We can wish for powerful, transformative forces to enter our lives, but once they come, they might just take over and lead us somewhere we never wanted to go. We’ve got to invite them on our terms. That dilemma is where downtown Noblesville finds itself today.
The wave of redevelopment hitting downtown is, on it’s face, a good thing. Most towns across the Midwest would kill for it. But it could also threaten our historic architecture and the very historic identity that defines our community. Can we protect our idyllic, historic commercial and residential architecture amid a swirl of investor millions and newly arriving, deep pocketed residential buyers who may have little interest in our town’s history?
Hamilton County’s other growing cities have readily sacrificed their old downtowns in various ways amid transformative, developmental makeovers. Towns like Carmel and Cicero have allowed linear development to sprawl down their main drags, filling former homes with businesses. Carmel has also allowed the relentless demolition of existing homes in established neighborhoods for new, larger, more lavish replacements. Fishers has allowed widespread demolition and redevelopment to utterly obliterate and remake its downtown. And Westfield has gone all-in, not only allowing both linear development down State Road 32 and demolition of key pieces of its history, but also giving over established residential neighborhoods to commercial redevelopment.
You could start thinking living in an older, traditional neighborhood is illegitimate–only disconnected neighborhoods with curvy streets and matching mailboxes are safe.
But not in Noblesville. All the pressures neighboring towns gave into are breathing down our necks, but we’ve held off most of it, so far.
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| Hamilton County government has just broken ground on a 5-story parking garage located at the brackish northern border between commercial and residential Old Town. It will face commercial downtown and has residential homes immediately at its back and east sides. |
Noblesville has by-and-large protected its historic neighborhoods. For decades attempts to rezone homes for commercial use along Old Town’s main arteries have been rebuffed by residents and the City. There are actually fewer commercial uses of buildings in residential Old Town now than thirty years ago, and that’s not just due to activism and regulation. It’s also an organic trend, driven by the market–people wanting to live in those structures. And in its most recent master plan, the City drew a firm zoning line down the north/south alley east of 10th Street from Wayne Street to Seminary Park, making it clear that our booming commercial downtown could not bleed east into our reborn residential neighborhoods.
Yes, Noblesville has chosen a different path than its neighbors.
But with the construction of high-dollar apartment buildings on old parking lots and the demolitions of a couple small homes in rough condition to make way for newer, bigger homes, pressure is quietly mounting and city leaders will soon be forced to make hard decisions about Noblesville's future identity.
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In my last blog post I detailed the projects underway in commercial Old Town. They’re pushing property values up. Once those projects are complete and the urban foot traffic they promise hits the streets, filling restaurants and retails shops, I’d expect those values to climb even further, along with retail rent. That could lure chains not afraid of historic districts, like Starbucks and regional restaurant groups.
Meanwhile, in adjoining residential Old Town, property values have also risen rapidly as more homes are restored and buyers pursue an urban lifestyle–a walkable/bikable life near parks, summer festivals, concerts, restaurants and shops. As a result, in a couple recent incidents, small, poorly maintained homes have been demolished and replaced by new, bigger homes. In both cases, the new homes are an improvement, but I fear someday we'll see routine demolition of smaller, historic homes to make way for big modern homes, simply because the lot location is so coveted.
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| 1437 Clinton before demolition. |
Why not tear down a few eyesore houses here and there? In my 3 decades fighting for historic preservation I recall a time when demolitions were far more common. Over those years I could count perhaps 25 historic properties torn down because they were an eyesore and someone had a “good idea" for using the land better. But when your town’s identity is built upon authentic historic charm, it’s a lesson in how 25 little “good ideas” add up to one big bad idea. Remember that most of the beautifully restored historic buildings in Old Town were eyesores at some point in the past 60 years. If they’d all been torn down when they were an eyesore, we’d be . . . well, Fishers.
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1437 Clinton today with a home nearly 4 times the square footage of the previous home nearing completion. |
No offense intended. That's fine for Fishers. But let's
be Noblesville. We have an authentic identity.
In my day-to-day life as a Realtor, I’ve recently heard both commercial and residential owners of historic properties speculate about tearing down their
buildings and putting up something more lucrative. The City’s answer needs to be an emphatic, “NO.”
These transformative redevelopmental forces need to come on our terms, or they need not come at all.
