Miami Marine Stadium looking towards the city. (Photo: Vik Cuban on Flickr)

The Miami Marine Stadium, one of our 11 Most Endangered Historic Places in 2009, is one of those “next cool place” contenders. Built in 1963, the waterfront stadium has many of the same ingredients that the High Line had before getting its green makeover: passionate supporters, urban grit, awesome views, and a distinctive architectural foundation.

Looking up at the stands and the stadium’s iconic roofline. (Photo: Vik Cuban on Flickr)

But one of the biggest lessons from the adaptive reuse of the High Line is that it takes more than passion, interest, and big ideas to get massive projects like these off the ground. Unless 100% private funding falls into place, there has to be a marriage of public interest and public funding. Fortunately for Miami, that marriage is already producing results.

Significant work would need to be done to bring the stadium to any modern use. (Photo: Vik Cuban on Flickr)

This past weekend, The Miami Herald featured a story on Friends of the High Line founder Robert Hammond’s visit to Miami Marine Stadium and what needs to happen to bring this project to life:

Not coincidentally, Hammond’s visit came at a critical moment for the four-year-old marine stadium campaign, which has proceeded in fits and starts. Activists have succeeded in saving the 1963 structure from the wrecking ball, won historic landmark protection for it and generated worldwide admiration for its still-dazzling architecture and engineering.

Leaders of the nonprofit Friends group had hoped to also formally announce an agreement with the city granting the organization the right to undertake the stadium’s renovation, but that has been delayed amid disagreement over details of the deal.

Last year, stadium supporters were ready to walk away in frustration over what they said in a letter were “obstacles’’ imposed by the city, but they now say the deal should be approved soon by the city commission.

The agreement would give the Friends organization, an offshoot of Dade Heritage Trust, two years to raise an estimated $30 million to renovate the stadium, shuttered by the city in 1992 after it was damaged by Hurricane Andrew. Worth said the group has secured more than $10 million of that, including $3 million in public funds.

“The advocacy battle has been won, and we’re at the cusp of the next stage,’’ Friends co-founder Don Worth said. “Now we have to do it.’’

Read the full article “Can the Miami Marine Stadium become the next High Line phenom?” to learn more and see pictures of Hammond’s visit to the site.

David Garber is the blog editor at the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Preservation is often defined as an action with an end date: the act of saving – through advocacy; policy; or blood, sweat, and tears restoration – places for future use, memory, and appreciation. But regardless of how it’s typically regarded, a more holistic ”preservation” doesn’t end when the paint dries. It’s just as much about moving into and using those old places as it is about saving or restoring them.

Enter Sam Ratto and Chris Heavener: two friends who decided to follow a dream and open Videri Chocolate Factory in a c. 1912 railroad depot in Raleigh’s warehouse district. They’re preservationists because they connected with the warmth of an old building in a changing neighborhood and decided to move in. Here’s their story.

The exterior of Videri’s space in the historic Depot building. (Photo: Chase Heavener)

How did you two meet and what inspired you to start an organic chocolate factory?

Chris: I’ve been publishing a literary and arts magazine for about five years now, but before that I worked at a wakeboarding magazine, which is where I met Sam. He worked for a shoe company that catered to the same industry. Whenever he would come to town for trade shows and events we’d always hang out. We shared a dissatisfaction for the limitations and ethos of the industry so we both got out of it around the same time.

Sam: When I moved to Raleigh in 2009 with my then-fiancée (now wife) Starr, we got jobs through a friend at a bean-to-bar chocolate factory here in town. Something lit up in my brain when I sat in front of a pile of beans that needed to be sorted. I began to do tons of research and applied that to making their chocolate taste better. I brought a lot of ideas to them about moving towards organic and fair trade chocolate, but they didn’t want to focus energy on that, so I left, looking to do something else. Chris came to me in February of 2011 and said, “You’re good at making chocolate and I think we can make a great, sustainable business.”

Sam sorting beans at the Videri factory. (Photo: Chase Heavener)

What is your favorite part of the chocolate making process?

