75A - PH - EIR 1584 E SANTA CLARA AVE

Home Browse Search

McEwen, President); and (19) all Historic Resources Commission ad hoc committee meeting attendees. Whenever possible, each of these organizations was also contacted by phone. Despite these extensive public outreach efforts, the City received no calls and /or emails expressing interest in purchasing the Sexlinger Property for restoration or relocation proposes. In a third attempt at preservation, City staff explored possible sites for the relocation of the historic building to an off-site location. No private individuals or organizations contacted the City or the property owners with sites that could be used for relocation purposes. Nor did the City's independent examination of potentially available sites yield any solutions. In October 2012, the Historic Resources Commission received an update from the ad hoc committee on the status of the investigation, and the public was provided another opportunity to bring forward new information and resources for restoration or relocation of the Sexlinger Property. No significant new information or resources were presented. The foregoing comprehensive efforts to encourage preservation of the historic resources on the Sexlinger Property were reported to the Historic Resources Commission, and were the subject of a duly noticed public hearing before that body on January 24, 2013. The Historic Resources Commission, after hearing all of the evidence, and considering all of the correspondence and public testimony, expressly "determined that neither private preservation nor relocation is a feasible alternative to demolition given the limited timeframe available."' The Historic Resources Commission's determination was appealable to the City Council, but no appeal was filed. Therefore, the Historic Resources Commission's determination regarding the feasibility of preservation became final and conclusive. The applicant responded to the City's efforts to encourage preservation of the property through the sale to an entity seeking to re- establish an orchard there. To that end, in August of 2012, representatives of the property owners sent The Old Orchard Conservancy a letter outlining the terns under which the religious institutions would consider a sale of the Sexlinger Property on or before December 31, 2012. The property owners and The Old Orchard Conservancy participated in a series of subsequent conversations and correspondence in late 2012, through which the deadline to enter into a letter of intent to purchase the property was extended to February 15, 2013, and the deadline to enter into a purchase agreement for the property was extended to March 15, 2013. Both of those dates were beyond the 240 - day time period for investigating the feasibility of preservation as set forth in the Historic Preservation Ordinance. The February 15, 2013 and March 15, 2013 dates passed without any significant progress by the Old Orchard Conservancy towards a purchase of the Sexlinger Property for preservation proposes. In fact, in a January 7, 2013 letter to the Historic Resources Commission, The Old Orchard Conservancy confirmed that it had, to that point, not raised sufficient funds to enter into a purchase agreement with the owners.2 1 The `limited fineframe" is a reference to the 240 days (i.e., eight months) within which the Historic Resources Commission must complete its feasibility evaluation for demolition permits. ' As of the date of this submittal —fully 17 months after the August 2012 letter —The Old Orchard Conservancy still has not made any meaningful progress toward a purchase agreement -3- 75A-89