Cass-Henry Historic District vote delayed, leaving Ilitch buildings in limbo

Allie Gross | Detroit Free Press

The Detroit City Council voted 6-2 on Tuesday to postpone a vote on the creation of a new historic district encompassing several properties owned by the Ilitch family.

The vote deferral comes days after the City of Detroit Historic Designation Advisory Board presented a report recommending the approval of the proposed Cass-Henry Historic District and a year after conversations about the block's future began.

The request to push the vote to July 10 came as a surprise to some council members who wanted to know what more could be learned in seven days when the council has had a year to understand the issue.

There also was frustration over the fact that the council was possibly passing up an opportunity to use the historical designation — something the Ilitches have said they do not want — as a bargaining chip to ensure affordable housing.

More: Detroit City Council to vote on preserving Ilitch-owned, blighted Cass buildings

More: Detroit gives Ilitches more time to fix blighted Cass Ave. buildings

"There has been ample opportunity both with councilmembers and Olympia Development Michigan to ... come up with a concrete plan either for how they'd preserve the buildings historically or protect affordability and the housing, yet nothing has really been presented in writing," said City Councilmember Raquel Castaneda-Lopez, who urged her colleagues to explain to the public why they needed more time.

None of those who voted to postpone gave a reason for his or her vote.

The Cass-Henry Historical District is home to seven buildings — six brick apartments built between 1900 and 1910, and one commercial building from the 1920s.

At least six are owned by the Ilitch family and became a point of contention last June when the Ilitches requested demolition permits for three of the buildings: 2447 Cass Ave., 2467 Cass Ave. and 427 Henry St.

Following pushback from residents and preservationists who were fearful of the loss of historical gems and affordable housing in the name of parking lots, the City Council requested a study to determine whether the block warranted a historical designation.

Last Thursday, nearly a year to the day after the study was requested, the City of Detroit Historic Designation Advisory Board recommended that Cass-Henry be designated a historic district.

"The district appears to meet National Register Criterion A as a representation of the type and scale of residential development that characterized the 1900s and 1910s, a time of rapid population growth and development in the Cass Corridor area, corresponding with the increasing popularity of apartment living," the report on the study explained, adding that the proposed district was still a "mostly intact streetscape" of apartment buildings from the early 20th Century, and one of only a few blocks that still remain in the Cass Corridor.

"Due to numerous demolitions over the past few decades, the Cass-Henry district stands as the best remaining depiction of the form, scale and density that once predominated throughout the area," the report stated.

Following the presentation of the report, Councilmembers James Tate, Scott Benson, Gabe Leland and Castaneda-Lopez voted to move the conversation of the proposed Cass-Henry Historic District to formal council.

At the time, Castaneda-Lopez said she was optimistic that the historic designation would pass without question.

“I don’t think there will be any opposition,” she said last week, explaining that had there been any concerns or objections, they would have come up during the last year. “I think the only viable option for us is to preserve it. I can’t think of anything that would discourage us from doing so."

Despite this thinking, on Tuesday, following public comment by nine people in favor of the historic district, Councilmember Andre Spivey made a motion to push back the vote.

Castaneda-Lopez and Scott Benson were the only two to vote against the postponement Tuesday.

Brenda Jones, Janee Ayers, Roy McCalister, Andre Spivey, Mary Sheffield and Gabe Leland voted for the postponement. James Tate was absent.

"We have been here for over a year with this very subject," Benson said before the vote, reiterating that the Ilitches have had a year to come to the table and address concerns about the block.

Voting for a historic district — or what he called the "nuclear option" — seemed to be the only method to bring them to the table to negotiate on affordable housing, Benson said.

"We've heard from Olympia, 'We don't want a historic designation.' So what is your commitment to the city of Detroit and its citizens for affordable housing? And what we have received in return is silence. That is unacceptable," Benson said Tuesday. "This body had the opportunity today to make a stake in the ground saying we demand affordability in this area for the residents who still live here."

At the crux of the Cass-Henry debates are two issues: preservation — the goal of maintaining historical integrity in a rapidly changing neighborhood; and affordability, to stop displacement.

While a historic district does not guarantee affordable housing, those pushing for the designation, like Benson and Castaneda-Lopez, hoped it could be used as a bargaining chip.

"We're tying it together, trying to use the historical designation as a leveraging point, recognizing that buildings in a historical district are typically more costly to rehab and so wanting to be sensitive to the needs of Olympia Development and support their rehabilitation of the buildings for housing if that's what they agreed to," said Castaneda-Lopez, noting that if the Ilitches committed to maintaining affordable housing on the block, the council might be more willing to compromise and not push the historical designation on all seven of the buildings.