Sam: My favorite part of chocolate making is the artistry you have to weave into the pure science of chocolate making – putting together a wonderful puzzle of flavor and consistency.

Chris: Eating it is obviously number one. But other than that I just like the opportunity to work at Sam’s side and help him out in the factory. It’s given me an appreciation of the artistry required to make great tasting chocolate.

Freshly-made chocolate. (Photo: Chase Heavener)

What businesses did you look to for inspiration when you were starting Videri?

Chris: There’s a great – and very successful – chocolate company out of Seattle called Theo that makes fantastic chocolate in an ethically responsible way. Sam and I both read Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard’s book Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman – his is a good example of a company that makes quality products customers want while attempting to look out for the environment and their employees.

The logo, the building, and the beans. (Photo: Chase Heavener)

When you were choosing where to locate the chocolate factory, what type of space were you looking for?

Sam: When we were looking at spaces to start and grow our chocolate factory, we wanted a warehouse space that could accommodate the daily production of chocolate, but also have a warm, welcoming feel. When we saw the Depot building, it seemed to be a perfect combination.

Chris: We wanted a place customers and employees alike would want to spend time in. We looked at a few properties but nothing came close to the natural character and warmth of the Depot building.

Chris taking care of the scraps. (Photo: Chase Heavener)

Why was it important to be in that kind of space?

Sam: It is important to be in a warehouse-type building because it evokes craft and proper building techniques. This building was completed in 1912 and is still standing strong on its original foundation.

Chris: People who come into the space are much more than customers, they’re members of our community. We want to respect and honor that by providing a place to bring the family, a place to bring a date, a place to throw a party, a place where basically everyone is welcome. There’s something stale and subtly hostile about most modern utilitarian business buildings. The industrial era style of the Depot cultivated this feeling of possibility and imagination that’s hard to replicate.

Another view of the integrated signage. (Photo: Chase Heavener)

What does your space say about you, the company, and the chocolate?

Sam: This space says that we care about hard work and dedication to our beliefs of being a sustainable company. This space is welcoming and comforting, two very important things when it comes to chocolate.

Chris: It reflects our attention to detail, our respect for the processes that shaped the industry and our commitment to look to a future of conducting business in a manner healthy for the community and for the environment. The space suggests we’re making every effort to produce the best tasting chocolate in a responsible fashion.

The finished products. (Photo: Chase Heavener)

How do you hope to shape and be shaped by the area around you?

Chris: I hope the community embraces us as much as we’re attempting to embrace them. I’d love the company to be shaped by the needs and desires of the community. I’d love to be part of a discussion that makes us as beneficial to the Raleigh area as possible.

David Garber is the blog editor at the National Trust for Historic Preservation. He is eagerly awaiting his first shipment of Videri chocolate. Solely for research purposes, of course.

Thompson Falls High Bridge – Thompson Falls, Montana
2011 Honor Award

Spanning 588 feet between the towns of Cherry Creek and Island Park, Montana, the 80-foot high Parker-Pratt-style Thompson Falls High Bridge has connected two remote communities on opposite shores of the Clark Fork River for nearly 70 years. The structure remained a local link until it was closed to motorized traffic in the early 1970s due to significant deterioration of the wood deck. The bridge was closed to bicycle and pedestrian access in 1979.

For the next 30 years, county leaders patiently saved Transportation Enhancement funding and secured federal, state and private grants, while rallying local support by forming a “Bridge the Gap” steering committee. The bridge was finally renovated during the winter of 2009 and 2010, and is now open once again for pedestrian and bike access between the neighboring towns.

Each year the National Trust for Historic Preservation celebrates the best of preservation by presenting the Richard H. Driehaus National Preservation Awards to individuals and organizations whose contributions demonstrate excellence in historic preservation. We invite you to nominate a deserving individual, organization, agency, or project for a Richard H. Driehaus National Preservation Award. The nomination deadline for all awards is March 15, 2012.

As you can see … EXPOSED BRICK! Although in most cases exposed brick was never intended to be exposed, it’s a trend that adds warmth and character to building interiors and isn’t likely to go away any time soon. For capital H historic buildings, keep the plaster. For lofts in a cool-and-old-but-not-necessarily-historic-building on a hot restaurant corridor, exposing brick isn’t exactly a deal breaker.

