By CHRISTIAN HILL
Gazette-Times reporter | Posted: Tuesday, February 18, 2003 12:00 am
The Corvallis City Council is expected today to forward without comment a recommendation that the federal government peg Corvallis High School as a historic building.
That designation could aid local efforts to save a portion of the school from the wrecking ball. The Corvallis School District plans to build a new school on the site and then demolish the old one, spending about half of the $86.4 million raised in a capital bond measure that voters passed in November.
Both the city's Historic Preservation Advisory Board and State Historic Preservation Office have determined the
68-year-old main building and a wing built in 1946 are historic resources. A local group, Save CHS, is trying to get the building listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The advisory board recommended the listing on a 5-0 vote during its Jan. 13 meeting. One member, Carol Chin, abstained because she's leading the listing effort.
City councilors also can take a position if they choose, although no law forces them to do so. If councilors choose not to comment on the listing recommendation, they aren't required to hold a public hearing on the matter.
Council President Rob Gandara said he expects the council to follow the staff's recommendation - forward the HPAB recommendation to the state with no formal comment.
"I think we're going to have plenty of opportunity (to comment) when it comes in as a land-use application," he said. "I do think it's our responsibility to forward it on."
The issue places the Corvallis City Council in a dicey situation.
Councilors must decide whether to take a stance, knowing they may consider the development application for the replacement school April 21.
The Corvallis Planning Commission will hold a public hearing on the application March 19, and critics of any subsequent decision can appeal to the City Council.
Rebecca Landis, spokeswoman for Save CHS, said the group hasn't decided how far it will take the effort, but members aren't interested "in dragging this out for years and years." Group members have urged school officials to take a serious look at a plan that would have the new buildings constructed around the two oldest portions of the school, she said.
School district officials said the proposed new school is the result of a thorough public process that balanced the needs of the community. They added that preserving the oldest portion of the school could add
$6 million to the project's price tag.
The plan for the new $46 million high school calls for a slightly larger building than the existing one, about 230,000 square feet.
City planners have recommended that councilors not take a stance and simply forward to the state the historical commission's recommendation. Doing otherwise could introduce a "perception of bias" by the council on the application's decision if they hear an appeal, they warned in a staff report.
Kathy Gager, an associate planner for the city, said it's rare for an elected body to take a stance on the listing of an individual property.
The state Advisory Committee for Historic Preservation is scheduled to review the nomination, with or without comment by the city council, on Feb. 27. It will decide whether to forward the nomination to the National Park Service for a final decision sometime in April.
The city issued a demolition permit for Corvallis High School to district officials Dec. 9. Crews are scheduled to demolish the building after the completion of the replacement school, scheduled to open in the fall of 2005.
Gandara, who represents the ward the school sits in, said the matter was moved to the evening agenda so residents could testify during the "visitors' propositions" section of the meeting. That starts at 7 p.m. in the upstairs meeting room of the downtown fire station,
400 N.W. Harrison Blvd.