"Olympia Development has no obligation to affordable housing whether there is a historical designation or not; we're trying to get a commitment to do that," said Castaneda-Lopez, later adding, "Yes, people want to see historic preservation but I'd say a priority for everyone above that would be affordable housing and not displacing people."

Of the seven buildings in the proposed Cass-Henry Historic District, five are unoccupied but two owned by the Ilitches are currently low-income housing.

According to Castaneda-Lopez, rumors have been swirling that Olympia Development Michigan, which is owned by the Ilitch family, has plans to demolish several buildings on the block to build a large commercial structure. The whispered plans, she said, could result in the relocation of individuals who are living in the two buildings. This, according to Castaneda-Lopez, would result in 75 to 100 units of people being displaced.

"I know Olympia has a relocation plan, but for us as a city, if we're talking about development and equitable development, everyone keeps talking about protecting affordability, so people who have been here can stay. This is an opportunity for us to really put action behind our words and live out our values of making sure Detroit is welcoming to everyone," she said. "Just because it's in a hockey district, which is more luxurious, doesn't mean it can't have economic diversity and housing diversity."

When asked whether historic preservation advocates knew that the designation was being used as a bargaining chip for affordable housing, Castaneda-Lopez said she believed so, though she also contended it didn't have to be a choice of "either or."

"Olympia is in a position to be able to do both," she said.

The Detroit Free Press reached out to Olympia Development Michigan for comment but had not heard back at the time this story was published.

While Castaneda-Lopez and Benson spoke of the designation as a bargaining chip, others remained optimistic that both affordability and preservation could occur.

"Cass Corridor is in danger of going the way of Black Bottom or the original Chinatown,” Eric Kehoe, president of Preservation Detroit, said Tuesday, repeating the speech he gave last Thursday when City Council's Planning and Economic Development Committee voted to move the decision about Cass-Henry to the formal council.

“It is in danger of being completely paved over, suburbanized, sanitized," Kehoe had continued.

The creation of a historic district does not stop a demolition from happening, but it makes it far more difficult to happen.

Owners of historically designated buildings must get demolition approval from the Detroit Historic District Commission. To do this, they must prove to the commission — a body composed of city-appointed individuals who are tasked with ensuring historical integrity and preservation — that the historically designated structure in question is a threat to public safety or an economic hardship.

"Designation adds another layer of protection from demolition," said Kehoe, who points out, via the city's code for historic landmarks and districts, that the historic designation also has the potential to turn around the blight that has overtaken a couple of the Ilitch-owned buildings at Cass and Henry.

Since 2009, when the Ilitches purchased the former Hotel Ansonia at 2247 Cass Ave. and the former Atlanta Apartments at 2467 Cass Ave. both buildings have fallen into further disrepair. Despite being windowless and unsecured — violations of city code — neither has received a blight ticket since the Ilitches purchased them.

The lack of tickets and years of abandonment could change with the historic designation. According to city code, if the historic district commission determines that a historic district is "being demolished by neglect," they can either mandate that the owner "repair all conditions contributing to demolition by neglect" or "file a petition with the buildings and safety engineering department requesting that the department requires the correction of defects or necessary repairs of the structures."

Additionally, if the owner doesn't make repairs in a "reasonable time," the commission can request someone from the department make the necessary repairs and send the bill to the owner. If this is not paid "promptly," the repair costs can be sent to the board of assessors and levied as a "special assessment against the property."

"Codifying the historical significance of this block helps protect its potential for affordable housing and equitable development," said Kehoe.

Francis Grunow, chair of the Neighborhood Advisory Committee in the arena district, who spoke in favor of the historic district Tuesday, said he plans to be open to answer any council questions about the block.

"My hope is that over the next week, council's own Neighborhood Advisory Committee assuages any questions councilmembers may have about the importance of preservation of Detroit's history and the dire need to preserve affordable housing in District Detroit," said Grunow.

During public comment Tuesday, Grunow pushed the council to recognize that preservation and development do not need to be mutually exclusive.

“Cass-Henry represents the past but also the future and it’s a rare opportunity for downtown Detroit as it continues to see major investment after decades of neglect," he said, later pointing out that while Olympia Development has committed to affordable housing it has yet to actually create one such unit.

"Why not begin with Cass-Henry structures that already exist and were originally constructed to accommodate efficient urban living," he questioned.

Contact Allie Gross: AEGross@freepress.com. Follow Allie on Twitter @Allie_Elisabeth.