Newest articles on The Sacramento Press tagged as "historic building"

Movement: A photo essay of the Sacramento Valley Station

2011-11-06T21:45:57Z

It’s as if the ghosts of all those who have traveled through these halls before us can still be heard... I find myself yet again walking through empty rooms that echo not only my footsteps, but the seeming sounds of the past

The Sacramento Valley Station finds itself as a hub of transportation for the Sacramento area. Currently serving as an intermodal complex, the facility includes Amtrak, light rail, regional bus services and taxi amenities.

The public portions of the building are those that many are familiar with such as the main hall, or passenger waiting area, where customers purchase tickets or pass through to the facilities outside to the north. Outside are the bus berths, passenger tunnel and platforms, areas for taxis, and of course the rail lines themselves.

What the public doesn’t see are the dilapidated and crumbling rooms, once used as restaurants and offices. Light rich rooms, these areas have moods all to themselves. A large main hall that was used as a restaurant area reverberates densely as the building creaks and moans. Smaller offices are calm and quiet in their desolation.

They all sit empty, unusable due to their lack of upkeep, failure to meet building codes and absence of basics, such as elevators, restrooms and heating and cooling systems.

The building, constructed in 1926, marked the terminus of the first Transcontinental Railroad. Over the years, neglect of the facilities took its toll on the aging walls. The materials, though of quality, have simply outlived their life span.

The building itself qualifies as a historic property under the National Historic Preservation Act and is listed in historic registers, including the California Register of Historical Resources and National Register of Historic Places, among others.

More recently the City has put forth a federal grant application, with hopes of receiving approximately 28 million dollars of leverage money. The funds will go towards revitalizing the entire facility, to make use of the 53,000 square feet of space not being used and rehabilitating the historic features.

In the meantime, the City is now retrofitting the station to meet current standards for earthquake safety, as well as adding upgrades for people with disabilities, using an already granted sum of $11 million in federal and state monies.

Disclosure: Carlos Eliason is a photographer/videographer and designer working in the Sacramento area. He is also a creative media intern for the City of Sacramento.

Powerhouse Science Center breaks ground

2011-08-11T22:37:11Z

The Powerhouse Science Center project officially broke ground this morning, commemorating its push forward with the unfurling of a large 30 x 10 foot banner, which adorned the front of the former PG&E power station building. In attendance were some 60 citizens, dignitaries, funding partners, Powerhouse Science Center staff and City staff. Speakers at the event included Mayor Kevin Johnson, Congressmember Doris Matsui, Senator Darrell Steinberg's District Director, Susan McKee, and Michele Wong, the Interim Executive Director for the project.

A $7 million check was presented to the project, generated by Proposition 84's "Nature Education Facilities" grant. The funds will be used to partially spur construction, which is anticipated to start this fall. With an expected completion date of 2013, the project will include a number of amenities, including a large domed planetarium, science exhibits, gift shops and cafe, and an open park area.

More information can be found at the Powerhouse Science Center website.

Disclosure: Carlos Eliason is a photographer/videographer and designer working in the Sacramento area. He is also a creative media intern for the City of Sacramento.

Railyards Birdseye View

2011-08-11T02:16:12Z

Here's an elevated view for another perspective to Big things underway at Sacramento Railyards by Carlos Eliason:

Big things underway at Sacramento Railyards

2011-08-03T19:31:40Z

The Railyards is currently abuzz with activity. I recently had the chance take a short tour of the construction as part of my work with the City and it is a sight to behold. Seeing the massive excavation of dirt is am impressive far cry from what the site looked like only two months earlier, when construction started in May. The progress of the 245 plot of land is a welcome sight.

The earth directly in front of the main shop buildings, north of the Sacramento Amtrak Station, takes a large dip, perhaps twenty feet deep now. Before, this area was a flat expanse of dusty land, reaching to the rail station. Excavators pepper the site, clambering around their newly built depths of soil. Steam leaves the ground where crews have placed lye to evaporate moisture, making the soil more stable. Workers shovel clods of earth in their respective holes. The energy on-site is well into a positive nature.

More information about the Railyards project can be found at the City of Sacramento's Intermodal Transportation Facility webpage.

Disclosure: Carlos Eliason is a photographer, videographer, and designer working in Sacramento, CA. More photographs can be seen at www.flickr.com/photos/carloseliason

A former power station, sitting empty and waiting

2011-07-19T18:49:43Z

If you’ve ever you’ve wondered what that old abandoned building off the west side of I-5, just north of downtown Sacramento is, wonder no more. If you aren’t familiar with it, the City now owns the former PG&E Powerhouse, built in 1912 and vacated sometime in the early 60’s.

