Iowa City church might seek demo permit to sell property

IOWA CITY - A committee with Unitarian Universalist Society of Iowa City has recommended church officials apply for a permit to tear down the church in an effort to secure a sale of their near-downtown property.

Church officials said the recommendation was sparked by concerns that a looming application for historic landmark designation of the 107-year-old church at 10 S. Gilbert St. will slash the property's value to developers and is leaving potential buyers unwilling to close a deal.

Adam Ingersoll, a member of the society's board of trustees and its facilities committee, said the decision does not reflect a desire to tear down the building the congregation has called home for more than a century. Rather, it's a necessary move to sell the property.

'This decision that we are going to go to the city with, to apply for demolition permits, it's not rash ...,”

Ingersoll said. 'It is a corner that we feel backed into after years and years and years of painstaking process to figure out what we need to do to prepare for the next 100 years of our society.”

Ingersoll said rumors of an application for historic landmark designation has potential buyers hesitant to close a deal on the property, as such a designation - if approved by the Iowa City Council - would prohibit demolition and greatly reduce the property's value to developers. So church officials plan to meet the issue head-on, he said.

The society's board will vote March 12 on the recommendation - which was mailed to congregation members Wednesday - to apply for a demolition permit for the church.

Alicia Trimble, executive director with Friends of Historic Preservation, said Wednesday she has no plans to file an application for landmark designation of the church property, but added that a group of residents are pursuing such an effort.

'If this demo permit is presented, I am absolutely sure a landmark application will be dropped on them and it probably will not be from Friends of Historic Preservation,” she said.

That said, Trimble said she has researched the property and it 'absolutely” would meet requirements for both local and national landmark recognition.

Trimble said her hope is the church would be preserved, noting that - unlike the debate surrounding the Dubuque Street cottages earlier this year, which was largely focused on the buildings' structural integrity - the church is a sound building.

Unitarian Universalist Society's plans to move have not been kept secret. The congregation voted in late 2013 to not pursue renovations to the existing church, and again last month to sell the property and move.

Both votes received considerable support from the congregation.

Church officials have been talking with area developers for months to secure property and, while the plan remains flexible, it could entail purchasing about 2.7 acres of Jeff Larson's east Iowa City property, just west of the ACT headquarters, to build a new church.

Local developer CG Hanson has entered into a purchase agreement for Larson's property and church officials are in discussions to work out a deal with the developer to acquire a chunk of the land, according to a letter sent Wednesday to the church's congregation.

The sticking point is the sale of the downtown site, which church officials said would be necessary to fund the move and new church.

'If we cannot secure the value of our property for our buyer, then we would not be able to afford the Larson side or any other viable site,” the letter states. 'Our efforts to find new facilities would come to an end.”

Ingersoll said developers have offered between $2.5 and $3 million for the Gilbert Street property, but that is based on the site being open for development.

If the building is designated a landmark and cannot be demolished to make way for new construction, the property value to developers drops by roughly $2 million, Ingersoll said.

The roughly one-fifth of an acre of land on which the building sits was valued at about $700,000 in 2014, according to the city assessor website.

So the hope is that securing a demolition permit will allow the church property to go for the highest dollar, Ingersoll said, adding that actual demolition would not take place until a new church is finished.

If a demolition permit is approved by the city, historic preservationists still will have time to file an application for historic landmark status, which would place a moratorium on any demolition until the Iowa City Council weighs in.

Earlier this year, Iowa City officials and residents picked sides in a four-month-long argument on the Dubuque Street cottages, a discussion that came down to property rights versus historic preservation, with the council ultimately voting against Friends of Historic Preservation's application to have the buildings historically designated.

Both Trimble and Ingersoll said the last thing anyone wants is a repeat of the cottage debate.

'We don't want it to play out in a negative, hostile way like that. But at the same time we are extremely determined to not be unable to pursue our mission because of this issue,” Ingersoll said.

'The goals of historic preservation unfortunately in this case are fundamentally at odds with the church's mission and it is too much to ask for an institution like the church to bear the cross of historic preservation in this instance. That is just not fair to ask of a church body.”

Jeff Davidson, Iowa City economic development administrator, said the city is aware of the society's plans to sell the property, which is attractive to the city due to its close proximity to City Hall, but said the city is not in a position to compete with private developers.

An ideal scenario for the city would involve partnering with a private developer on a joint project to expand city facilities, but no negotiations are taking place at this time, Davidson said.