Cortez is on the cusp of getting its first official historic district, as the local entity going after the designation reports it is just a few signatures shy of the required number of homeowner opt-ins.
The Cortez Historic Preservation Board is currently asking owners of registered historic property on the Avenue to decide on three different district boundary options, which all vary in how far east the designation would stretch.
The western boundary in all options is N. Chestnut Street. The north and south boundaries are the alleys adjacent on Montezuma Avenue. There are three possibilities for the east boundary: the eastern boundary of the original townsite at 219 E. Montezuma; N. Washington Street; or N. Harrison Street.
The first option which ends the eastern boundary at the original townsite at Ash St. requires that at least 22 of the 31 included property owners be on board with the plan, and board president Linda Towle said that only two more signatures are needed. The second option, ending the eastern boundary district at Washington St., requires 25 of the 36 included property owners to sign on and 5 more signatures are needed. The third option, which extends the eastern boundary all the way to N. Harrison Street, requires that 37 of the 53 included property owners sign on and needs eight more signatures.
Last week, the board also garnered signatures from the Cortez City Council to include it’s two properties--Montezuma Park and the Montezuma Avenue median-- into a historic district.
Towle is hopeful the board will get the remaining signatures needed to bring the district plan to City Council for approval later this spring, and has an April 30 deadline for homeowners to opt-in to the district.
She stressed that the historic district is an “honorary designation” only, meaning that the Historic Preservation Board wouldn’t be given the authority to tell homeowners what they can and can’t do with their home from an aesthetic standpoint.
“If someone wanted to put two more stories on top of house that would change character...As far as historic preservation board is concerned, we would try to discourage them but wouldn’t have any auto to prohibit it. It would be taken off city [historic] register, but would still be in the district,” explained Towle. “It creates a sense of neighborhood, Montezuma Avenue is its own unique place this is important to do as a collective, so we can maintain this historic part of town.”