Removing the plaster also exposed some 10-Commandments-shaped brick details in the walls (above). Anyone have an explanation for these? They don’t tie into anything on the inside, but don’t look like they were windows, either.

Demolition is a dusty job. But someone’s gotta do it. While wearing air purifying masks.

During an intensive demo such as this, spraying a mist of water over the debris is an effective way to minimize airborne particulate matter, AKA all the stuff I was breathing in since I wasn’t wearing a mask.

Goodbye, old pipes.

At this point you’re probably wondering: “Are they saving anything??” Yes, but not much. The floor joists, elaborate radiators, and things like cool old cast iron sinks are being salvaged. But otherwise, the interiors will be pretty much brand new. Inside the old exterior, of course.

Mid-way through demo on the second floor…

And almost done with demo on the second floor. Notice a difference in ceiling height?

I thought this was a neat juxtaposition of places where the exterior has been opened and closed over time. From left to right: original window, new(ish … very much ish) air conditioner unit, and old doorway, now bricked up.

As you can see above, the garage space is currently being used to sort and store demolition debris. Although the demo to this point has taken place only on the top two levels, hammers will hit the first floor retail space starting later this week.

David Garber is the blog editor at the National Trust for Historic Preservation. More information on this development project can be found on the Lionel Lofts website.

Isn’t that what every rom com – and nearly all of Julia Roberts’ on-screen career, for that matter – wants us to believe? Whether we’ve just missed a flight home for the holidays (it’s always the holidays, isn’t it?) or we’re standing in line for coffee on an ordinary Tuesday, we should always be prepared to trip and fall into the arms of a heartthrob, right?

Annnnd snap back to reality. Everyone knows it rarely goes down like that (c’mon, on the subway?!?). Until it kind of does, but in a way that is adorable and utterly real.

Meet Bernice Radle and Jason Wilson, Buffalo’s young preservation power couple.

When the National Trust rolled into Buffalo this fall, Bernice Radle and Jason Wilson had never met, though both had long been preservation dynamos working overtime for the city they loved. It wasn’t until after the conference – and the individual preservation events they each planned for it – that their interest in all things old brought them together.

Fast forward to today, and their conversations (I overheard them!) go something like this: “Can you believe these houses on the demo list? Where should we go for date night? What’s the status on the reuse study for the Trico building?”

Totally cuter than Julia Roberts being unexpectedly swept off her feet, right?

Knowing what you now know about this young preservation power couple, it shouldn’t be a shocker that the majority of Bernice and Jason’s Valentine’s Day preparations were spent churning out personalized construction paper hearts … for vacant and abandoned historic buildings. It’s a concept their group, Buffalo Young Preservationists, dubbed a “heart bomb.” Because my words probably wouldn’t give it justice, I’ll let the love birds explain it themselves.

PreservationNation: For starters, how did the whole “heart bomb” idea hatch?

Bernice: I love all things heart-shaped and I love Buffalo. Buffalo and hearts combined is the ultimate Buffalove! So one day, Jason and I thought it would be fun to throw Valentine’s Day hearts (lace, glitter, and lots of construction paper) onto our most loved vacant houses to pull on the heart strings of Buffalonians. Heart bombs!

PreservationNation: How many buildings did you end up “bombing” and how did you choose them?

Jason: Although there are several buildings worth highlighting, we ultimately chose four beautiful homes located throughout the city. These homes have a high degree of architectural detail and unique character that is difficult to find in any new build today. We also believe that these gems could be saved and rehabbed with a little love from a special someone.

PreservationNation: Once everything was hung with care, how did you spread the word?

Bernice: Mainly, we used Facebook and Instagram to show off our art project in real time. Instagram gave the houses a cute, vintage flair. We also posted photos on popular blogs and the Preservation-Ready Facebook group, which is home to 600 people who love Buffalo and preservation. And for the more traditional types, we wrote a press release (filled with love, of course!) and sent it out.

