Lauderdale moves to save church downtown

A church building that was once treasured enough to be dismantled, moved eight blocks and then put back together like a precious puzzle, may once again be spared demolition.

Since the First Evangelical Lutheran Church in Fort Lauderdale’s Flagler Village neighborhood decided to sell to a developer, historic preservationists have worried the city would lose another piece of the past.

Tuesday, Fort Lauderdale city commissioners said they intend to designate the church building a historic landmark.

But they postponed a final vote to June 6 so they can determine how much of the property to affix the label to, and to ensure that the larger project it’s a part of, a 16-story mixed-use project called URBN Flagler Village, isn’t stalled or harmed by the designation. The city also will research what influence it can have on what the church building is used for.

“I think it’s an important enough structure to make sure it’s cut in stone,” Commissioner Romney Rogers said of the preservation label.

The church, at 441 Northeast Third Ave., didn’t want the designation. Neither does the developer who’s buying it, TAHO Investments.

Developer’s attorney Courtney Crush said the church structure would be kept intact. But the developer fears the handcuffs of a historic designation, which requires extra approvals for changes to a historic building. The label also can limit what’s built around it.

Crush said the developer plans to “take something that the community values, its very