Currently it sits empty, an eyesore for most that travel along Jibboom Street between the I Street Bridge, and Richards Boulevard. Most recently, it was nominated to be a part of the National Register of Historic Places.

I recently had a somewhat exclusive chance to photograph the inside of the building for the Economic Development Department. The building is being converted into a science, space and technology museum that is set to attract tourists to the area. The $50 million project should be completed by 2013.

Inside, the building is desolate, save for a few scraps of leftover metal, some supporting structures for large apparatuses, and plenty of pigeons. I was amazed at how graceful the aging structure felt. A calm quiet surrounded me. I observed a strange and distinct change from the hum and drum of nearby I-5.

Although these photographs appear as brightly lit renditions of the scene inside, the actual experience was much different. There was enough light to navigate around, but as for the small details seen in these photographs, few could be found by my eyes in real life.

PG&E Powerhouse from carlos eliason on Vimeo.

More information is available at the Powerhouse Science Center website.

Disclosure: Carlos Eliason is a photographer, videographer, and designer working in Sacramento, CA. More photographs can be seen at www.flickr.com/photos/carloseliason

Art Moderne building needs home

2010-06-08T03:20:42Z

The Capitol Area Development Authority is hunting down a new home for a historic fourplex in an effort to save the Art Moderne building from a wrecking ball.

The stucco apartment building known as Capitol Gardens was built at 1517 N St. in 1949 by Sacramento architect and engineer Jacob Loyth. In fall 2011, construction will begin on the site at the northwest corner of 16th and N streets on a $43 million, nine-floor building with 117 condos.

CADA is trying to find a way to relocate the building's historic four front units to reduce the cumulative loss of historic resources and impact on a potential historic district, as directed by an environmental report for construction on the site.

The agency is facing relocation challenges involving the building's size and obstacles created by freeways and light-rail lines.

"So far, we haven't gotten a taker who's actually got a site that's appropriate," said Marc de la Vergne, CADA’s capitol area development manager.

CADA is willing to give the building away and provide $60,000 to move the building in order to preserve it. The apartments are expected to be occupied until summer 2011.

The building is 40 feet wide by 40 feet long — the exact dimensions of a standard city lot. The structure needs to be moved to a location where two lots are combined, unless a zoning administrator were willing to waive the requirement that buildings be smaller than the lots they sit on, de la Vergne said.

At 23 feet, the building is also too tall to fit under light-rail lines, such as those that run down R Street, and raised freeways running along the east and south sides of the city. The top of the structure would reach 26 feet when loaded onto a flatbed truck.

CADA staff identified several central city lots that could hold the building, but none of the property owners have been interested. The owner of a lot at 15th and W streets considered it until learning the building would have to be cut in half horizontally to fit it under light-rail lines.

The site's developers, Em Johnson Interest of San Francisco and Nehemiah Community Reinvestment Fund Holdings of Sacramento, are working with other people in town to find a new location, he said.

The building is among several constructed in the 1930s and 1940s in an area southeast of Capitol Park that has been discussed as a potential historic apartment district. The area contains Moderne and Revival apartment buildings.

A 2002 evaluation determined the building may be eligible for the Sacramento Register of Historic and Cultural Resources, as well as the California Register of Historic Resources — established to help identify and protect historical and archaeological assets.

"CADA has been really concerned to find a way to move it and get it saved, rather than end up demolishing it," said Karen Jacques, who restores historic buildings and sits on the city's Preservation Commission. "CADA has had a really good history with trying — and often being very succesful — with saving historic buildings."

Photos by Suzanne Hurt, a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Rebuilding Iceland, rebuilding memories

2010-06-07T03:35:15Z

Stories flowed Sunday as people got down and dirty to help restore the Iceland ice skating rink. People shared memories of old times as they carried debris from the ice floor and helped to remove the wooden flooring around the rink.

Sunday was the fourth day the owners of the rink have asked volunteers to help them clean. Terrie Kerth, granddaughter of the late Bill Kerth, who built the ice rink in 1940, said the response has been unbelievable. When the project began, she said, the debris on the rink was more than a foot tall. Now, it's almost cleared, and the old rink will survive with some leveling. The wooden floors are being torn out and replaced with concrete.