PreservationNation: At the end of the day, what do you hope these little guerrilla valentines accomplish?

Jason: These four homes are actually on the city’s most recent demolition list, which mainly consists of tax foreclosures. Through the creative use of art, we aim to raise public awareness of these and other threatened architectural treasures. With the added attention we hope to start a productive dialog among concerned citizens and elected officials that will lead to a proactive approach to dealing with our city’s vacant property crisis.

PreservationNation: Tell us a little about your group, Buffalo Young Preservationists.

Bernice: Buffalo Young Preservationists is a group of young, energetic preservationists who love Buffalo and want and try to make positive change. We are a small army of preservation folks filled with enthusiasm and passion. We are a proactive bunch and are involved in several projects that we know will help to preserve Buffalo’s future. It’s a lot of fun getting us together. We throw a great party and geek out on Buffalo.

PreservationNation: Is this the first time you’ve dabbled with art to raise awareness?

Jason: Not at all, we’ve done similar actions before. A few months ago, we put a large red ribbon on a wonderful little house that was slated for demolition on Buffalo’s east side. The “Bow Bomb,” delivered right before Christmas, was the first time we realized how effective our message could be if communicated creatively and correctly.

PreservationNation: What advice would you give old building lovers in other cities who want to save historic places?

Bernice: There are so many important things to do, but the first thing that needs to happen is to build a story around a place that deserves to be saved. When was it built? What neat historical features does it have? Does it have qualities or features that cannot be recreated? Make people fall in love with the building. Make them want to save it.

PreservationNation: Lastly, today is all about love, but what does it mean to be in Buffalove?

Jason: Buffalove is an extremely unique feeling. It’s realizing you’re living in a place rooted in rich history that’s not only worth saving, but celebrating as well. And like in any good relationship, you can have a direct impact in the overall positive outcome if you try hard enough.

PreservationNation: Do you agree with that definition, Bernice?

Bernice: Yep! Buffalove is really comprised of the rich history, a unique urban environment, the friendly people, and the belief that Buffalo can be an even greater city than it already is.

Jason Lloyd Clement is the associate director for online campaigns at the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Like Bernice and Jason, he is also in Buffalove.

How Boston City Hall was born - Boston.com

“Whatever else you might think about it, Boston City Hall is an improbable building. Call it a giant concrete harmonica or a bold architectural achievement, but to walk by this strange, asymmetrical structure in Government Center is to wonder how on earth it landed there.”

Rethinking Preservation Contest – Dwell

“We believe that designing for the modern world begins with honoring the precedents of the past. So we joined forces with Sub-Zero to conceive a contest dedicated to rethinking preservation and you delivered! We received dozens of entries and now it’s time to vote!”

Trump to turn Old Post Office into luxury hotel – The Washington Post

“The federal government announced Tuesday that the New York real estate magnate’s hotel company has been selected to turn Washington’s Old Post Office Pavilion into a luxury getaway. Built in the 1890s, the Old Post Office is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is one of the tallest buildings in the city, with a distinctive clock tower. Although it remains home to a smattering of federal offices and tourist-oriented retail stores and restaurants, the building has seen better days.”

Most Americans Want a Walkable Neighborhood, Not a Big House – GOOD

“The symbol of American success often involves having the biggest house possible, but our outsized fantasies seem to be shifting. According to a new survey, more than three quarters of us consider having sidewalks and places to take a walk one of our top priorities when deciding where to live. Six in 10 people also said they would sacrifice a bigger house to live in a neighborhood that featured a mix of houses, stores, and businesses within an easy walk.”

Classical Coverup on North Highland - Architecture Tourist

Check out this storefront renovation in Atlanta. Unfortunate, but at least the old stuff is being saved… “Every owner and designer would make their own choices against time and budget. We might yet love the finished project or at least respect it. But my first instinct would have been to let the old parts show.”

Preserving New England Houses - Dwell

“In the past few decades, overdevelopment throughout New England has erased some of the region’s most inspired Modernist homes. Towns like New Canaan, Connecticut, and Lincoln, Massachusetts, are architectural hotbeds thanks to the Harvard Five, a group of Harvard graduate architecture students and professors that settled there in the 1940′s. But more recently, homes by Modern titans like Marcel Breuer and Walter Gropius are being razed for subdivisions and McMansions.”

