I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised by the overlord attitude displayed last week by the Tempe Historic Preservation Commission when its members objected to the proposed development project at the site of Monti’s La Casa Vieja.

Tempe spent decades largely ignoring or tearing down the symbols and foundations of the city’s early roots. Officials and activists have scrambled in recent years to protect what’s still around, but the time and expense involved has prompted them to try and impose their wishes on people and property the city doesn’t own or control.

The administration of Tempe Mayor Hugh Hallman has sought to inject a little more respect for private property rights, but the instinct to dictate in glorious detail how others may use, or not use, their own land is deeply ingrained at city hall.

As Tribune writer Garin Groff reported Tuesday, restaurant owner Michael Monti and developer 3W Company want to build glass-and-steel mid-rises that would reach up to 300 feet tall at the southwest corner of Mill Avenue and Rio Salado Parkway. One building would hover over the restaurant, a one-story adobe building that started as the first home of city founder Charles Trumbull Hayden in 1871.Monti has explained his restaurant has lost its customer base and he’ll be out of business soon without big changes to compete with the modern architecture and atmosphere that most other Tempe eateries and hotspots offer. Past remodeling projects have left nothing on the outside that truly reflects the Hayden house. So the proposed development seeks to preserve the real history still on display, inside specific rooms of the restaurant.

Historic commission members blasted the project design last week. They want Monti and 3W to essentially keep the restaurant’s exterior as it is now and limited any new buildings to the parking lots and other grounds behind the adobe structure. Of course, that would substantially reduce the amount of development that can take place, since other issues prevent new buildings from rising any taller than 300 feet (and apparently even that’s too high for Phoenix officials concerned about a possible impact on Sky Harbor International Airport).The Tribune Editorial Board recently said the remnants of the Hayden house within Monti’s are so unique to Tempe’s history that it would make sense to disrupt development patterns and preserve the restaurant in manner similar to how it looks today. But the only proper way for Tempe to do that is for the city to buy out Monti and 3W at market rates, giving them a fair return on the investments they already have made.

If Tempe can’t afford, or is unwilling, to take ownership of the restaurant, then it should step aside and let Monti and 3W respond to the marketplace. Using the city’s police powers (or bureacratic red tape) to impose a vision that historic preservation is the best use of this property is a clear violation of personal freedom. The city would steal the time, sweat and money Monti and 3W already have invested toward the future of this private property. Such action would discourage other developers from taking the necessary investment risks to keep Tempe’s economy moving.

And forcing Michael Monti out of business can only hurt any attempt to preserve the restaurant building. Another property owner might have far less interest in Tempe history, and can simply raze the property to make way for a more economically viable use.

The historical commission can, and should, realize nothing of this historic landmark will last if
Tempe imposes inflexible standards that make it impossible for Monti’s to adapt to free-market forces.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007 at 12:47 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.