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Show Art's Hardware will come down by RICK BROUGH Record staff writer ' The Main Furniture and Hardware building on Main Street (also known as Art's Hardware) will be demolished. demolish-ed. The decision reverses previous plans for a project, approved by the city, that would have preserved the facade of the building. The Park City Historic District Commission July 17 unanimously denied a request to tear down the building. However, under city historic preservation law, owner Jody Bernolfo can demolish the building after a three-month waiting period. The demolition request was for the building at 551 Main St. and a residence behind it at 556 Park Ave. The Historic District Commissioners Commission-ers earlier approved demolition for the lot and ratified a Historic Transition (HTO) zone there Feb. 6. The approval stipulated the facade of the Art's building would be preserved. Architect John Carbine, who represents the owner, said Ber-' nolfo's Bamberger Company found it could not take advantage of the tax breaks available to businesses for historic preservation. In retrospect, Carbine said, . saving the facade "was a convoluted solution that the builder or the Historic board wasn't happy with." Historic Commissioners Ron Whaley and Fred Moore favored allowing Bernolfo to raze the building. But they joined the denial when it became apparent they would be stymied in a tie vote by board members Paul DeGroot and Allen Roberts. Moore said since the building would be torn down anyway, it should be torn down soon to eliminate a fire hazard. Whaley said the approval would be a positive gesture? toward developers- , But DeGroot argued a" demolition permit was not the right way to promote good will. He said the developer should wait three months in case a preservation scheme could be developed in that time. "Once it's gone, it's gone. It's not a whole lot, but three months has some potential." Roberts agreed. "I have a hard time favoring tearing a building down," he said. "It's a violation of the thing we're here to do." Carbine said Bernolfo was prepared prepar-ed to wait three months before demolition. The owner was not proposing to build a replica of the Art's building facade in return for getting an HTO zone, he said. HTO zoning would give the parcel a combination of commercial use, oriented to Main Street, and residential use, oriented to Park Avenue. Carbine said although the Bam- I berger Company couldn't use the 1 preservation tax breaks, this does n rMfttowft Si worked on several projects that used the tax incentives, he said. I |