 Item 14. Item 14 is a resolution initiating historic landmark designation for 307 East Evergreen and a waiver of application fees totaling $842.70. Funding for the application fees is available in the Office of Historic Preservation General Fund, fiscal year 2019 adopted budget, and item 15 is a resolution initiating historic landmark designation for 311 East Evergreen and a waiver of application fees totaling $842.70. Funding for the application fees is available from the Office of Historic Preservation General Fund, fiscal year 2019 adopted budget. Okay, and to clarify, Madam Clerk, you read the captions for both 14 and 15, so the Council will take those up together. Okay, Councilman Trevino. Thank you, Mayor. We got citizens yesterday. Okay. Sorry about that. We have three citizens signed up to speak for items 14 and 15, so we'll take them now. We'll start with Todorika Kushner, followed by Patty Zients. Respectfully, I have statements from my community association, two separate statements for those two separate items, so I would like to have more time than three minutes in order to read the statements, if that's all right. Go ahead, Federica, and anything you don't get to, the clerk will read it into the record as well. All right, I'll try to go quickly. You have as much time as you need. Go ahead. I'm speaking for the Tobin Hill Community Association. My name is Federica Kushner, I live at 405 East Myrtle Street in Tobin Hill. A resolution initiating historic landmark designation for 307 East Evergreen is under consideration here today. The house was built in 1910 and has an interesting history. In 1919, after the death of her husband, Robert G. Cole's mother, Clara, moved her family into the house at 307 East Evergreen. Her son grew up there, graduated from a local high school, joined the Army, went to West Point, became a paratrooper, went into Normandy on D-Day, 1944, 75 years ago today, was sited to receive a Medal of Honor because of heroic actions and died a few months later in Holland defending a bridge from the Germans. He was buried in Best, the Netherlands. It was left for Clara to receive Robert's posthumous medal at Fort Sam Houston in late 1944. Later, the house became the headquarters of Mujeres Unidas, a charitable organization founded in 1994 for women and Latinx with HIV AIDS. Since the time of its construction, the Cole House has been subject to very little alteration or addition, preserving its condition much as it was while the Cole family lived there. The historic building represents an important part of San Antonio's cultural heritage. Often, I hear one specific ejection to historic designation, and it's been there for over 100 years. Why didn't someone say something about it sooner? Our reply is, the neighborhood has hundreds of buildings built before the 1950s, and it's impossible to research the history of every one of them. There are many historic sites in San Antonio which were forgotten and then rediscovered, and there are many which to the detriment of the city no longer exist because no one spoke up for them. The Midtown Area Regional Center Plan says, quote, Midtown's neighborhoods will continue to convey historic character, and that they, quote, will each include an abundance of place to live, work, learn, and enjoy, yet each will have a distinct character featuring and growing from local culture and landscape. This is valid and very important to our city. The land use map for the plan shows higher density for east and west of the residential core. Many of these projects have been built or are in planning. To carry this push for higher density into the established residential part of the neighborhood, especially if the neighborhood must be torn down to accommodate it is unreasonable. So the Tobel Hill Community Association is respectfully asking that you approve the resolution initiating historic landmark designation for the house at 307 East Evergreen, the coal house. The Stinson House, that place off Evergreen, 311 East Evergreen, is a two-story house adjacent to the historic coal house. It was built in 1910 as a multiple resident apartment building and remains so for its entire history. The longest tenants, who were also owners, were William Henry Stinson and his daughter Pearl Stinson, who resided there from 1926 to 1955. Later important tenants were the mostly anonymous individuals who between 1995 and this year opened their doors to neighborhood artists and musicians and transformed their apartment spaces into grassroots performance and recording venue that became known locally as that place off Evergreen. Since time of its construction, the Stinson House has been subject to very little alteration or addition, preserving its condition much as it was while the Stinson family lived there. Indeed, the Stinson House, like its neighbor, the coal house, should be considered for inclusion within the adjacent Tobel Hill Historic District because it possesses the same characteristics and integrity as neighboring houses already within the district. Furthermore, we have received many messages on social media commenting against the demolition of their favorite gathering and performance place. There is widespread public support within Tobel Hill, the City of San Antonio and elsewhere to preserve this building and interest in reinvesting in its revival as an artistic and educational community space. As one drives up McCullough, both the houses at 307 and 311 are visible at the East Evergreen intersection. They are part of a streetscape unique to Tobel Hill, a major street lined with both modern buildings and old houses, a reminder that this is one of San Antonio's older neighborhoods. But plans are already underway to build townhome developments on well over one-half of that city block, directly adjacent to historic single-family dwellings. By retaining this historic house for reuse, the jarring difference resulting from the