Winter Park dealing with rise in home demolitions
Built in 1961, Erling Falk’s midcentury modern home on Park Avenue in Winter Park was fairly unique, with a sleek profile and a distinctive moon gate.
“When I purchased the home 18 years ago, I purchased it knowing the land was more valuable than the home sitting on it,” Falk said. “I spent a lot of time and money making it comfortable for me, knowing it wouldn’t add any value, knowing I’d one day sell the property without the house. … Some houses shouldn’t be preserved, [especially] one very difficult to maintain.”
And within a few months, it could be demolished — making it one of more than 80 homes approved to be torn down in the city since the beginning of 2015, according to city building department records.
The city’s demolition applications in the last four months of 2015 nearly doubled from the same time period in 2014 — from 17 to 32.
The spike in permits for demolition happened around the same time the city’s historic preservation board recommended an ordinance making it easier for property owners to form a historic district in their neighborhood. It was narrowly passed by a 3-2 vote in December after several contentious meetings.
Once in a historic district, all homes — whether historic or not — would be subject to guidelines developed by the district to maintain its historic character, mostly for exterior improvements or additions. Exceptions could still be approved by the city.
But many attribute the increase in demolitions to the recovering economy.
“Basically, the property is more valuable as a vacant lot than with a home on it,” said Falk. “I tried to engage the mid-century modern community. It is a kind of iconic home. But I wasn’t able to generate the interest needed [to save the house].”
Falk sought alternatives from architectural historians, enthusiasts and city officials. No one stepped forward with a better idea.
“I tried to sell it as a residence, but the problem was the land on which the residence sits is too valuable,” Falk said. It was sold in December for $525,000, according to real estate website Zillow.
There is one piece of Falk’s home that will be salvaged: The unique moon gate will be donated to the city for preservation.
‘Appropriate alternatives’
The ordinance was designed to prevent the sort of losses suffered by the city over the last 30 years, in which 60 potentially historic properties have been demolished.
Some of the notable homes torn down in the last decade include the Burress House on Isle of Sicily and a Mediterranean Revival home on Sylvan Drive, said Betsy
Rogers Owens, historic preservation advocate and executive director of the Friends of Casa Feliz.
Outside of the historic districts, owners of homes meeting criteria for being historic could have to wait 60 days instead of 30 to have a demolition permit approved.
The extra time would be used to find “appropriate alternatives” to demolition, such as the last-minute coalitions that saved the Capen House and Casa Feliz from the wrecking ball. Both homes were lifted up, moved to a new location, and restored.
“I doubt that there will be large numbers of owners of significant historical properties applying for demolition permits” because of the ordinance, Owens said. “There could be some. … Every time they make a new law, people hurry up to do what they want to do before the law goes into effect. But perhaps people rushing to demolish are not even in a potential historic district anyway.”
Owens said the ordinance will preserve more homes and neighborhoods in the long run, despite the recent spike in demolitions.
“I guess the alternative is to do nothing,” Owens said. “And I don’t think that’s a good alternative.”
‘Building the new’
Cynthia Linhares, of L&L Demolition & Salvage of Orlando, said she thinks concerns over the ordinance’s restrictions had some effect on the increase in demolitions.
“We’ve been extremely busy,” said Linhares, whose
company was approved to demolish 19 homes in Winter Park last year.
“It’s mostly tearing down the old and building the new,” she said. “We tear down some houses and you think, ‘Why are they tearing this down?’ ”
Several demolished homes were owned by wealthy residents trying to keep up with neighbors’ expensive new homes, she said. There was a 1920s structure, she said, “actually in pretty good condition, too, but they tore it down to build something bigger.”
Randy Noles, publisher of Winter Park Magazine and a local historian, said the new ordinance “may be one of many factors driving a higher number of teardown permits, but I doubt if it is the primary reason.”
Noles said the ordinance still makes it very difficult to get a district approved.
“The effort has to be initiated by the property owners themselves, voted on and finally approved by the City Commission — if it passes at the neighborhood level,” he said. “No neighborhood is going to automatically be designated as a historic district.”
More likely, he said, the jump in demolitions is “a reflection of the economy in general.”
Building new “on-your-lot” homes in established neighborhoods “is a major trend all over the country, not just Winter Park,” Noles said. “Custom builders have been doing this for a long time.”