By Janet Zink, Times Staff Writer
Thursday, August 26, 2010
TAMPA –– A vote on yanking a requirement that the owners of the Woolworth building downtown preserve the facade has been postponed indefinitely.
City Attorney Chip Fletcher pulled the item from the council's Thursday agenda late Wednesday.
He did that because he couldn't get any firm commitment from the building owners to commemorate the historic Civil Rights era sit-ins that occurred there, he said.
"We just weren't able to get that done," Fletcher said. "We need some clarity on what they're proposing."
Jeannette Jason, a principal in the owners group, had suggested installing a plaque on the site, but Fletcher said it wasn't clear how that would be done.
Mayor Pam Iorio, who has been a proponent of turning downtown into a residential neighborhood, proposed terminating the 4-year-old agreement requiring Jason to protect the facades. The requirement, Iorio said, makes it difficult to redevelop the site. Only one council member who was on the board when the agreement was originally approved remains.
Iorio's proposal raised the ire of preservationists and the black community, who argued that the historic activities that occurred there should be honored by protecting portions of the building.
The idea also sparked letters of outrage and objection from architects and the Hillsborough County City-County Planning Commission.
Architect Vivian Salaga sent to the council a list of examples in Tampa and other parts of the country where old facades were protected and incorporated into new development.
"If this developer and his/her architect were knowledgeable enough in how to deal with historic structures, they would be able to creatively and with economic feasibility incorporate the historic buildings into their development plans – retaining the original historic building and scale of the street, while constructing their towers/additions on top," she wrote. "It is not prudent stewardship that our City loses its historic buildings to developers who understand the value of the land and do not understand the value of our City's social and cultural history."
In the midst of the downtown building boom several years ago, the block of Franklin Street that holds the Woolworth building as well as the old Newberry and Kress department stores was rezoned to accommodate condominium towers with nearly 500 units. The towers were never built, and the Woolworth and Newberry buildings sit vacant and decaying.
The Kress building is protected with a historic landmark designation. The Woolworth and Newberry buildings don't have that.
In 2006, the Tampa City Council, following a recommendation of the city's Historic Preservation Commission and over Jason's objections, designated the facades of the Newberry and Woolworth buildings as historic landmarks. But Jason pursued a legal challenge to the designation, using a property rights argument. The case went to a mediator, who negotiated a compromise to protect the building facades through a contract rather than a historic landmark designation.
Janet Zink can be reached at jzink@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3401.