Why does Fresno keep gutting and demolishing historic buildings? Answer is simple
Why does Fresno have such a long, sorry history of gutting and demolishing its historic buildings?
Simple answer: Because city officials allow it to happen. That was true in 1966, when they toppled the old Fresno County Courthouse with its stately dome in favor of the architectural monstrosity that now exists, and it’s true today. The same sad story is being retold on Van Ness Avenue near Tulare Street, one of downtown’s busiest intersections.
Don’t buy for a minute that no one with an office or cubicle at City Hall knew about the destruction ... err, renovations taking place at Hardy’s Theater.
Councilmember Miguel Arias may have been unaware of what has been transpiring at Fresno’s oldest theater until a few weeks ago, but the city’s planning department has known for months.
I can say that with absolute certainty. How? Because at their March 22 meeting, members of the Historic Preservation Commission received a staff update regarding the 104-year-old landmark at 944 Van Ness, which has gone by several names since it opened.
Alicia Gonzales, the city’s Historic Preservation specialist, informed commission members that a permit for interior renovations was issued without their “consultation and approval” and that one site visit had since been conducted. Gonzales also told them the applicant (i.e. the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God) planned to apply for additional permits for the building’s exterior, which would necessitate a review.
Commission members were also told, by Assistant Planning and Development Director Mike Sanchez, that the ongoing internal demolition would expose the building’s “structural components” and that staff would monitor the situation to ensure “features of historic values” would be “preserved.”
It’s all right there in the meeting’s draft minutes.
How did members of the Historical Preservation Commission respond to receiving this information? As you might guess, they had lots of questions.
Chair Patrick Boyd commented that the city’s process seemed backward. Commissioner Paul Halajian asked what the church planned to do with the property. Sanchez replied that staff didn’t know but were informed by the contractors “they have worked with historic properties in the past and want to preserve what is there.”
Inside of 104-year-old Hardy’s Theater gutted
Those words rang particularly hollow Thursday when photos began to circulate showing the theater’s gutted interior. The entire balcony level, including some 1,000 seats, original light fixtures and many ornamental features are gone.
Following an inspection by code enforcement, members of the planning and historic preservation commissions and Arias himself, Universal Church was cited for several code violations, including construction without a permit.
However, those March 22 minutes indicate some city employees knew what was going on inside Hardy’s Theater — and that a permit had been issued.
Gonzales, in fact, had pretty specific knowledge. At that same Historic Preservation Commission meeting, she informed members that the first-floor audience seating area and stage had been “demoed” and that the lobby, second floor and third floor had been “initiated.”
This was more than four months ago. How much of the theater’s historic character was chipped away while bureaucrats sat on their collective hands despite knowing what was taking place?
That’s a question I can’t answer at present, and the people who can aren’t talking. More digging, checking and permit-pulling will be required.
City planner: Permit issued ‘without consultation’
Still, it’s clear city officials were not completely in the dark. At least some interior renovations at Hardy’s Theater were permitted and that the permit in question (according to Sanchez’s account in the minutes) was issued “without consultation.”
Which means someone at City Hall rubber-stamped an application to do major interior renovations of a historic downtown building without consulting the Historic Preservation specialist or Historic Preservation Commission. Makes you wonder who, why and how?
As previously stated, there is much about the gutting of Hardy’s Theater that we don’t know. But we can say this was not the work of some rogue contractor with zero regard for city policy. Planning staff were absolutely aware and pledged to monitor the situation “closely.”
Whoops.
It would be easy to categorize this as a simple mistake or bureaucratic oversight, except it keeps happening. Look at the Old Armenian Town row houses, which sat vacant for years until two were destroyed in a 2020 fire. Look at the Vartanian Home, a 130-year-old structure that faces demolition because it sits in the way of the Fresno Rescue Mission’s planned expansion.
Why are Fresno’s most historic buildings constantly neglected and occasionally gutted? Because city officials keep allowing it.
This story was originally published August 8, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
