positions.
Instead, commissioners agreed with their planning and zoning board’s unanimous recommendation for approval. The site’s location at the edge of a neighborhood and enthusiastic support from four nearby homeowners appeared to have swayed the advisory board more than the city’s subdivision rules, its comprehensive plan and staff’s opinion. The homeowners, who earlier had written almost identical letters of support, told the city commission they were glad to see the lot finally developed. No one spoke in opposition.
The .87-acre lot north of Tantum Avenue, owned by the Morse Genius Foundation, is more than big enough for three residential lots, but the request sought several exceptions to the rules. The applicant wanted to create room for four homes, each about 3,500-square-feet in size, to be marketed to empty nesters. Besides the narrower lots, the applicant sought a rear setback of ten feet instead of the required 15 feet to allow rear access. Rebecca Wilson, an attorney representing the applicant, noted the mixed zoning south of the site, including an industrial building, denser residential lots and the city golf course. She argued that nearby homes on Beloit Avenue had rear access and frontages less than 60 feet.
Recent Comments