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Mailing Address:
7486 La Jolla Blvd. No. 175
La Jolla, CA 92037
Phone 858-459-0326
Legacy106inc@gmail.com

President's Message

Winter 2014
by Ronald V. May, RPA, President

Printable Version of this Newsletter
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President's Message
Tremendous change has come to pass in the five years since our last President's Message got posted on this website. Co-founder Ms. Dale Ballou May passed from (non-smoking) lung cancer in December 2011. As a result of this loss, I had little time to prepare a presidential message for the website. But Legacy 106, Inc. continued operations by training Mr. Kiley Wallace and Ms. Alexandra Wallace to continue the high quality standard held by the company over the past five years.

Winter 2014
by Ronald V. May, RPA, President

New Partnership. Working with corporate attorney Barry Hager to draw up the proper papers, Kiley Wallace acquired at 10% partnership in Legacy 106, Inc. in January 2014. Mr. Wallace assumed the position of Vice President of Operations and managed report research, preparation, and production. Mr. May assumed overall project and business management, client development, editorial control, and meetings with reviewing agencies.

15th Anniversary. Legacy 106, Inc. will celebrate its 15th anniversary in March 2015. We have much to celebrate, as we have sheparded over 300 property owners to successful historical designations at the City of San Diego, County of San Diego, City of Encinitas, City of La Mesa and on the National Register of Historic Properties. We also participated in the Mission Hills Historic District in 2004 and Annex in 2014 and are now guiding the Inspiration Heights Historic District through the bureaucracy at the City of San Diego.

Current Caseload. As of December 1, 2014, we are carrying seventeen private houses under contract, as well as continuing to meet with the Inspiration Heights community on their proposed district. Many of these client houses are undergoing varying degrees of restoration so they may qualify for designation.

New Service Lines. Several new lines of work have developed in recent years. We now prepare Mills Act Contract applications, which include a ten-year work plan to guide the reinvestment of Property Tax savings into restoration and maintenance of the designated houses. Another line of work has been to assist civil engineers and architects involved in redevelopment projects in downtown San Diego, as well as urban neighborhoods. In more than half our projects, we work closely with architects and general contractors to restore the public views of client houses to qualify them for historical designation.

Archaeology Service. Although Legacy 106, Inc. has always maintained a presence in the local archaeology industry, work has mostly focused on research and publication. Master's Candidate Michelle Graham interned with Legacy 106, Inc. in 2012 to learn historical research methods and promoted to Assistant Investigator in 2014. Legacy 106, Inc. succeeded in acquiring contracts through the Indian Health Services to conduct Section 106, National Historic Preservation Act, archaeology surveys of water facility construction projects at the La Jolla Indian Reservation and San Pasqual Indian Reservation in the Spring and Summer of 2014. Ronald V. May, RPA and Graham also conducted a survey of a portion of Prohibition Era cobblestone walls and historic artifacts in a section of Majogany Canyon in Kensington Point. Graham will defend her Master of Arts in Anthropology thesis at San Diego State University on December 11, 2014. Although concurrently acquiring apprenticeship for California Department of State Parks, Graham will continue to work with Legacy 106, Inc. in archaeology as Staff Archaeologist and conduct history research for nomination projects.

Archaeology Research. Ronald V. May, RPA, directed extensive archaeology survey research over a six square mile area of very rugged and remote high desert country northwest of Jacumba in San Diego County, which contributed to the Bureau of Land Management's successful nomination of the Table Mountain National Register District to the federal Keeper of the Register thirty years ago. California Parks and Recreation Site Steward Don Liponi recruited Mr. May to assist in relocating a prehistoric white pictograph within the district in May of 2014. Liponi and May returned with a small field crew in November 2014 to relocate a yellow pictograph and to examine a recently discovered circular rock alignment at a Kumeyaay Native American sacred site.

City of San Diego, Historical Resources Board, Procedural Chances. Ronald V. May and Kiley Wallace attended a City of San Diego, training workshop on November 20, 2014. The City of San Diego issued a detailed six-page "Historic Process" handout, a complex flow chart, and new procedures for processing private homeowner nominations in 2015. City staff consider voluntary nominations to be "not mandated by City Ordinance," so have placed the lowest priority for placing these on the monthly Historical Resources Board agendas. The highest priorities are assigned to development permit projects passed through the "45-year review" process, community plan update work, and special referrals from Mayor Kevin Faulconer or the City Council.

The new changes mean that Legacy 106, Inc cannot be certain that a client project will be placed on an agenda in 2015. The following are the new changes for property owner voluntary nominations:
1. Only four (4) spots on each agenda will be allowed for voluntary nominations.
2. Property owners or their agents must contact Ms. Shannon Anthony, Historic Resources Board (HRB) secretary, to schedule an appointment for preliminary intake review to be certain the report contains all the required pieces.
3. Any report found to be incomplete will be kicked back with no place held on an agenda.
4. Once a voluntary nomination report passes through preliminary intake review, it goes to a City staff person for technical content review. If the staff finds any reason to question the content of the report or requires further forensic analysis of the building, the nomination will be kicked out of sequence with no place held on the agenda.
5. Staff will conduct site visits seven (7) weeks in advance of placing a report on the HRB agenda. If they come back with questions or require additional information, the nomination will be pulled off the agenda with no place held on the agenda.
6. Reports can be submitted up to September 29, 2015 and still (in theory) get placed on a HRB agenda in 2015. But note that if for any reason staff kick the report back for further information, there will be no chance for a 2015 agenda spot.

For these six reasons outlined above, Legacy 106, Inc. cannot guarantee any nomination report submitted in 2015 will be placed on a HRB agenda in 2015.

Continued Benefits of Historical Designation. In spite of the many rumors spread during the Recession of 2008-2012, the City of San Diego has continued to support and maintain the property owner voluntary nomination process. There is no limit to the number of nominations that can be submitted. There is a requirement that City staff notify the City Council when Mills Act contract Property Tax reductions attain $200,000 in any one year, but thus far that has yet to happen. Our clients have been receiving approximately 50% to 75% Property Tax reductions from the local designation process. And designated houses sell for a minimum of 3.8% more as a result of designation and much higher once the Mills Act contract is in place. The Mills Act property tax can be used to offset roofing repairs, foundation work, fireplace restoration and even major plumbing to preserve the historical character of a designated house.

Conclusion. Legacy 106, Inc. continues to maintain that very high standard created by our founders in the year 2000. We celebrate our 15th year of existence in March 2015 and expect to double our workload in the year to come.

Newsletter Archive:
Winter 2014
Spring 2008
Spring 2007
Spring 2006
Spring 2005 Newsletter
Winter/Spring 2005 Newsletter

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