Advocate for preservation?

It is not often in Boulder City that there is resident pressure for the city to create a new position and hire someone to fill it. But that is the situation discussed recently by the Historic Preservation Commission.

In a written public comment from a previous meeting, resident Robin Baker expressed concern with the lack of advocacy for the Historic District due to the absence of a specific individual who is knowledgeable, available to the public, and is not limited by the constraints of employment with the city or state open meeting law.

“If historic preservation is truly a goal of the city, why do we not have someone who is available, knowledgeable, and dedicated to the salvation of the Historic District?” Baker wrote. “It would reassure the public that the district had an unbiased voice that was not tempered by the limitations that currently appear to hamper the Historic District’s preservation.”

A matter of expertise

Because historic preservation is a specialized area of expertise and the city does not have a full-time staff member with that expertise, an outside consultant is contracted. But the job of that consultant is to advise and interface with the city and the commission, not the public.

Baker suggested that the lack of a recognized preservation advocate may contribute to limited public awareness, under-utilization of grant programs, and insufficient proactive engagement in preservation efforts.

Her solution? According to a city report, she “would like the commission to consider a part-time preservation advocate position or historian with a detailed job description that could be funded through reallocation of existing Historic Preservation funds.”

Baker said she would like someone who residents and property owners could go to for advice without worrying about the limitations of elected officials under open meeting laws. That’s not going to happen. Any city employee, contractor, or volunteer would be subject to the same federal, state, and local laws and compliance requirements as other municipal roles. And then there is the small detail that any new city-funded position is subject to budget availability and approval by the city council.

Baker reported having met with Community Development Director Michael Mays who told her that, “In the last five years, there have been three grants awarded to homeowners. With free money available and more than 500 homeowners, I feel that this is dismal documentation of our failure to preserve our district. I suspect that there are numerous solutions. The only one I have to offer is to create a part-time position for a historian with a detailed job description. The money that is not used to restore or maintain the historic district could be made available for funding.”

Commissioners agree

Commission chairwoman Blair Davenport said she agrees that there needs to be advocacy for historic preservation.

“I don’t know what that looks like,” she said. “I personally don’t think that position should be in the city. I believe that position should be outside of the city’s control.”

Citing the fact that an actual advocate would need to be tracking plans and policies at the state, local and federal levels and keeping those entities in check, she said, “If you have an advocate in the city, I question that degree of advocacy because there’s also competing issues at the at least, at the local level working with developers and other codes and zoning.”

Commission member (and director of the Railroad Museum) Christopher MacMahon, agreed that additional preservation efforts needed to be grassroots-oriented and not via a city position.

“I agree that an advocacy position is definitely needed. It’s definitely warranted,” he said. “There is a ground swell of interest in historic preservation in this community. I would like to see it happen. I think this needs to be from outside. I don’t think this should be top down.”

After noting she was at a loss on how to move forward, Davenport said, “Like it’s one thing to say, ‘Yes, I support historic preservation,’ but it’s like, OK, then what are you going to do about it?”

“I don’t think anybody’s discussing hiring,” said Mays. “What we’ve heard from commissioners already is that this would not be coming from the city. This would be an outside group. So, there wouldn’t be the hiring of somebody to do this by the city. But, if there’s a nonprofit group that wants to promote historic preservation, the commission to help facilitate that could utilize historic preservation day as a way to promote it.”

Commissioner Marcela Riegel-Fastow said, “Personally, I like the idea of having an advocate, but I would also agree that I don’t see why the community couldn’t create their own group that is an advocate or a group of people who are looking after making sure that our community understands the necessity of our history being restored and protected.

“We do have a young history in comparison to many cities, but you know, but it’s a really unique and special history. And we want to encourage people to take their homes and and turn them back into contributing homes. And we want people to be proud of this small little town because it is unique.”