More than 100 volunteers have worked on the project, with about 40 coming Sunday to help finish the job. “When we had our first day, we just had a steady stream of people going with their wheelbarrows,” Kerth said. “It was just phenomenal, and we just kept doing it and it’s amazing the people who come time after time.”

The family plans to reopen Iceland on Nov. 4 for its 70th anniversary. The rink will be open air for a while, but there are plans to install a roof in the coming years. “We’re starting a nonprofit called Sacramento Iceland and we’ll be raising money to put the roof on and rebuild the inside and we hope that by November 2011 to have it back pretty much like it was before,” Kerth said.

Former City Council member Rob Kerth was there when the fire broke out. “I was stuck out back and there was a six-alarm fire,” he said. “I couldn’t get around to the front, flames were shooting 100 feet out of the roof.” Kerth said he thought it was the end of the road for the rink, until he finally made it to the front and saw the bystanders. “It had been burning for about two hours and the sun was just coming up,” he recalled. “There were mothers there in their bathrobes and little kids crying and, this doesn’t happen very often, but there were hockey players hugging each other. People came from nowhere to see the rink and they were very upset.”

“I knew right then that there were enough people who cared about the old gal that we could somehow get it going again. So here we are.”

He also recalled when the U.S. Olympic team and its coaches died in a plane crash in 1973. A benefit show was put on for the families of the team, with former Olympic champion David Jenkins doing triple axles on the small rink. “It was really one of the first nationally televised sports events,” Kerth said.

And there are more stories. The rink is rumored to be haunted by Bill Kerth. Kerth said that his grandfather used to give keys to the place to the early-morning figure skaters. They’d let themselves in and skate for a while before he’d come in and talk to them. In the morning, there would be a fog bank that had built up over the ice, making it hard to see. “Every morning, he would come in the back door and he’d walk along the side of the rink and you could see this swirl in the fog behind him because he’d come in and lean over the rail to talk to the skaters and ask them how they were doing,” Kerth said. Now, every once in a while, early-morning skaters say they see that swirl in the fog and see someone leaning over the railing out of the corner of their eyes.

Bill Kerth and his son were innovators and came up with the idea for the first ice resurfacer a year and a half before Frank Zamboni, who visited the rink and claimed that the family had violated the patent on his machine. “So they got to talking and Zamboni realized that my dad beat him to it,” Kerth said. “Later in life, they became really good friends.”

Bob Hubbard, a competitive skating coach, said he has been skating at Iceland since 1952. “I skated here for many years as a competitor and went on to skate for Ice Capades for six years and started coaching and been doing it ever since,” he said. “I have a lot of memories in this place.” Hubbard said he was at a competition in Santa Rosa when he got the call that the place had been burned. “It’s just taking away from the community, the children, and all the memories and all the stuff with the place because it’s a landmark, it’s been here forever.”

When the new Iceland rink opens in November, there will be a sculpture that includes the blades and skates that were caught in the fire. Gina Rossi, a metal artist working in the area, is excited about her new project. She plans to have the children’s skates bronzed and make metal sculptures of children, each with a bronze skate. In the middle of the sculpture will be a fire bird made out of the blades of old skates. Rossi said the idea of the fire bird is fitting for rink that was burned down and is being rebuilt. “The philosophy of the fire bird is that it eventually just kind of burns up in flames, but with the flames of all that, it leaves a little egg behind,” she said. “And all of a sudden it becomes rebirth.”

Rossi plans to have some of the volunteers who helped to restore Iceland help build her sculpture. “I’m going to have the kids and various people just be a part and I want them to have a little bit of their name on it, so they can always be a part and know that they were involved in the rebuilding of this.”

The artist sees value in the rink's past. “Just being able to walk into something and look around and know that things happened here, as opposed to something that’s brand new,” she said, “It’s got a story. Some children, their parents see them skate here for the first time, and people propose to each other on the ice. Wonderful things happen in life and it just needs to be kept alive.”

Historic 16th and U building under repair

2010-03-30T02:52:39Z

Repairs are under way at a historic Midtown building whose front end caved in after being rammed by a truck last May.

The 81-year-old brick building at 16th and U streets had long been vacant when an Icee truck and an SUV collided and ran up onto the sidewalk May 19. The front end of the 2,889-square-foot building had been covered by a modern glass-and-stucco storefront facade for years.

