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December 12, 2010 in City
Old YMCA worth saving? Landmarks panel to decide
It could be the final chapter for the former downtown YMCA.
Or it could be the start of more painstaking, political maneuvering.
The Spokane Historic Landmarks Commission is scheduled to decide this week if the old Y, which sits on the edge of Spokane Falls, is eligible for local or national historic registries. If it is, the commission’s vote would create a potentially insurmountable obstacle to the city Park Board’s plan to tear down the building and make the land part of Riverfront Park.
It would also create a significant hole in the city’s budget.
The decision is the final potential roadblock in a nearly five-year battle to determine what to do with the building.
Last week, the Spokane City Council voted 4-3 on the final agreement with Spokane County to pay off the debt on the property using Conservation Futures property taxes.
Later this month the council is expected to approve the transfer of the land from City Council to Park Board control.
On Thursday the Park Board agreed to cover the interest costs on the debt that the City Council assumed when buying the building.
Even former City Councilman Steve Eugster, who had threatened to sue over the deal, said he believes the details in the final agreement with Spokane County make the deal legal.
The brick structure, built in the mid-1960s just before much of Havermale Island was cleared for Expo ’74, was purchased by the city Park Board in 2006 to prevent the last piece of privately owned land on the island from being used for high-priced condos.
Spokane Park Director Leroy Eadie said his department has filed for a demolition permit on the building. He hopes to start tearing down the structure in late January or February.
But that may not happen if the landmarks commission determines that the Y is historically significant.
City law has stringent rules on the demolition of historic downtown buildings.
Kristen Griffin, Spokane’s historic preservation officer, said demolition of the building normally wouldn’t be an issue because it’s less than 50 years old. But earlier this year, developer Ron Wells hired a consultant who argued that the building was worth protecting because of its history as a Y, the building’s design and the firm that designed it. The building also served as the headquarters for Expo ’74.
Those who support tearing down the Y argue that the historic significance of Spokane Falls is more important, and that tearing the building down will improve views and access to what likely is the region’s most important natural and cultural landmark.
Wells had hoped to develop the building into luxury apartments and offices and said historic tax credits would make the project viable. City officials rejected his plan, but Griffin said she must take the consultant’s report seriously.
“That’s what will kick it into the commission’s court,” Griffin said.
But, she added: “A building that is less than 50 years old has a higher threshold to meet.”
The Park Department has hired its own historic preservation expert who argues the building is not significant, Eadie said. Her findings will be presented to the commission this week.
Eadie said he’s relatively confident that commissioners won’t find the building historically significant. If it does, the Park Board would examine exemptions in city law that would allow the structure to be torn down – including the exception for financial hardship.
The Park Board has set aside $1.2 million to tear down and restore the land. Eadie said crews will retain a portion of the building’s basement structure to act as retaining walls, but that those will be covered by soil. Work also will reveal a creek that flows through the Y’s basement.
The board agreed to put $1 million down on the property in 2006, but it didn’t have a firm plan to pay the remaining $4.3 million until the Spokane County Commission offered to use Conservation Futures money to secure it. The City Council, however, nearly rejected the county’s offer – even though it didn’t have an alternative plan to pay off the debt.
Finally, in March, the council voted 4-3 to accept the county’s offer.
MAC faces angry crowd 
GSLFan on December 12 at 8:21 a.m.
Ron Wells is full of hot air. He doesn’t have the juice to renovate the Y.
Pilewort54 on December 12 at 9:02 a.m.
Instead of allowing commerical development that would generate lots of tax, the fat cats in this town insist on throwing repayment of it’s purchase, interest and demolition expenses on already over-burdened city taxpayers? And for nothing that helps anybody?
See you at the warming shelter!
liarsinnews on December 12 at 10:15 a.m.
The city Historic Preservation Department, should be abolished. The work the department does is redundant as the county is the only governmental agency that has the authority to execute the final paper work. The department was resurrected in the late 1990s after being vacant for years when during that time the county took care of all the necessary paper work…Ron Wells and Jim Kolva have suggested the 10 year tax exemption should be 20 years.
zelda on December 12 at 1:37 p.m.
The is nothing historic or unique about this building that warrants its preservation. Just because buildings from the 50s and 60s have been re-branded as “mid-century architecture” doesn’t mean they’re all distinctive period pieces. It once served as the HQ for Expo ‘74? That’s it’s claim to fame? Is this town so desperate for historical gravitas that we have to reach back 36 years to find something memorable and the best we can do is re-kindle the flame of a minor world’s fair?
The S-R’s editorial calling this site “one small parcel along the Spokane River” attempts to diminish its status as having the best, most commanding view of Spokane Falls. There are plenty of condos that have been built along the falls area of the river — and many are empty, foreclosed, languishing, rented out, short sales or empty shells. Downtown is littered with empty condos. All those real-estate ventures were supposed to “attract downtown residents” and if that happened, it must be a well-kept secret.
Tear down the building and complete the mission of Expo ‘74, if that is the cause that still resonates in this community. The park is unfinished without the inclusion of this singular piece of land. It rightly belongs to the citizens.
Finally, I have to question why the editorial board of the S-R is so wrapped up and forceful on this issue. There obviously are major economic interests at work on the op-ed page and the financial benefits for certain parties are plain as day.
west on December 12 at 8:23 p.m.
Demo it down and more park ambience.