Preservationists trying to stave off another round of downtown demolitions will present a list of unprotected historic structures to the City Council in the next two weeks.
“I want to make sure we don’t lose another one we don’t want to lose,” City Council member Philip Kingston said Monday during a meeting of the Arts, Culture & Libraries Committee he chairs.
City staffers and Preservation Dallas are assembling the list of every historic downtown building that does not have city landmark designation and could be razed at a moment’s notice.
The move comes after four buildings were torn down last month along Main and Elm streets as part of the Joule hotel’s retail expansion. Preservationists fear nearby buildings could still be in danger.
“What I want to do is stop tearing them down,” committee member Vonciel Jones Hill said, “because once they’re down, you can’t put them back up.”
However, David Cossum, director of sustainable development and construction, warned the committee that putting a moratorium on downtown demolitions could scare off developers.
It’s also unclear whether the council can stop downtown demolitions temporarily without designating the entire Dallas Downtown Historic District off-limits. And that would require the OK of three-fourths of the council.
“Stop tearing them down, period,” Jones-Hill said, “and then designate which ones we really think never need to be torn down.”
Preservationists say the problem’s too big to stop by just hitting the pause button. The group’s executive director, David Preziosi, said Dallas should follow the example of cities like Chicago, whose Demolition Delay Ordinance gives city staff 90 days to sign off on a demolition permit attached to a historic building
Preziosi urged the council to take action to preserve historic buildings that keep downtown interesting.
“We have to have a mix of the old and the new.”
