Utah Heritage Foundation

Proposed Development Plan for Pleasant Grove Civic Center

Position Statement 

September 2, 2011

Communities that value their historic resources have effective Historic Preservation Commissions (HPCs).  Leeds, Utah, is one of those places.  Guided by Vision Dixie principles and leadership from the HPC, the town included a meaningful historic preservation element in their recent general plan update.  They followed that with a Reconnaissance Level Survey (RLS) to get a current baseline inventory of historic resources in their jurisdiction.  Then they took the logical next step, reviewing and revising their historic preservation ordinance to align it with the vision in their updated general plan and the RLS results.

With advice from the HPC, the town is using the information collected in the RLS to set goals and priorities for rehabbing, maintaining and using publicly-owned historic properties to benefit the community and is encouraging and assisting owners of privately held historic properties, including homeowners, to do the same.  (Right, Sarah Ann and William Stirling House, built 1876.)  Leading by example, the town is taking advantage of the opportunity to literally capitalize on their historic resources in a very tangible way by promoting heritage tourism to the Wells Fargo Silver Reef Museum and capturing visitor attention and dollars by acting as a gateway to the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area at the rehabilitated Orson B. Adams House in nearby Harrisburg. 

The Leeds Historic Preservation Commission serves not only as an advisory body to the town council, but is doubly effective as a Certified Local Government (CLG) and a National Trust Forum member with access to CLG matching grants from the Utah State Historic Preservation Office and eligibility for matching grants from the Utah Preservation Initiatives Fund (UPIF), administered by the Mountains/ Plains Office of the National Trust for Historic preservation.  The town has used its CLG grants to fund restoration work at the National Register-listed Leeds CCC Camp, to purchase and install interpretive markers, and to fund its Reconnaissance Level Survey.  UPIF grants could pay for feasibility studies to rehab historic buildings like the Leeds Tithing Office (left) through a public-private partnership with its owner, or to prepare a preservation management plan for the Wells Fargo Museum and Silver Reef historic district.

Who said that economic times were slow?  Certainly not in Utah County.  You can witness rapid investment priming the pump of Utah’s economy all over Utah County, and especially in downtown Provo where the cranes are rising and trucks are hauling.

Unfortunately, one of the things the trucks are hauling is demolition debris from several older and historic buildings in Provo’s downtown historic district.  Yes, it was certainly time for some of these to probably go as they had been underutilized, unsupported by economic development programs for years, and thus neglected.  But there was still some charm and character in their scale and features and thus their contribution provided some good nature to being there.  Even in the last round of discussions with the Landmarks Commission, there was acknowledgment that in the future the city cannot allow contributing buildings to be altered, thus making them non-contributing buildings while they are listed in the local historic district or they will be de-listed and demolished just like these buildings.

So what the historic district is getting in place of handsome brick and stone, arched windows with lintels and keystones, Art Moderne and Victorian Commercial styles is glass, glass, and more glass.  On the North side, the Utah County convention center will take nearly an entire block and include a small plaza, but not include an entrance door along the entire stretch of 200 West, even though it looks like it does.