West Side-Clark Addition Historic District (MHPR and NRHP

DESIGN GUIDELINES INTRODUCTION

Purpose

The people of Mesa recognize that preserving its historic places and neighborhoods contributes significantly to enhancing local economic vitality and quality of life. Historic preservation also provides cultural, visual, and environmental value, helping to promote sustainable, compelling places attractive to residents, investors, and visitors alike. Historic preservation serves as an essential tool for revitalizing and preserving authentic, character-rich places and neighborhoods.

61 North Standage | Laurel Park Subdivision

Drives Place-Based Economic Development. Historic preservation provides opportunities to support placed-based economic development, such as revitalizing downtown commercial districts and traditional neighborhoods, facilitating adaptive use, generating new jobs and small businesses, and promoting heritage tourism.

Promotes Sustainability and Material Reuse. Historic preservation and sustainability are natural partners. Generally, historic buildings feature more durable construction materials with long lifecycles — retaining such materials through preservation and adaptive use helps to save space in local landfills.

Enhances Neighborhoods. Preservation contributes to vibrant neighborhoods by enhancing their character and visual appearance and by cultivating a sense of place, community pride, and a greater understanding of local heritage. Historic neighborhoods also offer a diverse range of housing opportunities that meet local needs.

Fosters Well-Being. Historic buildings and places are visible and tangible reminders of the community’s past, collective identity, and memory. In other, less tangible ways, historic places elevate health and well-being as they provide familiarity and comfort in changing times.

Telling the Heritage Story. Preserving Mesa’s built environment helps tell the narrative of Mesa’s long, rich, and diverse history as represented in its bungalows and Ranch homes, downtown landmarks and commercial storefronts, religious buildings, motels, and neon signage, among others. Mesa’s irreplaceable historic places are worth preserving.

The people of Mesa, as well as City staff, the Historic Preservation Board (HPB) and the Mesa City Council intend to use the Design Guidelines for Historic Properties to:

- Educate and inform historic building owners, residents, design professionals, and other Mesa stakeholders on Mesa’s historic architecture and proper and appropriate rehabilitation and preservation procedures.

- Provide clarity and predictability on historic preservation review decision-making by the Historic Preservation Board and other City of Mesa decision-making bodies.

- Encourage creativity and innovation on the design of building additions and new construction within Mesa’s historic districts, downtown and commercial districts, and neighborhoods, while respecting the authenticity and originality of

Mesa’s existing historic resources and places.

- Illustrate the preservation do's and dont's through graphics, drawings, and photographs to ensure a consistent and thorough understanding by property owners, architects, landscape architects, and contractors on proper preservation and rehabilitation procedures.

- Enhance property values and the local Mesa economy by encouraging investment and rehabilitation in Mesa’s varied historic buildings and resources.

Using the Design Guidelines

The City of Mesa has prepared this Mesa Design Guidelines for Historic Properties (Design Guidelines) to help owners of historic buildings maintain and preserve the architectural and historical character of their properties, neighborhoods, and districts. The Design Guidelines will also assist in the review of Certificate of Appropriateness (COA) applications by the City of Mesa for properties located within Mesa Historic Districts (HD) or designated as a Historic Landmark (HL) as stipulated in Title 11, Chapter 74 of the Mesa Zoning Ordinance – Historic District and Historic Landmark Procedures. In addition to obtaining a COA, property owners must meet all applicable zoning and building code requirements. Receiving a COA does not guarantee a property owner approval of required building permits. The Mesa Design Guidelines for Historic Properties works compatibly and correspondingly with the Mesa Zoning Ordinance. One should interpret the meaning of any and all words, terms, or phrases in the Mesa Design Guidelines for Historic Properties in accordance with the definitions provided in Article 8: Land Use Classifications and Definitions of the Mesa Zoning Ordinance.

Using the Design Guidelines is not a substitution for consulting with qualified design professionals, architects, contractors and City of Mesa staff and the Historic Preservation Board when planning a rehabilitation and new construction project involving Mesa Landmarks and properties located within local Historic Districts.

DESIGN GUIDELINES SECTIONS

The Mesa Design Guidelines for Historic Properties has six sections as follows:

Section 1: Design Guidelines Introduction

Section 2: Guidelines for Historic Districts

Section 3: Guidelines for Downtown and Other Heritage Places

Section 4: Guidelines for Building Materials and Maintenance

Section 5: Guidelines for Additions and New Construction

Section 6: Guidelines for Landscape and Physical Setting

Section 7: Guidelines for Signage

Mesa Historic Preservation Program

Mesa’s local historic preservation efforts traces to the 1960s when a group of local citizens formed the Mesa Historical and Archaeological Society, an organization that helped establish the Mesa Museum of Archaeology and History in 1978, now the Arizona Museum of Natural History. However, it would not be until 1993, after advocacy from concerned citizens that the Mesa City Council would adopt the community’s first historic preservation ordinance, establishing the rules and procedures for designating landmarks and historic districts, as well as reviewing permit applications for exterior design changes and building demolitions.

The City of Mesa currently has eight Local Historic Districts — Evergreen, Flying Acres, Fraser Fields, Glenwood-Wilbur, Robson, Temple, West 2nd Street Historic Districts, and West Side-Clark Historic District — and 23 Mesa Landmark properties. In addition, seven of the Local Historic Districts are listed in the National Register of Historic Places, this country’s official inventory of buildings, sites, and places worthy of preservation. The Washington-Escobedo neighborhood comprises Mesa’s only honorary Heritage Neighborhood. In 1995, Mesa became a Certified Local Government (CLG) through the State of Arizona and the National Park Service of the U.S. Department of the Interior, allowing the City to participate in federally funded grant and technical assistance opportunities.

