By Thomas Agran, Iowa City
On April 2, the Iowa City City Council deferred a vote on landmarking the lovingly maintained Slezak-Holub-Skarda building, or more affectionately known as the Pagliai’s building. Good. This gives a little more time for Iowa Citians to imagine a giant hole in the ground, and rehearse their opines for another soul crushing four-story condo.
I served on Iowa City’s Historic Preservation Commission for seven years, and I live around the corner from this building. We aren’t talking about landmarking a property as a stretch of the imagination. We’re talking about a core, cherished property in Iowa City’s past, present, and future — inextricable from the story of Iowa City and the historic north end.
We lament the loss of so many historic buildings during Urban Renewal, but as far as I can tell since moving here in ’09, Urban Renewal is alive and well, as developers and accountants pencil Iowa City’s history, texture and unique flavor out of existence in favor of cheap structures, built for balance sheets.
Just gander at the decisions that ensconce our City Hall. Look east and you’ll find a distinctly… forgettable… three-over-one across from New Pioneer, the architectural soup du jour of Iowa City and, well, everywhere. Or look west, where a giant hole in the ground stands monument to both a developer’s bank account and a defeatist shrug from the City. Or north, where the historic Unitarian Universalist church was leveraged and now sits abandoned, having served its role lining private pockets. Don’t forget the increasingly dilapidated historic 410 N Clinton, wrongly rejected for landmarking by the Council in 2019 and held hostage for development handouts in an attempt to demolish and overbuild the neighboring properties. Or the charming piles of antebellum bricks we all woke up to Christmas of 2015 after a jolly visit from a bulldozer on South Dubuque. Episodes to be proud of!
Council rules every week on zoning and code that impacts what we can and can’t do with property — this is nothing unusual. And sure, I’ve sat up there. I get it. When a property owner disagrees with the historic designation of a building, it’s awkward. But as fate would have it, in anticipation of these exact circumstances, Iowa City came up with systems and protocols. We have a comprehensive plan, succinct standards historic properties must meet, and a process of community representatives at three levels who ensure those guiding documents and standards aren’t applied capriciously. So that when our community’s history comes under threat, we have an established and agreed way to prevent our few remaining historic assets being emotionally leveraged for private gain. We made the rules, and the rules say we don’t have to play that game.
Landmarking passed the HPC unanimously, and the one dissenting vote on Planning & Zoning wasn’t because it didn’t overwhelmingly meet criteria, but because they felt personally squeamish about the dissent of the owner — which is not supposed to play a role in the analysis or recommendation. Accordingly, we should consider the P&Z vote also unanimous.
This property is a bellwether. If we can’t use the established process to save a slam dunk property over the objection of the property owner, how will we ever save downtown where dissenting owners pepper every block? Rulings on individual properties do not set precedent, but boy if I was a developer, I’d be watching this Council’s decision closely. Council is tasked with putting process over personal. A dissenting property owner does not constitute some kind of Teflon veto.
A supermajority vote in the affirmative sends the message that this building, and our downtown, is not for sale. And to the Council members themselves: showing yourself to be a Council that values preservation in lock step gives mandate to the HPC and P&Z to begin protecting downtown in earnest before it’s too late. For those that vote no, I do hope you’ll show up at the demolition for one last hot slice and a photo-op with the wrecking ball!
I urge the Iowa City City Council to do what is right for the community, honor our agreed upon rules and processes, and tell everyone that this City Council, that you, have the chutzpah to stand up to developers and development, and that you value community character and fair, civil process above speculative private gain and tax base.
I don’t want to live in a museum, but if you reading this also weary of a city built in the image of tax base and “luxury student housing,” the hesitation on protecting this building should really sound alarm. Old and new, all buildings require maintenance. I urge you to write to your Council — and turn out on April 16 — to show our community values a City worth maintaining.
Editor’s note: Little Village art director Jordan Sellergren is the current chair of the Iowa City Historic Preservation Commission.
