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President's
Message
Winter 2014
by Ronald V. May, RPA, President
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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
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Winter
2014
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2006
Spring
2005 Newsletter
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2005 Newsletter
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