Standing on busy 16th Street, the building held a prominent role in the Richmond Grove neighborhood for decades. The structure was built in 1929 as an early Safeway grocery store. That was followed by a hardware store, cigar shop, Chinese grocery and massage parlor. The building had been vacant before and after serving as Mayor Kevin Johnson's mayoral campaign headquarters in 2008.

Immediately following the accident, a city crew made the building safe by collapsing damaged parts of the roof and structure and stabilizing remaining walls of the unreinforced masonry building. The building was owned by Stratton Investments of Reno at the time of the accident, according to Dave Herrera, a commercial real estate broker with Colliers International Sacramento.

Off and on repairs have been made for about two months, according to a neighbor.

City to decide on fate of Bel-Vue Apartments and Berry Hotel today

2009-08-11T08:36:49Z

On Tuesday, August 11, the Sacramento city council will decide whether to give away the half-block from K to L on 8th Street, containing the Bel-Vue Apartments and several other buildings to developers Bob Leach, Mohammed Mohanna and Parkcrest Development. The land was recently purchased by the city from Mohanna at a price of $18.6 million, and the developers are asking not only for free land but several years of tax-free operation. The net cost to the city will be about $34 million, 25% of the total investment for the project, in return for about 10% of the return. The proposed project is a 300-foot luxury hotel at 8th and K and a parking lot on 8th & L where the Bel-Vue stands. The project would destroy all surviving structures on the project site. In addition to the landmark Bel-Vue, the 1895 Feldhusen Building and the circa 1910 Sam's Club building would be demolished, although neither has the status of city landmark.

The proposed project would also demolish two half-blocks of Sacramento's underground sidewalks, along the corner of 8th and K Street. The sidewalks are still clearly visible from the alley, as the photograph above shows. As with the loss of the Bel-Vue, approval of this project would mean the loss of structures that, despite having fallen into disrepair and disuse, are part of the city's historic fabric. By restoring these elements instead of demolishing them, the city can maintain resources that cannot be duplicated in modern construction, and provide valuable downtown housing and a potential historic site of great tourism interest.

The staff report mentions that city staff and the developer have not been able to come to agreement on business terms, due to the low rate of return for the city and the large investment the project represents. The "Exclusive Right to Negotiate" (ERN) between the city and the developers has been extended twice in order to work out details, but city staff is still not confident in the developer's proposal. The council has been asked to advise city staff how to proceed.

Full staff report is visible here:

sacramento.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php

In slightly brighter news, at the same meeting the City Council will hear (and hopefully approve) a plan to restore the Berry Hotel, just across the street from the Bel-Vue. The hotel was acquired by the city after another developer's plan to restore the building failed last year. The hotel is currently being vacated by the city, and is almost completely vacant. This plan would restore the interior of the building, providing long-needed repairs, and reopen the Berry as permanent housing for very low income individuals. The Berry has filled this role for years, but if this plan is approved, the building will be completely renovated and restored, and a social services agency will provide a staff person to work with disabled residents. The staff report is visible here:

sacramento.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php

These two projects are almost polar opposites. The restoration of the Berry Hotel promises to bring back a city landmark, restoring to occupancy a 1920s hotel. The project will house those least able to find housing, those with very low income, and it will be completed for far less than a new project of similar scale would cost. Across the street, the Bel-Vue was occupied by tenants until shortly before it was taken over by SHRA. It will be demolished and replaced with a parking structure. The proposed hotel project will be utterly infeasible without a massive subsidy, one that a city in the throes of a financial crisis cannot afford. Perhaps the City Council will review the Berry project and consider what else they might do with the Bel-Vue, a city landmark and apartment building, for less money than the developers' subsidy.

The meeting will be held at New City Hall, 915 I Street, Sacramento, at 6:00 PM in the main council chambers.

The full city council meeting agenda is viewable here:

sacramento.granicus.com/AgendaViewer.php

(In the interest of disclosure, I oppose the demolition of the Bel-Vue and plan to attend in order to voice my opposition to the 8th & K project--and my support for the restoration of the Berry Hotel.)

Midtown building to be repaired

2009-06-10T03:20:23Z

A wrecking ball won't finish off a historic Midtown building damaged in a recent accident.

Instead, the accident is helping to bring new life to the long-vacant, 80-year-old building at 16th and U streets.

The building's current owners, identified as Stratton Investments of Reno, want to rebuild the front section that caved in when a large Icee truck rammed into the unreinforced masonry structure last month. Then they'll proceed with stalled efforts to sell the building, said Dave Herrera, a commercial real estate broker with Colliers International - Sacramento.