Superman Building at a single bound – Providence Journal

“In calling the Industrial Trust the Superman Building, do we recall the 24-story (by my count) building that Superman leaps over at a single bound at the beginning of each episode of the old black-and-white series? Or do we recall the Daily Planet Building, where Clark Kent reported to Perry White? As its alleged model, Los Angeles City Hall bears little resemblance to the Industrial Trust. Let’s just say we call it the Superman Building because it looks like what we like to think a Superman Building should.”

David Garber is the blog editor at the National Trust for Historic Preservation. He looks forward to a full-on Trump-led tour of the Old Post Office upon completion.

A couple of weeks ago, the National Trust’s Preservation Green Lab released a groundbreaking report, The Greenest Building: Quantifying the Environmental Value of Building Reuse. We’re pleased that the report was met with a good bit of media interest. Check it out:

The Green Dividend from Reusing Older Buildings - NRDC Switchboard

“The study shows that, for most building types, adaptive reuse of older buildings produces measureable – and sometimes impressive – green benefits. The findings with respect to energy impacts for most buildings and adaptations are overwhelmingly positive, and effectively remove one of the arguments that is sometimes made against preservation and adaptation.”

Is It Time to Stop Constructing New Green Buildings? - Fast Company

“Step into a new building in certain parts of U.S. and chances are pretty good that it has been built with the environment in mind (and that there is a plaque bragging about it). Maybe there’s natural lighting, a smart HVAC system, or incredible insulation. It doesn’t really matter. No matter what LEED-certified credentials the building can offer, retrofitting the teardown that came before would probably have made more environmental sense.”

Why the Most Environmental Building is the Building We’ve Already Built - The Atlantic Cities

“We’re not coming out and saying ‘all buildings have to be reused,’ and ‘all new construction is bad,’” Frey says. “What we’re advocating for is a shift in thinking, where at a minimum, we’re considering the environmental impacts associated with demolishing places before we tear them down and build something new.”

This Old House: Why Fixing Up Old Homes is Greener Than Building New Ones - Grist

“To get your head around the broader implications here, consider this: The Brookings Institution projects that the U.S. will demolish roughly a quarter of its existing building stock – 82 billion square feet – between 2005 and 2030, and replace it with new structures. That’s a mind boggling amount of new construction, and even if the new stuff is significantly more energy efficient than the existing stock, it will take decades to recover the initial environmental costs of building it all.”

Proof That the Greenest Building IS the One Already Standing - Treehugger

“It is the wonderful thing about this report, that even when it doesn’t have all of the answers, it anticipates the questions. As a writer about sustainable design it backs up the arguments I have been making for years, and as a preservation activist, it gives me and everyone in the movement the ammunition we need to demonstrate that old buildings are green.”

Historic Buildings May Be Greener Than You Think - New York Times Green Blog

“In New York City, a conflict has long been perceived between historic preservation and urban sustainability goals. Older buildings are often seen as outdated energy hogs that can’t pull their weight, efficiency-wise, in a city that is expected to add a million new residents by 2030.”

LEED From Behind: Why we should focus on greening existing buildings - TIME blog

“A study by the Preservation Green Lab of the National Trust for Historic Preservation shows building reuse almost always has fewer environmental impacts than new construction—which means we’d be smart to spend at least as much time renovating existing buildings as we do lionizing fancy new green construction.”

Why Historic Buildings are Greener Than LEED-Certified New Ones - GOOD

“Though the conclusion may seem counterintuitive in an age of ambitious LEED standards in many new buildings, consider that it uses more energy and creates more impact to construct an entirely new building than to fix up one of the same size for the same purpose.”

For more, see articles featured in Environmental Leader, Jetson Green, Building Design and Construction, Greenbang, ArchDaily, BuildingGreen, American Public Media, and Daily Journal of Commerce (PDF).

