Citywide Historic Resource Survey
Historic Context Statements and surveys are planning tools for understanding, identifying, evaluating and protecting the City’s historical resources. Context Statements provide the foundation for successful survey work. They provide an analytical framework for identifying and evaluating resources by explaining the broad patterns of historical development of a community that are represented by the physical development and character of the built environment. A historic survey is an inventory of potentially significant properties that provides information needed to make informed planning decisions, prioritize preservation goals and objectives, and increase the public’s understanding of and appreciation for the built environment. Conducting a Survey involves archival research, development of a historic context, field survey and recording of information.
The City contracted with Dudek, an environmental planning firm based in Encinitas, to complete the Historic Context Statement and Historic Resources Inventory document. The Historic Context Statement is a narrative of the history of Coronado and its built environment, and identifies important themes, property types, patterns of development, significant events, and people that have shaped the history of Coronado from the City’s initial development through 1970. Information is included on locally significant architectural styles, along with information on prominent architects and builders that have contributed to Coronado’s built environment. The Context Statement provides a framework for evaluation of resources within the important aspects of Coronado’s history and, used in conjunction with the City’s adopted Designation Criteria Guidelines, will assist with consistent identification, evaluation, and preservation of Historic Resources.
The Historic Resources Inventory is a survey of structures in the Village area constructed through 1970 and provides an evaluation of potential historic significance under Coronado’s Historic Designation Criterion C related to architecture, which states: “It possesses distinctive characteristics of an architectural style and has not been substantially altered.” Properties are categorized in tiers based on the level of observed retention of original architectural appearance, as reflected in the Survey Findings Matrix that is included as an appendix to the document:
- Tier 1 - Unaltered or minimally altered from historic condition and potentially eligible for City designation under Criterion C.
- Tier 2 - Recognizable as a particular architectural style but based on observation and/or construction history are more than “unaltered or minimally altered” from historic condition and do not appear to be eligible for historic designation under Criterion C.
- Tier 3 - Substantially altered properties that retain little to no elements of a particular architectural style and, based on observation and/or construction history, are not eligible for historic designation under Criterion C.
Currently, the Coronado Municipal Code requires any structure in the City that is 75 or older to be reviewed for historic significance as a Historic Resource prior to demolition of any original features that are visible from the street right of way through a Determination of Historic Significance Review. This essentially results in any structure that is 75 or older being considered “potentially historic” and results in confusion regarding what type of development is allowed.
The City Council considered public comments, reviewed the document, and provided their own comments and direction at the meetings of June 20, 2023, November 21, 2023, September 17, 2024, and most recently, on December 3, 2024. At this meeting, a Final Program Environmental Impact Report (PEIR), prepared consistent with CEQA Guidelines, was certified by City Council and staff was directed to move forward with the appropriate ordinance amendments to implement the use of the Historic Context Statement and Historic Resources Inventory, and to exclude properties identified as Tier 3 from a required Determination of Historic Significance Review.
The document is available for review on the City's website www.coronado.ca.us/preservation and on the Project Coronado page under Project Documents, as well as in print at City Hall and the Coronado Library.
Context and Survey Comments
Following careful analysis of the survey and the many omissions and inaccuracies that have been found by local homeowners, it is clear that the Historic Resource Survey, as it stands, has significant limitations that compromise its ability to serve as a fair and reliable tool for evaluating homes' historical significance. The survey exclusively examines the architectural aspects of a property, neglecting the broader historical context and significance of these homes and should not be adopted to exclude homes from the current Historic Resource process. There is a more accurate solution for assessing historic properties while respecting the rights and needs of homeowners already in place at the City. Removing homes from this process based on this survey would be flawed due to the inaccuracies of the survey.
Additionally, the findings in the Historic Context Statement regarding City Historic Districts that “No areas within the City were found to have the visual cohesion to be considered as a local historic district” (pg 127) is misleading and downplays the potential for historic districts in Coronado. Significant research and analysis of potential historic districts in Coronado is lacking within the document and this sentence should not be taken to mean that Coronado could not form a historic district in the future.
I am a Coronado homeowner who attended the 11 October information session in the Winn Room at the Library and I would like to register my input that it makes no sense to pay for this tiered assessment of Coronado homes and not eliminate, at a minimum, tier 3 (heavily altered) houses from historic designation processes. My house was built in 1925 but it is a small and ordinary structure behind an 8-foot fence on 3rd Street. I was surprised to learn that if I were to decide to upgrade my home with an ADU, I may have to pay over $1,000 and go through a lengthy neighbor notification process even through my home is clearly not historic. The city needs housing, not administrative churn. I'd like to say that the city should focus on the tier 1/2 homes that are more clearly history, but hearing from a citizen who is facing designation against his will, I don't agree with that either. That said, the survey has been paid for and completed so the city should take advantage to reduce the number of homes going through this expensive and staff member intensive process. To do anything else would indicate that the city is in thrall, for some reason I don't understand, to hobbyists who just want to freeze us in amber in order to enjoy a decaying and old-fashioned city infrastructure. Please do what the survey was intended to do: Cut red tape, honor homeowner desires to improve their property, and stop stealing worth from people who don't fetishize old buildings.
Sincerely,
Glenn Hopson
nado.hopsong@gmail.com
1215 3rd Street
I am writing to urge you to adopt the Historic Context Statement & Survey as a tool and not remove any homes from the review process to determine historic significance.
I believe the removal of any homes from the historical resource commission review process is a mistake, is out of the norm with other historic resource boards in California, and will be detrimental to the program and our town.
It would be impossible for Dudek to be familiar with all historical information available for Coronado properties.