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  • Fresno: Historic homes can't be moved

    Fresno Bee (California)
    May 30, 2008 Friday
    FINAL EDITION


    Historic homes can't be moved

    Appellate court says Fresno was wrong to OK relocation of Old Armenian
    Town buildings.

    by Brad Branan The Fresno Bee

    The city of Fresno disregarded state law when it tried to relocate
    historic homes for a major downtown redevelopment project, a state
    appellate court has ruled.

    The decision means developers can't immediately proceed with plans to
    build a parking structure for the Old Armenian Town project. And that
    could complicate plans for office buildings there.

    The city could decide how to respond as early as June 10, when the
    City Council will discuss the project in a closed session, City
    Attorney James Sanchez said.

    "There are a number of options on how to proceed," Sanchez said. "They
    could decide to accept the decision and see if the development can
    continue around that site. Or they could decide to petition the state
    Supreme Court for review of the case. We're not wedded to any options
    yet."

    Sanchez said city officials were disappointed about the ruling.

    "It delays redevelopment of downtown Fresno south of Ventura Street,"
    Sanchez said.

    City officials have long touted Old Armenian Town as a key part of
    their downtown revitalization plans.

    But so far, only the 5th District Court of Appeals building has been
    finished on the site, while three office buildings, retail space and
    the parking have yet to be completed.

    In 2005, two preservation groups challenged the city's plans to
    relocate five small historic homes to make space for parking. The
    homes are representative of the city's original Armenian town and
    shouldn't be moved to a nearby industrial area south of Highway 41 as
    the city proposed, they said.

    The homes are now on a lot at N Street and Santa Clara Street. They
    are nearly all that remains of a neighborhood where Armenian
    immigrants settled beginning in the 1880s.

    Jeanette Jurkovich of Friends of Armenian Town, one of the groups that
    challenged the city, applauded this week's appellate court ruling. The
    decision upheld a 2006 Superior Court ruling.

    "This is very consistent with what we were trying to have the
    government do," she said.

    "Maybe now we can protect and preserve a little part of Armenian
    Town."

    Jeff Reid, an attorney representing developers Richard Gunner and
    George Andros, said he couldn't comment on the ruling because he
    hasn't seen it. But he said removing the proposed parking location
    throws the whole development plan into question.

    "Losing that parking affects the overall development potential -- it's
    all up in the air," he said.

    The court's decision focused on an environmental review process.

    An initial report by the city found that Andros and Gunner couldn't
    build the parking structure where they wanted, because the historic
    homes would need to go there, the court's ruling says. Keeping the
    homes there was a necessary "mitigation measure" required to meet the
    state's rules governing the effect of projects on the surrounding
    area.

    Nevertheless, the city proceeded with the developers' plans for the
    parking structure, ignoring what its own review had found earlier, the
    court found.

    The city "never justified its abandonment of the previously adopted
    mitigation measure, and no substantial evidence supports the change,"
    the court said.
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