My earliest historical memories as a child involve a road trip up to Gettysburg National Military Park. At the time it felt like an epic journey (field trips rule!) with a group of friends. I must have been in elementary school at the time because my impressions of that first trip are mostly of being somewhere away from school, and not much about the battlefield itself.

The battlefield. (Photo: fauxto_digit on Flickr)

Fast forward a few years later. I was a senior in high school and we were back over the Maryland border in Pennsylvania. What’s different about this time is context. We had spent weeks talking about the battle and its role in the Civil War. We watched Gettysburg, read The Killer Angels to see how the battle was interpreted, and recognized the love for a fictional Buster Kilraine. I knew more about what I was looking at, and where I was standing. Together the group – like many before us – reenacted Pickett’s Charge, posed in Devil’s Den like a Matthew Brady photograph, and tried to charge up Little Round Top – getting a clearer idea for tactics. It was a great trip. Public history at its finest.

The hills and woods of Gettysburg are covered in boulders. (Photo: macwagen on Flickr)

Although I’ve been to Gettysburg a few times since then, a day trip this past weekend made me think about the journey in a different way. For those of you not from this city, Gettysburg is about an hour and forty-five minutes from Washington, DC. It’s a straight shot up Interstate 270 and Route 15 just over the Maryland border into Pennsylvania. It is a beautiful drive with the Blue Ridge Mountains rising past you into a brilliant blue sky (in my case this was a surprisingly clear sky following a gentle snowfall). It is also a drive that includes the Catoctin Mountain Maryland Scenic Byway.

Scenic byway through Gettysburg. (Photo: fauxto_digit on Flickr)

I think the best definition of what a byway is from the New York Department of Transportation website which states “A scenic byway is a road, but not just a road. It’s a road with a story to tell.” These roads push travelers off the beaten path and links together history, transportation and culture. In the case of the Catoctin Mountain Scenic Byway, you learn about the soldiers who marched to Gettysburg, Maryland’s Native American history, and Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first American born saint.

Above all else, what pulled me in and made me grateful for the opportunity was how the byway linked the natural beauty of our country with our past, providing me with a vista that inspires.

The National Scenic Byways Program is just one of many preservation programs threatened in the new American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act (HR 7). Learn more about the bill and its effect on historic preservation.

Priya Chhaya is an Online Content Coordinator in the Preservation Division at the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

February 6, 2012 was a big day for fans of skilled jobs, green building and community revitalization through historic preservation. Yesterday, Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD) announced that he, along with Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME), would introduce new Senate legislation that would encourage historic rehabilitation in Main Street communities, promote energy-efficiency in rehabilitation projects, and make the credit more accessible to nonprofit organizations. This legislation was introduced in the House last summer, and achieving Senate introduction was the next big milestone for the National Trust and its allies.

Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD) speaking at the historic Clifton Mansion in Baltimore. (Photos: Eli Pousson, Baltimore Heritage)

The new legislation, the Creating American Prosperity through Preservation (CAPP) Act, would make an already powerful federal historic credit even more so. Over 32 years, the credit has created 2 million jobs; saved 37,000 historic warehouses, factories, and schools; and attracted $90 billion to local economies.

Senator Cardin made his announcement at a press conference at historic Clifton Mansion, which now houses Civic Works, a nonprofit that helps young people prepare for the workforce. The mansion, located in a low-income section of northeast Baltimore, is a poster child for how historic preservation, green energy and community development can intersect – with the federal historic tax credit being the catalyst. Civic Works’ Executive Director Dana Stein talked passionately about how the historic tax credits will make possible the mansion’s $7 million makeover, which will seek LEED Gold certification (a great goal considering their current $17,000 energy bill).

More hard work lies ahead for the National Trust and its allies. Now that both bills have been introduced, our attention will turn toward getting members of Congress on board as co-sponsors. Despite its track record of job creation and community revitalization, the impact of the federal historic tax credit is not widely understood.

In the words of National Trust president Stephanie Meeks, the historic tax credit is simply too important to lose. We will be working hard to educate lawmakers about the power of the federal historic tax credit and the importance of the CAPP legislation. And we’ll need your help.

