June 07, 2003
Organizers Seek to Place Reservoirs On National Register of Historic Places
I had intended to hold off on this particular item until I heard back from the National Register of Historical Places about processes, procedures, and timeframes. But since Portland Web has published an item about it (near as I can tell, a distillation someone made from the press release I'll get to below) I may as well post this now, and simply go with some of the information as provided by the National Register's website.
According to a press release received yesterday from Friends of the Reservoirs, "the Oregon State Advisory Committee on Historic Preservation voted unanimously to accept the nominations for both Washington Park's 1894 and Mt. Tabor Park's 1894 and 1911 reservoirs for the National Register of Historic Places."
Minor revisions (of a nature not specified in the press release) are being made before the nomination is passed along to the National Register.
Now, the National Register does provide some information on their processes and timeframes. For example, there's this:
During the time the proposed nomination is reviewed by the SHPO, property owners and local officials are notified of the intent to nominate. Local officials and property owners are given the opportunity to comment on the nomination and owners of private property are given an opportunity to object to or concur with the nomination.
Since the press release makes no mention of this step, I have no way of knowing (as I write this, at least) if such notifications were done, although that's easily determined.
Now, just how long does the nomination process take?
The process varies from State to State depending on State workload, planning, and registration priorities, and the schedule of the review board. The process takes a minimum of 90 days to fulfill all of the review and notification requirements provided that a complete and fully documented nomination form has been completed for the property.
Upon submission to the National Park Service, a decision on whether to list the property is made within 45 days.
Although, according to email from Cascade Anderson Geller of the Friends of the Reservoirs Historic Resource Team:
There is not a set timeframe. The nominations will probably be formalized in late summer. We have to wait for the letter of suggested changes to the nominations to come from the State Historic Preservation Office and make the changes or contest them and then it will be forwarded onto the National Park Service.
So the nominations won't even be finalized for months, and presuming they aren't challenged in some way, there's another month and a half to wait for a determination from the National Register. Lord knows what could be going on with the reservoirs in the meantime.
Okay, so what sorts of impact would such a listing have for the reservoirs here on the ground in Portland? Well, acccording to the Friends of the Reservoirs press release, such a listing would "place the reservoirs in a category which requires design review at the city level. Under City of Portland code, all National Register properties will undergo design review."
All of which means, ultimately, that nothing in this is a done deal. If process wasn't followed, it could be challenged. If the nominations are successful, it doesn't appear to mean all work on planning to bury the reservoirs just magically stops.
Not that it should surprise anyone who has followed the reservoir issue at all, but this story is clearly far from coming into its endgame.