Council denies family’s plea to delist historic home

1940s Tax Photo of 37 Hillside Avenue. Photo: Park City Municipal

'One of my concerns through the process was, what are we incentivizing someone who owns one of these homes that's in disrepair — uninhabitable. If they just leave it until it collapses, then what happens? It gets scraped and something gets built there.' - Councilmember Bill Ciraco

PARK CITY, Utah — The Park City Council voted 4-1 on Thursday to deny a request to remove a 139-year-old house from the city’s Historic Sites Inventory, sparking some debate about property rights and preservation.

James C. Weaver, the applicant, sought to remove 37 Hillside Avenue from the inventory, citing alterations to the original structure and use of non-historic materials in renovations. The house, built circa 1885, has been in the Weaver family for 90 years.

“This home is our family home, and our family home for 90 years, it does not meet our needs anymore,” Weaver told the council. He added that his father had applied for historic grants in the 1980s but was denied, with statements that the house was not historic.

Several residents spoke in favor of maintaining the home’s historic designation.

“We need to preserve as many of these structures as possible to connect us with the past, the beauty that we have here in Park City,” said Matt Melville, a descendant of early Irish immigrants, and owner of 27 Hillside, which he purchased in 1980.

Dalton Gackle, of the Park City Historical Society, stated, “The main issue with delisting this structure would be that it potentially opens up a rabbit hole of historic homes being delisted just to be torn down, not necessarily to be renovated — without as many restrictions as they’re currently under and in the land management code.”

The council’s decision followed the unanimous recommendation of the Historic Preservation Board to deny the request.

Councilmember Tana Toly, who voted for denial, said, “It comes down to trusting what our historic preservation board has set forth.”

However, Councilmember Jeremy Rubell, the lone dissenting vote, raised concerns about property rights and suggested reviewing the historic preservation code.

“We might see a lot of legacy properties where the family gets involved or inherits the property and needs to do something with it, just from a practical standpoint, and may not be interested in the significant investment or historic nature.” Rubell said. “It doesn’t feel good to tell someone who owned the property before it was designated historic by a government body… that now that you’ve inherited that property or have taken over care of that property, you must invest in that property or sell it at a lower value for someone to invest in.”

The council also discussed the potential for similar cases in the future, with some members expressing interest in reviewing the city’s approach to historic preservation.

Councilmember Bill Ciraco noted, “One of my concerns through the process was, what are we incentivizing someone who owns one of these homes that’s in disrepair — uninhabitable. If they just leave it until it collapses, then what happens? It gets scraped and something gets built there. Sure, they have limitations in code, but, I don’t want to incentivize that behavior. I don’t want to incentivize blight in town.”

The denial means 37 Hillside Avenue will remain on Park City’s Historic Sites Inventory as a Significant Historic Site.