Well-preserved

C.R. neighborhood leads crusade for local control of preservation

By Sue Davis Smith
Gazette staff writer

PHOTO: Dawn Stephens and husband Greg Young have spent the past three years renovating their Park Avenue SE house (center), where they live with their daughters, Madeline, 6, and Lucy, 4. They support efforts to make Redmond Park-Grand Avenue Place, their neighborhood, Cedar Rapids' first local historic district. (Gazette photo by Lisa Powell)

PHOTO: The Park Avenue SE home of Dawn Stephens and Greg Young has come a long way in three years, as this "before" picture illustrates. (Dawn Stephens photo)

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Ghosts never haunted the attic of 1620 Park Ave. SE. Lions never roamed its grounds. Dignitaries never graced its modest floors. Yet the home of Dawn Stephens and Greg Young is part of a neighborhood that soon may become the first local historic district in Cedar Rapids.

Stephens and Young live in an area of Wellington Heights known as the Redmond Park-Grand Avenue Place district. The homes in the 9 1/2-block neighborhood were built between 1900 and 1920. For the most part, the lots are small, with modest 1 1/2-, two- and 2 1/2-story houses. The houses were built during a time of booming growth in Cedar Rapids. Doctors, salesmen, druggists, barbers and teachers at nearby Coe College called this area home.

Ninety years later, people might look at these houses and wonder about their historical significance. True, Stephens says, they are not mansions, but a common preservationist credo dispels the myth that only mansions are worth saving: History, after all, is not just of the rich and powerful, but also of the common man and woman.

"The craftsmanship of these houses is why I think they should be preserved," says Stephens, who is active in the Historic Preservation Committee of the Wellington Heights Neighborhood Association. She uses her own home as an example.

"The walls, the lathe, the plaster -- these are something special you couldn't afford to put in now," she says. "I have a double laundry chute, stained- and lead-glass windows, front and back staircases, and thick oak beams in the ceiling of my dining room. You can't buy new what we have."

Stephens and Young have worked non-stop for three years to restore their home. Even though its exterior boasts Palladian windows, first- and second-story bay windows, and the original porch columns, the clapboard siding was in sad shape.

"I'm a historic preservationist, and I was considering putting siding up for a while," Stephens says, laughing at the memory.

Instead, with help from neighbors, they repaired it. "I think now, 'Thank God, we didn't side it.' It reminds me now of how people lived 80 years ago."

Preserving how people lived in past years is the idea behind historic districts, says Kerry McGrath, the local governments coordinator for the State Historic Preservation Society in Des Moines.

"There is a myth that historic preservation focuses on mansions only, and that's not so," she says. "When preservation started, that was the focus, but it's not so now. In Europe, you can see their palaces have been preserved, but you'll also find middle-class homes in German cities 400 and 500 years old that have been preserved. People saw value in them and maintained them."

Several areas in Cedar Rapids have been studied and nominated to the National Register of Historic Places. This is a registry maintained by the federal government that recognizes historic buildings and areas.

In Iowa, local governments also can create historic districts. Currently, McGrath says, Cedar Rapids is the only major city in Iowa that has none.

The Cedar Rapids Historic Preservation Commission has taken steps to change that. It has been laying the groundwork since 1994 for creating local historic districts. "The 13 members have been studying other cities' ordinances to come up with one for Cedar Rapids," says commission member Kathy Maddigan.

The reason why local districts are needed, say McGrath and Maddigan, is that national recognition is just that -- recognition.

"When local government takes the steps to pass an ordinance that says this area is historic, it then allows the local government to exercise a certain degree of control over that specific property. The point of all this isn't to make it difficult to maintain houses but that historic character is maintained," McGrath says.

It is that control, known as design review, that is the meat and potatoes of a local historic district ordinance, preservationists say.

"What design review does is give someone the power to look over exterior modifications to a structure," Maddigan says. "As an example, say I live in a story-and-a-half gable cottage, and I want to tear off my front porch and put in a deck in its place. If we have design review in our ordinance, the commission would talk to me about why it's important to not destroy an integral part of the house."

The Cedar Rapids ordinance likely will follow a standard procedure, which also is used in Iowa City.

In the latter's six local historic districts, homeowners who want to make changes to their houses that require a building permit must first submit their plans to the city's historical commission.

If the commission OK's the plans, the homeowner is issued a certificate of appropriateness and a building permit. If commission members believe the changes would significantly alter the design of the building, they deny the request and offer suggestions that would make any modifications more historically appropriate.

An appeal process is available to property owners whose request has been denied, says Scott Kugler, an associate city planner for Iowa City and the city's representative on the Historic Preservation Commission.

"Since we've had design review (which began in 1984), the commission has yet to deny an application filed by a property owner," Kugler says.

He adds that each city customizes its design review. While Iowa City permits the use of siding on historical homes, it is not allowed in Dubuque, Ames, Des Moines, Council Bluffs and Bonaparte.

What is covered by the design review is left up to the people who live in these potential districts, says McGrath of the State Historical Society.

The majority of cities with design review follow the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation. Those standards address exterior changes -- roof lines, porches, changing window size, demolition and siding. In some communities, exterior paint is controlled. None in Iowa does that, McGrath says.

Not everyone on Cedar Rapids' historical commission is happy with the design review portion of the ordinance. Real estate agent and broker Ken Koch says he favors local historic district recognition but draws the line at adding restrictions for property owners.

"I'm all for preserving old houses, but the problem with the ordinance is that it's unfair. It doesn't apply to everyone equally in the city," he says.

Koch dislikes additional steps for home repair projects and says historically correct projects could cost the homeowner more money.

"There's a whole variety of things the city can do to preserve without design review," he says. "They could offer tax credits for improvements to property owners who want to preserve their homes in all neighborhoods or offer low-interest loans."

The final draft of Cedar Rapids' ordinance has yet to be done. As of now, the issue of banning demolition has not been discussed but is one that Maddigan and others would like to see addressed.

"The commission will need to meet with homeowners to get ideas from them on what is acceptable in design review," says Randy McVey, Cedar Rapids long-range planning coordinator. "If people want demolition, then it should be included."

The creation of Cedar Rapids' first local historic district is at least six months away, McVey says.

"My guess is that we're three to four months away from a draft of the ordinance that pleases everyone (being) passed. Then homeowners must present their formal petition to the city (a 51 percent neighborhood majority is needed to request a local historic district designation). That request goes to the historical commission, which then sends a notice to all property owners."

Additional hearings and a review by the State Historical Society would be held. The ordinance then goes back to the city's commission, then on to the City Council for approval.

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