To join our effort, please take a minute to sign our pledge to help protect and enhance the historic tax credit. 

Erica Stewart is the outreach coordinator for the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Public Affairs department.

On January 19, a Superior Court held that the City of San Diego violated California law by pre-approving material alterations to the iconic Cabrillo Bridge and Alcazar Garden in San Diego’s Balboa Park, a National Historic Landmark District. Judge Judith F. Hayes found that the City Council precluded meaningful review and consideration of alternatives under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) when it signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Plaza de Panama Committee prior to completing an Environmental Impact Report (EIR).

(Photo: Flickr user beany0)

The Committee had proposed a project to alleviate traffic impacts to the iconic Plaza de Panama and construction of a bypass bridge and 785-space parking structure within the Park. It committed to raise $25 million of the proposed $40 million in project costs and presented the City Council with a draft MOU that described detailed project terms. The MOU also contained a clause promising the public full CEQA review.

On July 19, 2011, despite objections from preservation groups (including the National Trust) the City Council voted to endorse the MOU, with the strong support of the Mayor’s office. Soon after, Save Our Heritage Organisation (SOHO), represented by CEQA attorney Susan Brandt-Hawley, sued the City, seeking to set aside its approval of the agreement. SOHO emphasized that it supported the elimination of parking on Plaza de Panama, but objected to the proposed new bridge and parking structure. According to SOHO, the MOU had foreclosed the opportunity for meaningful consideration of alternatives that could accomplish the City’s goals and minimize harm to the Landmark.

(Photos: Flickr users Michael in San Diego, California, jarnott, and mliu92)

After the lawsuit was filed, the City of San Diego claimed the litigation was frivolous and moved to impose sanctions on attorney Brandt-Hawley. But Judge Hayes ultimately agreed with SOHO on the merits. The Judge found that the City Council’s endorsement of the MOU “constitutes action that effectively forecloses due consideration of project alternatives or mitigation measures that are essential parts of CEQA review.” The court looked to the terms of the MOU itself and the “surrounding circumstances” to find that the City had committed itself “in such a way that any promise of meaningful future CEQA review would constitute a post-hoc rationalization to support the action already taken.”

The Court relied on the landmark California Supreme Court ruling in Save Tara v. City of West Hollywood (2008) 45 Cal.4^th 116, which sets forth the test for when a pre-approval has occurred. Save Tara stated that courts should look to the “surrounding circumstances” to determine whether a public agency has committed to the project that will cause environmental harm “as a practical matter.” Id. at 132.

(Photo: Flickr user Osbornb)

In this case, Judge Hayes found that the circumstances surrounding the City’s treatment of the Balboa Park project indicated pre-approval. The City had been put on notice that the project proponent would only support the project as proposed in its draft MOU. After the City’s Rules Committee declined to recommend the project, Mayor Jerry Sanders emailed his supporters asking them to urge the City Council to sign the MOU. Upon approving the MOU, the Mayor and City Councilmembers insisted they had not made a binding commitment. But the Court found that the Mayor’s actions, in particular, demonstrated that the City “publicly defended the project in the face of opposition and committed resources to its approval.” Further, the MOU required the City to provide services such as staff assistance to the project proponent and directed the City to secure tax-exempt bonds to construct the parking garage.

The decision underlines an important principle of CEQA—that the purpose of environmental review is to shape projects, not merely justify them. In this case the City of San Diego violated the public trust by endorsing a particular project alternative without the benefit of environmental review. Luckily, Judge Hayes reinstated a fair public process for the Plaza de Panama Project by requiring rescission of the MOU. Public agencies should take note that CEQA, as with its sister federal law under NEPA, is not simply a hindrance to project approval. Its fundamental purpose—to find the best possible solutions for iconic places like Balboa Park—is squarely in the public’s interest.

2/8/12 – The original sentence “Judge Hayes firmly rejected the sanctions motion and ultimately agreed with SOHO on the merits” was replaced with “But Judge Hayes ultimately agreed with SOHO on the merits.”

Brian R. Turner is a Senior Field Officer and Attorney for the National Trust for Historic Preservation in its San Francisco Field Office.