height and massing of the new buildings to be constructed on East Park and Gillespie can be softened, retaining one of the signature characteristics of the neighborhood. Your approval of the resolution initiating historic landmark designation of the house at 311 East Evergreen will go a long way in preserving Tobel Hill as one of San Antonio's unique neighborhoods. Thank you so much. Thank you, Ms. Kirchner. Patty Zions, followed by Lester Ferguson. Your time, if that is appropriate, to read both of my statements on both properties. You signed up for two, both of those items, Patty, so you'll have six minutes. Yes, Mayor. Go ahead. Thank you, Mayor. Patty Zions, San Antonio Conservation Society, 107 King William. The San Antonio Conservation Society supports the resolution initiating historic landmark designation of the coal house located at 307 East Evergreen. The house contributes architecturally to the surrounding neighborhood, and its original design remains visually intact. Half of the residences on this block have been lost to demolition, making this house more important to preserve as a familiar corner feature that signals the residential character of the neighborhood east of McCullough. In addition, 307 East Evergreen is significant as the childhood home of Medal of Honor recipient Lieutenant Colonel Robert G. Cole. Lieutenant Cole lived in this house with his mother from 1919 until he left for West Point in 1935. He received the highest military honor following his service during the invasion of Normandy, an event of international importance being honored today. Lieutenant Cole posthumously lent his name to numerous institutions, including the junior and senior high school of Fort Sam Houston. He has also been immortalized in pop culture through a series of video games. There is no doubt that the coal house should become a local landmark and may be eligible for the national register of historic places. In addition to honoring this World War II hero, landmark designation can provide tax incentives to rehabilitate this structure rather than yielding another vacant lot to expensive new construction. And I might add that today, D-Day, would be the most appropriate time to honor this war hero by land potential landmarking of his family home. Regarding 311 East Evergreen, the society also supports the resolution initiating historic landmark designation for the Stinson house located at 311 East Evergreen. Mark designation could provide tax incentives to rehabilitate the structure rather than again yielding another vacant lot to expensive new construction. Thank you so much for consideration of the Conservation Society's position on these two residences. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Ms. Zions. Lester Ferguson. Good morning. Good morning. Yes, I'm the owner of 307 and 309 311 East Evergreen. This has been quite a surprise. I have, was not notified about this, except through my attorney, that's fine. And I've had very little time to prepare anything about this and it's caused a lot of stress. I couldn't sleep at all last night, but I'll tell you just what's going on with me. I tried to lease these places for two years and people don't want them. And I have to live off of this. I, they were not considered historic till now and I'm going to be required to pay taxes, the insurance, the upkeep, and these are wooden structures and wood, exposed wood doesn't last more than 50 years. That means that it has to be replaced. They're not, they're very difficult to maintain. I have to go in there constantly and I do the work myself because I cannot afford to bring in other people. The insulation is poor, people don't want to live there. I'm also in the middle of a divorce. This means that my property is, all my assets and my savings and so forth are going to be divided. It's going to put me in a very deep and dark place where I cannot afford to maintain these properties and I just don't know where I'm going to be at this point. My future is built around these properties. I was hoping for a sale that I could continue on. I don't have any insurance due to divorce. I don't have much savings. It will be, I'll have to basically sell this at whatever prices I can obtain. It leaves me without health insurance and as you know, any event can literally take everything away from you. It could be just a simple accident, break your leg, whatever. You don't know what's coming next. I quit my teaching job to make my case. I had to come in here and I've never done this before so I was totally ignorant about this process. I had no idea what was going on. I didn't know how to defend myself and now I'm without income. I teach philosophy and ethics at St. Phillips and that is no longer possible. I'll have to reapply and at my age 75, that's going to be tough. So at this time I'll have no income because people don't want to rent these places. I'll be without minimal income, maybe an adjunct position that's very poor and there's no insurance with it. My wife and I before the divorce had talked about my insurance with the school but she said no, go with my insurance and I did and drop the school insurance and that was, I didn't see the divorce coming and so now I'm stuck. As you know, divorce can go higher than $50,000 if it's contested. That will, that's going to be really bad for me and for her too. I will probably be forced to sell my belongings to my house and I'm basically at whatever this outcome is, I don't know. That's basically it. