HomeMy WebLinkAbout06-27-16 CHC Correspondence - Item 1 (Cooper 5)To: SLO Cultural Heritage Committee
From: Allan Cooper, AIA, Professor Emeritus
Regarding: 71 Palomar
Date: June 27, 2016
Honorable Chair & Committee Members -
The Leitcher House at 667 Monterey is deemed a "contributing property" on the list of Historic
Resources. For this reason, the City determined it was acceptable to relocate this structure a
few feet forward toward the street to make room for the Monterey Place mixed use
development. However, the Sandford -Wills House at 71 Palomar is on the Master List for
Historic Resources and relocating this structure - which would subject it to "substantial adverse
change" per the California SHPO and is the "least preferred preservation method" per the SLO
Historic Preservation Ordinance - is NOT EVEN NECESSARY to make way for a proposed 33
unit apartment complex (see the dashed lines on the plan above indicating the existing footprint
of the structure). Nor is relocation necessary to "correct an unsafe or dangerous condition on
the site." You have heard from Dan Krieger, Professor of History Emeritus and Eva Ulz, Director
and Curator of the San Luis Obispo County History Center, citing the "modest risk posed by
moving the house". In my opinion, neither of them have the credentials as architects or
architectural historians to make this determination and Professor Krieger, to his credit, admitted
this. I, on the other hand, have taught architecture, architectural history and the history of
gardens at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and happen to know something about the importance of
preserving the historical context and setting of a property.
Allan Cooper, Architecture Professor Emeritus
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