I received an e-mail from Steve Murrow of the Albuquerque Downtown Neighborhoods Association. The group is planning to appeal the decision by the city Environmental Planning Commission to raze part of the historic Horn Oil Co. property to make way for a multi-use development. The appeal hasn’t been filed yet, but the group has 14 days from the day of the decision to do so.
I’ll briefly summarize the grounds of the pending appeal:
- Horn Oil Co. is on the National Register of Historic Places and is one of Albuquerque’s most historically significant Route 66 properties. It’s only one of two historically significant gas-food-lodging properties left in the Duke City. The other has been so altered that it may no longer qualify as for historic designations.
- One of the things that was overlooked in Murrow’s e-mail was that developers are required by adopted plans and policies to make historic preservation a priority. Doing a partial preservation diminishes the property.
- Horn Oil Co. sports a unique mix of quirky architectural styles, including streamlined moderne to Spanish-Pueblo styles.
- The proposal also seeks to demolish the Sandia Theater, which is identified as a “historic building of particular interest” in the Albuquerque Historic Route 66 Map and Guide, which is published by the city.