Panel is charged with protecting the buildings of New Orleans' oldest and most historic neighborhood
The Vieux Carre Commission, charged with protecting the buildings of New Orleans' oldest and most historic neighborhood and the heart of its multibillion-dollar tourist industry, will celebrate its 75th anniversary Wednesday.
City and state officials and commission supporters will gather for an anniversary ceremony at the Cabildo at 3 p.m., and a nonprofit support group, the Friends of the Vieux Carre Commission, will hold a fundraising gala in the evening at Antoine's Restaurant.
But what should be a proud and happy moment for the country's second oldest historic preservation district could also be somewhat bittersweet.
The 2012 budget proposed by Mayor Mitch Landrieu's administration calls for cutting the commission's budget by 30 percent and reducing its authorized staff from 9.5 positions to five. In fact, according to the City Council's budget staff, the proposed appropriation is $41,000 less than is needed even for those five positions.
In addition, the administration's plan to "co-locate" the City Planning Commission, Historic District Landmarks Commission and Vieux Carre Commission offices would mean moving the VCC's offices out of the French Quarter to an unspecified site, probably near City Hall.
During a hearing on the commission's budget last week, several City Council members expressed misgivings about the budget and staff cuts, but it remains to be seen whether the council will end up increasing its appropriation.
Told that the commission has had no building inspectors this year because of a citywide hiring freeze, Councilwoman Cynthia Hedge-Morrell asked, "How are you functioning?"
"As best we can," Director Lary Hesdorffer replied, noting that after Hurricane Katrina, the agency got by with a staff of two for 20 months.
Councilwoman Kristin Gisleson Palmer also said the commission needs additional staff.
"The French Quarter makes the money" to keep the city running by attracting millions of tourists a year, Palmer said. "It funds the general fund."
Chief Administrative Officer Andy Kopplin said the administration recognizes the district's importance but emphasized the need for agencies to learn to be more productive, getting more done with fewer employees.
The Vieux Carre Commission was created in the 1930s, a time when the French Quarter faced serious threats. Much of the historic district had been turned into crowded tenements, and public officials had seriously considered tearing down some of the section's most iconic structures, including the Upper Pontalba Building and even the Cabildo, where the vast Louisiana Purchase territory was transferred from France to the United States in December 1803.
At the time, only one other historic preservation district existed in the country, in Charleston, S.C., and it was just a few years old, having begun in 1931. Formation of the National Trust for Historic Preservation was more than a decade in the future.
Preservationist efforts in New Orleans went back at least to the 1890s, when a young architect, Allison Owen, fought the proposed razing of the Cabildo and tried to form a society to save other local landmarks.
In 1925, the city's Commission Council established the first Vieux Carre Commission, but it met only sporadically before disbanding in 1930.
In the early 1930s, a new group, Le Renaissance du Vieux Carre, organized under the leadership of author Stanley C. Arthur to fight the city's plans to demolish portions of the French Market. It also pressured individual property owners to landscape their courtyards.
In 1936. a group under the leadership of Elizebeth Werlein successfully lobbied the Legislature to initiate a referendum to amend the state constitution to authorize creation of a body to oversee preservation in the Vieux Carre. On Nov. 3, 1936, voters statewide overwhelmingly approved the amendment, which called for creation of a commission to oversee protection of the Quarter's "quaint and distinctive character" as well as its historic architecture. It's that anniversary that is being observed this week.
On March 3, 1937, the Commission Council passed an ordinance creating the Vieux Carre Commission and charged it with the preservation and regulation of all private property with historic or architectural value within the district. The commission first met on April 8, 1937.
Since then, the commission has faced numerous threats to the integrity of the Quarter and its buildings, ranging from development pressures to demolition by neglect. It has won some battles and lost others. Many historic buildings have been saved; some have been lost to fire or neglect or deliberate demolition, or have had their appearance significantly altered.
A pair of key 1941 court decisions established the commission's jurisdiction over the sides, rear and roof of French Quarter buildings as well as their front facades, and its authority to regulate all buildings, not just those of historical or architectural significance, because they all contribute to the district's overall character, its "tout ensemble."
In 1946, however, the city stripped the commission of its control over several areas along North Rampart Street and the district's other boundaries, and it took until the 1960s to get them back.
In 1958, the commission voted to endorse a riverfront expressway, but in 1963 it joined the opposition to the elevated roadway, which finally was killed in 1969.
Meanwhile, in 1965, the entire Vieux Carre, not just individual buildings in it, was designated as a National Register of Historic Places Landmark.
Through the years, the preservation philosophy of commission directors and commissioners has changed from time to time, but a consistent theme, at least in recent years, has been that the Quarter is not a Williamsburg, dedicated to re-creating a moment in time, but a living and changing neighborhood, home to thousands of residents and businesses. Although the commission fights to keep historic buildings looking true to their period, it believes that new construction should be of its own time, not an attempt to mimic 18th or 19th century buildings.
The commission's coveted awards, therefore, have always honored new construction as well as restoration, renovation, reconstruction and rehabilitation of old buildings.
Hesdorffer told the council, however, that the awards, once given annually, have not been presented since 2008 because of the amount of staff time they require -- and the 2008 awards were themselves the first since before Katrina.
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Bruce Eggler can be reached at beggler@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3320.