The Minneapolis Heritage Preservation commissioners were
unanimous Tuesday night: They want a four-block area in Dinkytown to be
the city’s latest historic district.
The vote followed
two hours of testimony, during which most speakers favored recognizing
the district west of the University of Minnesota campus for its place in
commercial, cultural and social history, even though a handful of
building owners worried that the designation would make it difficult to
repurpose their buildings.
“Everyone has Dinkytown in
their heart,” said building owner Brett Naylor. “They want the best for
Dinkytown.” But he fears that his building won’t last forever, and that
the designation might make it impossible to replace.
Yet
the overwhelming sentiment — one endorsed by former Vice President
Walter Mondale via a letter — is that the district is at risk of being
replaced by the types of residential and commercial buildings that have
been pushing in from the north and west. And that its history and
character should be preserved.
“Dinkytown
has always been life-sized and indeed dinky and I’m very afraid that if
we destroy the small-scale buildings themselves it will erase those
memories and meanings and therefore the history will be seriously
impaired,” Mondale wrote.
The commission’s vote is only a
recommendation to the Minneapolis City Council, however. And the
creation of the district is more in doubt there. Issues of preserving
the old versus increasing the density of the city in commercial zones
like Dinkytown will be played out there as they were a year ago.
City
planning staff has recommended approval of the historic district,
saying that the less-than four square block area near the U of M met
five of the seven criteria needed under city code to support
designation. It qualifies for designation if it meets any one criterion.
Though
altered by redevelopment, the area around the intersection of 14th
Avenue SE and 4th Street SE retains a batch of original buildings. Once a
spot where two major streetcar lines intersected, it eventually became
the center of the U of M community, and also was considered a second
downtown for the residential areas north and west.
It
was also the area where the 1950s beat culture, the 1960s counterculture
and the 1970s antiwar movement were centered. But the designation has
also triggered a debate of sorts among preservationists and new
urbanists, who are conflicted over whether preservation encourages or
deters increased density and walkability — and the expanded use of
transit.
The city planning staff's report said the area
was associated with significant events, people (think Bob Dylan), and
elements of city history; that its architecture is distinctive; and that
the area exemplifies landscape design “distinguished by innovation,
rarity, uniqueness or quality of design or detail.”
Dinkytown
sits between two already designated historic districts: the U of M
Greek Letter Chapter House District and the Fifth Street SE Historic
District. The new designation was supported by the Marcy-Holmes
Neighborhood Association but opposed by the Dinkytown Business Alliance,
which feared it would be too restrictive on how owners can use their
properties.
Creating the historic district has its own
complex history. Long the desire of some who once or currently live and
work in the district, the historic nature of the area was at the heart
of a development fight in 2013. That was when Doran Companies proposed a
six-story mixed-use project across 4th Street SW from the Varsity
Theater. The project would have required the demolition of three
buildings.
Minneapolis Heritage Preservation Commission
Dinkytown Potential Historic District
The
preservation commission denied approval of the demolition and voted to
give the area interim protection while the city prepared a report on
whether it should be designated as historic. On appeal, a divided
Minneapolis City Council said that two of the three buildings could be
demolished but denied the permit to take down the oldest of the three,
located at 1319 4th Street.
That decision essentially
blocked the Doran project, and the company walked away. Critics,
however, say the council majority ignored its own rules. Because 1319
had no protection when the demolition permits were requested, the only
criterion the council could use to save 1319 was to decide whether it
was historic by itself. While old, the small building meets none of the
criteria set up in city code.
If a new district is
created, it will protect obviously distinctive buildings like those that
house the Loring Pasta Bar, Annie’s Parlour, the Varsity Theater and
the Dinkydome on University (the one building included that is not
contiguous to the rest of the district). But it will also cover
less-significant buildings like 1319, since they contribute to the
character of the district as a whole.
If approved by the
council, city staff will begin to develop design guidelines for how
buildings in the district can be reused or updated. Generally, the
guidelines only cover the exteriors of buildings in the district. The
staff report concluded that “ideal guidelines would have flexibility so
that Dinkytown can continue to evolve while ensuring that no one
property owner can undermine that which makes Dinkytown appeal.
