Pub. 1 2020-2021 Issue 1

22 REFLEXION | 2020 | AIA Utah Further down the street, a 65-foot wide single- story building was built in the recent past, and its presence is more dominating than any of the other buildings along this two-block stretch. The façade is adorned with faux-historic details that do little to mask its robustness. The project includes an alley-pass through to the north parking area, again to offer some reprieve from having to march an extra minute or so around the block (the building is only 35 feet away from the end of the block). Looking back to Lehi’s early days, a map produced in 1907 shows Main Street not yet fully developed. The block between 200 West and 100 West was largely filled in, but there were still numerous empty lots between 100 West and Center Street. By the late 1930s, however, it had matured into a diverse collection of smaller- scale commercial buildings. By that time, there were approximately 50 different buildings on Main Street between the 200 West block and Center Street. Today there are roughly 25. Another way to look at this is to consider the square footage of building versus square footage of surface parking, and currently, 27% of the land is used for building and 34% is dedicated to surface parking. There were relatively few changes up through the 1980s, but some larger buildings were built though in the 60s and 70s that replaced older historic buildings and better- accommodated car traffic. With all that open space, it indeed seems to be a peculiar proposition to tear down an existing historic building such as Porter’s Place only to replace it with a large-scale structure that will require additional parking beyond what is currently available and further tip the scales toward more surface parking. Returning to the “Older, Smaller, Better” study, the key takeaway is to offer support of “neighborhood evolution, not revolution.” Lehi is not by any means a lost cause, quite the opposite. In some cases, it's easier to tear down than to reuse, and this is largely due to self- imposed hurdles cities have given themselves. At the city level, updating zoning codes, easing parking requirements, and streamlining building permitting are all useful tools to promote reuse. Still, there also needs to be financial incentives in place to assist these smaller-scale projects. In some cases, cities have set aside façade improvement funds in downtown areas to promote reusing existing buildings. The State of Utah offers cities that meet certain qualifications grant incentives to reuse historic buildings in our cities and towns. Though the funds are doled out in small amounts (up to $20,000), many Utah cities have taken advantage of them year after year and over time have effected large changes to their downtown cores. One example that is worth mentioning is the town of Helper. Helper has consistently taken advantage of grant money and funded projects year after year for the last 20 years. Helper City is undergoing a renaissance of sorts as an urban arts hub. After struggling through for many years as industry shifted away from coal and railroads, Helper has found a new economy in arts and recreation. Many of the vacant storefronts have been renovated, and there is a vibrant community consisting of art galleries, coffee shops, museums, restaurants, bakeries, tattoo parlors, movie theaters, bars, antique stores, and yoga studios. These are local businesses that give back to the local economy. It’s exactly what a main street is supposed to be. b  — continued from page 21