LIVERMORE — Livermore has new standards to decide whether a building is historic and needs to be preserved, potentially making it easier to renovate or demolish older structures.
Under the guidelines, just because a property is over 50 years old, that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily historic. The city now has a comprehensive list of historical resources properties and criteria it takes for the buildings to be considered historic.
Now, just 290 properties of 30,000 citywide could be considered historic. Before, Livermore required any property that was at least 50 years old to undergo a historic review before major changes, such as improvements or tear down a structure, could be made to the building.
In a process that began in 2019 and included a city survey, workshops and research of every property within the city limits, the new inventory found that 1% of all 30,000 properties in the city are deemed historic (70 total), or potentially historic (220 properties). Included in those properties are Hagemann Ranch, the Carnegie Library, the rodeo grounds at Robertson Park and the original Concannon winery building, according to the city.
About 13,700 properties over 50 years old were found to not be historic.
Before this citywide analysis of every parcel, if any property was over 50 years old and the owner applied for a development permit with the city, the application had to go through the extra step of the city’s historic review to determine whether it was historic, said city assistant planner Jake Potter in an interview.
Now, only properties on the city’s list of 290 historic or potentially historic will have to undergo that process to determine if they need special review of any proposed changes. All those affected property owners were notified.
“That’s the flip side to this project: It streamlined review for a whole lot of properties in the city,” Potter said.
But not everyone is happy with the streamlined historic policy.
In a 14-page letter to the city in February, attorney Jason Bezis criticized the historic resources update proposal as eviscerating historic resources protections for the city’s downtown. He also maintained that the proposal gives “too much ‘wiggle room’ on the definition of historic integrity” and the proposal does not provide enough protection against building relocations.
Bezis sued Livermore in 2017 over his First Amendment free speech rights, alleging the City Council tried to silence him during meetings after he criticized the city’s historic preservation policy at the time. Bezis opposed the city’s move of the 125-year-old historic train depot, calling on Livermore to do more study about keeping the depot where it was.
His lawsuit is pending in the appeals court.
In an email to this newspaper, Bezis said, “The city and its allies are bent not only on destroying Livermore’s historic resources, but also any critic who dares to question them.”
Under the new rules approved, smaller changes, such as window or even roof replacements, may not require the full review of historic properties, Potter said.
To be considered historic, most buildings need to be at least 50 years old. They also must fit certain criteria, such as have significant architectural features, be designed by a prominent architect or be connected to Livermore’s history.
There could be properties less than 50 years old that could be considered historic as well, if they are associated with something or someone significant. However, the city did not find any properties less than 50 years old that fit such criteria.
Included in the ordinance approved by the City Council is a procedure to evaluate properties that turn 50 years old after the list has been completed, to see if they qualify under one of the historic themes.
The city also adopted a historic context statement — a document that helps identify Livermore’s history and describes the indigenous peoples and other cultures present in the Livermore Valley before Livermore’s incorporation, and “establishes historic themes like wineries and vineyards, farms, livestock, dairies, and science and technology,” according to a staff report.
The main purpose of this document is to identify certain themes important to Livermore’s history that can be helpful in guiding the city to determine if a property should have historical significance.
The city first did a historic survey of city properties more than 30 years ago in 1988, with an update in 2004 that included its downtown.