"It's a beautiful brick building," he said. "They're going to try to bring it back."

The owners are working closely on the new design with one or two potential buyers who had been considering purchasing the building before the accident. The contractor is expected to be chosen Thursday. Next week, Herrera will lead negotiations between the seller and a buyer to see if they can determine what condition the building needs to be in and the new price.

The previous asking price was $610,000 for 2,889 square feet. The building, which has a skylight, was being marketed as retail or office space. Repairing the building could take at least 90 days from the date they get approval to move forward, he said.

The accident destroyed the brick building's front end, which had been hidden under a modern stucco facade. The accident also revealed the wood truss holding up the slightly pitched roof. The truss had been covered by sheet rock and a drop ceiling below.

"When they rebuild it, it'll allow them to bring the historical character back to the building," Herrera said. "I think it would add a tremendous amount of value to the building."

Ironically, one of the two most interested buyers toured the building with Herrera on the morning of May 19, shortly before the accident that afternoon.

More potential buyers came out of the woodwork after the accident. Contractors said they would like to buy the building at a distressed price, then repair and resell or lease it. Stratton Investments chose to make the repairs and sell at a higher price.

The building is located in a neighborhood that the city has marked as a preservation area, so the city will also have a say in what happens to the building.

The building has played a prominent role in the neighborhood for decades. Built in 1929 to house an early Safeway grocery store, the structure later housed a hardware store, cigar shop, Chinese grocery and massage parlor.

Before his election, Mayor Kevin Johnson chose the building for his campaign headquarters due to its location on busy 16th Street.

Potential buyers have not discussed their plans for the building, including whether they would lease the building or occupy it themselves.

Locals want light at 16th & U

2009-05-27T04:19:03Z

One week after a truck wrecked the front of a historic midtown building, some residents and business owners are saying they'd like a traffic signal for what they say is a dangerous intersection.

Several people sitting at Harry's Cafe, a popular sidewalk cafe next door to the damaged building, narrowly escaped serious injury when an Icee truck and an SUV collided at 16th and U Streets and ran up onto the sidewalk. Locals say last Tuesday's accident was one of many that have threatened people visiting businesses or on foot on the busy one-way street.

"It's dangerous. I really want to see the city put a stoplight right there," said the cafe's owner, Harry Luong, 53.

However, police accident reports indicate the intersection hasn't had more than an average number of accidents, said Sacramento Police Sergeant Norm Leong.

Police report numbers don't indicate the total number, because reports aren't filed for many.

The truck rammed the corner of a vacant brick building at 2030 16th St., where one of Sacramento's earliest Safeway stores originally stood. The building’s front collapsed and only three quarters remained intact.

The SUV swerved right, crushing a sidewalk table and chairs outside the cafe at 2026 16th St. before stopping just short of the restaurant's front wall.

Harry's Cafe was able to reopen the following day after a crew from the Housing & Dangerous Building Division of the city’s Code Enforcement Department removed damaged sections and stabilized the remaining walls of the unreinforced masonry building.

Luong's business has been slow since the accident, despite a loyal following. But he and his wife, Lynn Luong, who owns Lynn's Beauty Salon next door, are worried about people's safety. Their son and his friends had to run from an outside table when the SUV rushed at them. They escaped with cuts and bruises. Another patron was injured by flying glass.

Standing outside his cafe, Harry Luong pointed skyward and said "someone up there" must have been watching to prevent worse injury.

"My son is very lucky he didn't get killed," Luong said. "That's the main thing I'm concerned [with] right now."

Just then, North Sacramento resident Jim Young stopped his car in front of Luong and yelled out, "I'm really glad your son's okay."

The surrounding neighborhood is home to many elderly people and families with children. High school students and senior citizens often cross three-lane 16th Street at U Street. They may be visiting one of the intersection's three businesses -- the cafe, a 24-hour taco place called La Garnacha, or Quickly, an Asian fusion cafe/drink shop.

The posted speed limit is 35 mph, but the street can be dangerous when drivers on 16th rev up to catch a green light at T Street, people said.

Quickly's co-owner Doug Holdren, also a newscast director at KCRA, said the intersection is "absolutely" dangerous.

"People can't drive. They're talking on the phone, they're texting, not paying attention. And they're trying to go through an intersection that possibly needs a light," he said.

Even drivers living in the neighborhood have a hard time crossing 16th when cars are parked illegally right to the corners.