Today, the City of Mesa administers the local historic preservation program according to Chapters 23 and 74 of the Mesa Zoning Ordinance, including Landmark and Historic District designations and historic preservation review. The HPB, comprising seven appointed members, also makes recommendations to the Planning and Zoning Board, the Design Review Board, and the Mesa City Council on various preservation matters. The City of Mesa historic preservation staff currently hears COA cases pertaining to its Local Landmarks and Historic Districts.

Policy and Regulatory Framework

The Mesa Design Guidelines for Historic Properties supports other planning and preservation policies adopted by the City of Mesa over years, including the 2002 Historic Preservation Plan and the Mesa 2040 General Plan. The Mesa Zoning Ordinance enables the designation of Local Landmarks and Historic Districts.

2002 HISTORIC PRESERVATION PLAN

In 2002, the City of Mesa adopted an updated historic preservation plan focused on enhancing the local historic preservation program through initiatives related to preservation education and outreach, survey and designation, incentives, and local level capacity building. As one of its key recommendations, the 2002 Historic Preservation Plan proposed the ongoing training of the Historic Preservation Committee (Board) in historic preservation review matters, clarifying the City of Mesa’s historic preservation review powers, undertaking public education efforts regarding appropriate building rehabilitation procedures, and developing new design guidelines for historic districts and individual properties to ensure preservation of local authenticity and character.

MESA 2040 GENERAL PLAN

Adopted in 2014, the Mesa 2040 General Plan serves as a policy and decision-making guide for maintaining Mesa’s great neighborhoods, creating economic development opportunities, providing rich, high-quality public spaces, and the preservation of cultural resources. The General Plan addresses historic preservation under Chapter 4: Creating and Maintaining a Variety of Great Neighborhoods, where an effective local historic preservation program can help “…secure the value of older neighborhoods in the city.” The chapter’s historic preservation goals include implementing preservation efforts in maintaining Mesa’s diverse neighborhoods, administering an effective local preservation program that “ensures compliance with standards in adopted historic districts,” and conducting ongoing educational outreach efforts to inform residents on preservation’s various benefits. MESA ZONING ORDINANCE

The Mesa Zoning Ordinance, Title 11 of the Code of Ordinances, regulates land use and site development within Mesa through zoning districts, classifications, and other site design requirements. Article 3 — Overlay Zones, Chapter 23 — Historic and Landmark Overlay Districts establishes the Mesa Register of Historic Places and governs the designation of Historic Landmarks and Historic Districts as a supplemental zoning overlay. The Zoning Ordinance specifies and regulates permitted land uses within different zoning districts, including properties located within Historic Districts or designated individually as Historic Landmarks. Proposed changes or alterations to building exteriors requires a Certificate of Appropriateness (COA) approved administratively by the Mesa Historic Preservation Officer.

Mesa Historic Resources Survey Program

In 1984, the City of Mesa, in collaboration with the Arizona State Historic Preservation Office (Arizona SHPO) and the Mesa Museum of Archaeology and History, commissioned an architectural and historical survey to identify and inventory the community’s most significant historic and cultural resources for future preservation. The survey area encompassed five square miles of Mesa, including the early communities of Stringtown and Lehi, documenting over 250 buildings built before 1940. Surveyors then evaluated each resource’s potential significance according to the following criteria:

- Level I: Buildings retaining a high level of architectural integrity and considered individually eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places.

- Level II: Buildings constructed prior to 1940, considered contributing to a historic district with good integrity but do not exhibit outstanding characteristics of a particular style.

- Level III: Buildings constructed prior to 1940, considered non-contributing with irreversible exterior alterations and changes.

Since 1984, other survey initiatives conducted by the City of Mesa include:

- 1992 Mesa City Survey

- 1993 Original Townsite Historic Building Survey

- 1996 Southside Stewart Addition Survey

- 1997 Temple, Evergreen, Escobedo Neighborhood

Historic Building Survey

- 1999 An Historic Resource Reconnaissance Survey of

Pre-1955 Development in the City of Mesa

- 2004 Mesa Post War Modern Single Family Subdivision

Development, 1946-1973

- 2010 Central Mesa LRT Extension Inventory and

Evaluation of Potential Historic Properties and Districts.

Each of the surveys identifies buildings and neighborhoods eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places as designation as Mesa Historic Landmarks and Historic Districts. To date, surveys have inventoried more than 3,000 properties. Mesa currently has eight Local Historic Districts (HD Overlay) and twelve individual Local Landmarks (HL Overlays) designated in the Mesa Historic Property Register (MHPR). In addition, there are seven districts and 16 individual properties listed in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). Established by the U.S. Congress in 1966 under the National Historic Preservation Act, the National Register is this country’s official list of buildings, sites, structures, objects, and districts worthy of preservation. Administered by the National Park Service, in partnership with the Arizona SHPO, National Register listing is honorary and does not restrict the use or disposition of a historic building or resource. Properties must be at least 50 years old and meet several criteria to be eligible for listing as individual National Register landmarks or contributing or non-contributing resources within a National Register Historic District. Listing in the National Register is one eligibility criterion for designating Landmarks and Historic Districts in the Mesa Historic Property Register.

HISTORIC DISTRICTS

Designated Local and National Register Historic Districts in Mesa include (see Map 1.1 on page 15): 1. Evergreen Historic District (MHPR and NRHP)

2. Flying Acres Local Historic District (MHPR)

3. Fraser Fields Historic District (MHPR and NRHP)

4. Glenwood-Wilbur Street Historic District (MHPR and NRHP)

5. Robson Historic District (MHPR and NRHP)

6. Temple Historic District (MHPR and NRHP)

7. West 2nd Street Historic District (MHPR and NRHP)

8. West Side-Clark Addition Historic District (MHPR and NRHP)

109 W. University Dr. in the West 2nd Street Historic District