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Ferguson. We do have one letter that was submitted from the Tobin Hill Neighborhood Association that we'd also place into the record for the clerk, Councilman Trevino. Thank you, Mayor. And thank you for all those who took the time to come and speak on these items today. I certainly appreciate the passion in which the residents of District 1 neighborhoods advocate for preservation. In fact, we were just having this conversation with Councilman Courage as we're walking over here. I'm also committed to preserving the neighborhood character of District 1, especially in the urban core neighborhoods where development is surging. As stated in many of the neighborhood plans and as I say tomorrow, development should be accommodated on the corridors and in commercial mixed use areas and not in the neighborhood cores. This is something I support and I'm committed to working towards through a variety of avenues designed for this purpose. The properties located on 307 and 311 east of Green are situated on the commercial corner of the Makola corridor. This is an area that would be appropriate to accommodate future growth and development. However, the existing structures do have valuable historic materials within them. Before any future infill projects are brought forward, I encourage the property owners to establish a salvaging plan for these historic materials. I will also be reviewing this zoning change as a replacement plan and it should therefore have a site plan which is sensitive to the surrounding buildings and streetscape. Our city is currently developing a deconstruction ordinance which will be a tangible implementation of our sustainability plan as well as a resource for valuable restorations. I have been an advocate for this for some time and would expect that this property should conform to that ordinance. I understand that there are members of the community who would prefer a different decision on these matters, but I would encourage those individuals to continue to advocate for their communities and bring forward their findings and perspectives. Requesting reviews of properties means that sometimes applications move forward and sometimes they don't and that each application will always be reviewed individually by myself and my office with careful consideration and conclusions. Upon close scrutiny, these properties do not warrant landmark status, therefore I move to deny historic designations for both 307 and 311 East Evergreen, items number 14 and 15. Hey, there's a motion and a second for denial of items 14 and 15. Thank you, Councilman. Andy? I motion to vote no on items number 14 and 15. Again, there's no motion required. You're simply urging the council to vote no on the recommendation for designation. This was before the council is a recommendation to designate it and so you simply say you're not supporting that and you would urge your fellow councilmen not to support it as well. So therefore a vote no is no. I urge my council to vote no on item 14 and 15. That worked for the clerk. Thank you. You're good. Okay. Councilman Hall. Just to clarify, is there a motion on the floor? So does that... There is no motion on the floor. Councilman, you're simply voting yes or no on the designation. Again, no means you don't get the historic designation. But to do that, don't you need a motion? No, you don't. No. Oh, I see. I'm sorry. I need a motion for somebody needs to motion for it and somebody has to second it. That's... Okay. I'm going to repeat my original motion, which was a motion for... I moved to deny historic designation for both 307 and 311 East Evergreen items number 14 and 15. Okay. There's a motion and a second for denial of items 14 and 15. We did not have a staff presentation on this. Okay. So, clerk, go ahead. So the city clerk wants some clarification because she's telling me that everybody has to vote... Andy, you were requesting that people vote no, but my motion is for people to vote yes. Now with your motion, people vote yes to support what you're... Okay. So to be clear, I'm asking my council colleagues to vote yes for denial. Correct. Please vote yes. Thank you, guys. Thank you. Let's see. Okay. Well, now that we're thoroughly confused, I think we understand the motion. The motion is to deny the designation of items 14 and 15 to two homes on Evergreen Street. So a yes vote is to deny the designation. A no vote would be to support the designation. You know, I have to say that we did not get a briefing on this item. And, you know, for all intents and purposes, there's a lot that needs to happen here with regard to designation. There are two historic structures on Evergreen. I would love to know the compelling reasons underneath by which the designation is being sought. Obviously, you know, Dick Cole's name certainly resonates in this community. The testimony by the property owner, though, is also equally compelling. And it is disturbing to me that we don't have a process to rectify, to reconcile those two issues. You know, this is a city that is growing. We understand that. We need to accommodate the growth the best way we can. We also have to retain our cultural and historic heritage. Otherwise, we lose our identity, which is our competitive advantage as a city. We can be any town USA if we continue to grow the way we are, but we lose sight of the heritage that is here in the city. And I know our staff, our council members work very hard to strike that balance. The balance that's lost today, for me, though, is the fact that we have, I think, very compelling testimony on historic preservation, along with a very clear description of how that designation would hurt a property owner. And those things need to be reconciled away from this dais so we have a better sense of the direction coming in before a vote of this nature. So, you know, having sat through the testimony, I'm comfortable with the councilman's lead on this, but I will tell you I'm not comfortable with the dynamics of the situation being decided on the spot right now. So I'll go ahead and support the councilman. But I would like to get briefed on items like this prior to. So we'll go ahead and move forward with the vote. Their motion was to deny items 14 and 15 designation. So a yes vote is to deny, a no vote is to designate. Please vote. Motion carries.