"If cars park on 16th Street, I can't see anything," said retiree Betty Fong, adding there’ve been many accidents in her 35 years at U and 19th Streets. "We need a signal here."

Holdren agreed.

"You get 20 feet [of curb] that says 'No parking here to the corner.' When people park there, the people who [drive] up on U Street can't see up 16th. So when they pull out -- boom! There you go," he said. "There's a lot of old Chinese ladies who walk around down here. I feel sorry for 'em because nobody wants to stop for 'em."

A previous accident sent a car flying onto the front porch of the intersection's only house, at 2031 16th St. The car destroyed the front steps and part of the porch and could have killed someone if they'd been on the porch at the time, said 92-year-old Lucille Forrester, who's lived on that corner for 39 years.

"I was taking my nap on the davenport and my kitty was with me. All of a sudden, we heard a noise and my kitty jumped up," she said.

Sacramento Police accident records for the last five years indicate no fatal accidents or pedestrian injuries at the intersection in that time, said Leong.

From January 1, 2004, to May 1, 2009, the intersection has seen four injury accidents and four non-injury accidents, said Leong. However, police reports for non-injury accidents are limited. Accidents must meet certain criteria for reports to be filed, he added.

"Based on the number of accidents, I wouldn't say it's any higher than any other intersection for a five-year period," said Leong.

Only drivers were injured -- including a mountain bike rider who rode into a parked car. Parked cars often suffered in accidents. Last Tuesday, the SUV hit a car parked in front of the café. Some believe that that helped prevent more injury.

Business owners and residents believe they're not likely to get a signal because one exists at T Street. At least one person suggested making 16th two-way. Holdren questioned whether a remedy would come through for this intersection when a lot of one-way-street intersections are dangerous.

"Yeah, I think it's bad. Is there anything the city can do? Who knows. You can't put that kind of money into every blind corner we have," he said.

The damaged building -- and the street -- have played major roles in the neighborhood's life for decades. Three years after the Safeway grocery store chain began operation in 1926, a Safeway opened at the spot, said Pat Johnson, a senior Sacramento Archives and Museum Collection Center archivist who tracked down the original building permit card.

Traffic has grown considerably on 16th Street. People now say they're worried another accident could take someone's life.

"Right now, the main thing is we need to do something to stop the accidents," said Luong.

Suzanne Hurt is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

City of Sacramento offers grants for improvements to historical properties

2008-12-20T09:28:06Z

The City of Sacramento Development Services Department announces:

Under a City ordinance passed last fall, Sacramento property owners looking to improve a historic structure may be eligible for financial assistance. The Historic Places Grant Program will award up to $62,500 in quarterly grant funding, with a total of $250,000 to be awarded over the course of the coming year.

The grant program, a collaborative program of the City’s Development Services Department and Sacramento Heritage Inc., aims to help preserve, rehabilitate, restore or reconstruct historic properties throughout Sacramento. To be eligible for funding, the property must be a City designated landmark or “contributing resource” in a historic district, or determined eligible as a landmark or contributing resource and nomination application submitted. In addition, the proposed work must comply with the City’s adopted Rehabilitation standards, and it must involve or work that affects the exterior of the structure or property, such as façade, roofing, porch, stairs or window repairs, or building stabilization. Work on significant, publicly-accessible interiors may also be considered.

Approved projects may receive matching funding for up to 50 percent of the project costs under $25,000, but no less than $1,000. Funds require a 1 to 1 match and will be provided on a reimbursement basis. Consideration may be given to waive the matching requirements if an applicant can demonstrate their household annual income does not exceed 80 percent of median in Sacramento County for the preceding year. In addition, emergency grant awards may be provided for eligible buildings that are determined immediately dangerous.

To apply for the grant, property owners can visit www.cityofsacramento.org to download an application, or contact the Development Services Department at 311 or 916-264-5011.

Applications for this last round of nominations are due to the City of Sacramento’s Preservation Office by Friday, January 16, 2008. The Preservation Office is located at 300 Richards Boulevard.

The grant program is a collaborative effort of the City of Sacramento and the Sacramento Heritage, Incorporated, which is a non-profit organization whose Board of Directors are appointed by the Mayor and confirmed by the City Council. The board includes representatives from the City’s Preservation Commission, Planning Commission, Housing Code Advisory and Appeals Board, and The Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Commission, as well as at large members with expertise in preservation, history, construction, housing and finance. All applications are reviewed and grants awarded by Sacramento Heritage Board using ranking criteria established by the City Council.