What if the city spends months on a plan to save Pike/Pine and Pike/Pine doesn’t like the plan?

Wednesday’s City Council meeting will feature a presentation on the Pike/Pine Overlay Plan, an effort to change zoning rules for the area to preserve its architecture and ‘character.’ But the Pike/Pine Urban Neighborhood Council says the plan doesn’t go far enough — and is calling for an immediate moratorium on demolition in the neighborhood until it does.

In a letter to Tom Rasmussen, the councilmember spearheading the preservation effort, P/PUNC lays out what the group feels is missing from the current plan:

•  A cap on lot size for new development. The incentives alone are not enough to discourage developers from amassing huge development sites, which can have a strong and negative impact on neighborhood character. Limiting what happens on buildings 35 feet in the air, as the revised proposal from the City recommends, has no real value at street level, which is where the real “feel” of the district is experienced.
• Prescriptive authority by the City on existing buildings. “Green” building experts agree: the number one thing developers can do to build sustainably is to preserve (or add to) existing structures. Existing buildings are the essential ingredient in preserving neighborhood character in Pike/Pine.
• Transfer of Development Rights. Until the City can provide this mechanism in our neighborhood, property owners will have limited ability to preserve buildings in a way that competes with the potential profits in demolition. This is the primary vehicle for real “teeth” in helping the private market do the right thing: save old buildings.  This is a market-driven economy, and without ways to financially compensate owners for giving away an asset, mere incentives won’t do the trick

You can read the entire letter here. P/PUNC have also have included a letter from Pike/Pine super-developer Liz Dunn. Dunn makes the case for a TDR program — transfer of development rights.

There is an important connection between Pike-Pine’s old buildings and its unique economic value. Old buildings can support lower rents, attract a variety of unique retailers, restaurants and arts users, and in turn attract people to visit from outside the neighborhood and attract additional residents (and additional local businesses) to want to establish themselves in the neighborhood.  My project with Scott Shapiro at Melrose & Pike is attracting some very desirable tenants who would NOT be interested in space in a new building.  From the city and state’s perspective, the traffic generated by such unique neighborhoods means higher sales tax. Locally-owned businesses tend to pay higher wages than chain stores and their profits get spent or invested in the local economy rather than being sent back to the head office of a national chain on the other side of the country. 

Nevertheless, it is hard to preserve these buildings given the recent run-up in land prices.  Scarcity of land is attracting developers from elsewhere, with no long-term vested interest in the neighborhood, pushing land prices through the roof.  More aggressive building and energy codes make it increasingly difficult to change the type of occupancy of an old auto repair building into a shop or restaurant. The city is working on making building and energy codes friendlier to old buildings, and it will be part of my job at the Green Lab to work with them on this.  There are other incentives and ‘breaks’ that need to be considered at the city, county and state level (tax credits, property tax breaks, sales tax breaks on renovation?) etc. that we should be pushing for.  But transfer of development rights (TDR) is the only mechanism that I know of to adequately level the playing field for a short building in a taller zone. 

Fead more about TDR programs here in this Cornell University write-up.

It’s unlikely a moratorium on demolition in the neighborhood would have immediate impact. Most activity in the area is already well past the demolition phase or still in early design phase. Here’s a look at recent demolition application activity from the city’s DPD map:

As you can see, there’s nothing — currently — going on in the Pike/Pine area.

Questions and calls out to councilmember Rasmussen’s office and the city’s planning departments. More from Rasmussen and the city planners behind the plan when I get it.