West Side historic designation push secures city, county support
The historic preservation board wants to see the West Side listed on the National Register of Historic Places. But research and community outreach are needed before the neighborhood can be nominated.
A longstanding effort to win historical recognition for Laramie’s West Side neighborhood got a significant boost from local leaders this month.
The Albany County Historic Preservation Board earned $16,000 of commitments at a pair of public meetings, the cash split evenly between city and county governments. The money — and the support that money represents — will help the preservation board begin on what will likely be a long journey.
“The West Side is very deserving of this recognition,” preservation board chair Karen Bard told the Laramie City Councilors earlier this month. “It has a great, rich history. And without the preservation of it, I think it will be lost.”
The West Side neighborhood is wedged between the train tracks and Snowy Range Road, occupying a position that’s not quite West Laramie, but not quite downtown either. Historically, the neighborhood was home to poor and immigrant families and came to be known as “the wrong side of the tracks,” according to a recent three-part series on the origins of the West Side by local historian Judy Knight.
“Probably the most cohesive neighborhood in Laramie is the West Side,” Knight writes. “There’s a sense of place for folks living on the West Side which explains much of its attractiveness — a strong attachment that may seem unusual to residents of other Laramie neighborhoods. From the start, the West Side was a multi-ethnic, working-class neighborhood.”
Discussions about the West Side have often come up amid local efforts to expand affordable housing — during which the city government has encouraged denser or more varied housing by relaxing its own zoning regulations.
West Side residents have been active in defending their neighborhood from perceived attacks on its character. In late 2021, they stopped the city council from rezoning two lots in the neighborhood from residential to commercial. In the months that followed, they attempted to block a housing reform measure that now allows denser housing in multi-family zones.
But now the central focus is on historical recognition.
Specifically, the Albany County Historic Preservation Board would like to nominate the West Side for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places. But the process for doing that is a lengthy one and the concept is not without its detractors.
How soon could the West Side earn a national designation?
The actual nomination won’t be submitted until at least the summer of 2025.
Throughout 2024, the preservation board will need to conduct research, engage with the public, and digitize what it finds into a GIS tabular database before sitting down to craft the final nomination proposal.
The nomination and the prep work necessary to complete it will cost the preservation board $50,000. The board is applying for a $30,000 certified local government grant (federal funds distributed by the state) and will donate the equivalent of nearly $4,000 in volunteer time. The $16,000 from city and county governments gets them the rest of the way to that $50,000.
But money isn’t the only matter of concern.
Mary Hopkins served as Wyoming’s State Historic Preservation Officer for almost two decades. She’s now involved with the West Side effort in Laramie and told councilors this month the effort also requires community buy-in.
“Generally in Wyoming, no listings are taken forward without community support,” Hopkins said. “Under my tenure, in my experience, if there were objections to nominations, they were not taken to the keeper of the National Register. We want to make sure the city is comfortable with this and understands all the ramifications of it.”
The preservation board has hosted town halls where West Side residents can ask questions and learn about the historic designation process. Bard told the councilors that residents have voiced overwhelming support for the idea.
“We have been doing community outreach to get us to this point,” she said. “We continue to get word from those who attend our town halls that they are in support and want to see this move forward. But what we have not heard from is the absentee property owners. So those voices, I can tell you, have not been responding to our outreach at this point in time.”
But Councilor Andi Summerville said she had heard largely negative comments, especially from those concerned about what a designation would mean for housing.
“I am really afraid we're just not there yet with community support,” Summerville said. “The people that I've talked to over the last few years, they outnumber the people that are attending the (town hall) meetings.”
Bard reiterated that she is not hearing from those people, but that the board aims to get their perspectives as the nomination research moves forward.
What would a national historic designation mean for housing in the West Side?
Technically nothing. But it could affect developers looking to build there.
If the West Side came to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places, its federal designation would not rely on any building restrictions, nor would that designation require any such restrictions.
But Laramie’s Unified Development Code would slow down any demolition or redevelopment project. If a building is placed on the National Register, it must be given special consideration before such a project can occur.
City law decrees that a property owner wishing to demolish a “historic” structure must notify the city six months in advance. During those six months, the city will generate ideas with the owner to make the historic structure more profitable or attempt to locate a buyer who would preserve the building rather than tear it down.
How much does that six month delay actually affect a construction project? Would nominating the West Side hinder the push for affordable housing? Could city code be altered to remove that six-month delay before the preservation board submits its nomination paperwork in 2025?
These are all open questions.
“This work is really to lay the foundation and do the research,” Bard told the Albany County Commission this month. “This is not a guarantee that it will be nominated. This work also needs to be done in order to define the boundaries of what this historic district might look like and what properties within that boundary would be contributing and non-contributing.”
In the meantime, West Side resident Camy Willems said she’s concerned about what a historical designation would mean for her neighborhood. She voiced that concern during the latest commission meeting.
“(The West Side) is traditionally a community of an aging population, or a fixed income population, which is disproportionately affected by the property tax increases that would possibly happen with a historic neighborhood,” Willems said.
She added that the neighborhood has more pressing issues.
“What I would like to see is a group of individuals that would help (members of) the community in need of having things fixed — whether that’s fences or sidewalks or painting or roofing,” Willems said. “That would allow for improvements to the community without it becoming gentrified.”